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16. If life did not arise out of a primordial soup, couldn’t it have arisen out of the chemicals from oceanic steam vents?
17. If life did not arise out of a primordial soup, couldn't it have arisen out of clay structures?
18. Why was Noah asked to take only two of each kind of animal onboard the ark?
19. Why did God create us if He knew we would perpetrate evil and oppression?
20. What about the evidence for reincarnation?
16. If life did not arise out of a primordial soup, couldn’t it have arisen out of the chemicals from oceanic steam vents?
This is a popular origin-of-life hypothesis. But it doesn’t work on several levels.
The steam vents exist only briefly, and the amount of stuff flowing out from them that could be used to form life is very small. These limitations cancel off whatever advantage would be gained from their “neutralizing” environment. While origin-of-life chemistry experiments under neutralizing conditions do yield more amino acids than do experiments performed under oxidizing conditions, the yield is far from anything that resembles life. A few amino acids drowned in a flask of tars is far from life. It’s like a few random letters of the alphabet drowned in millions of random numbers becoming the complete works of Shakespeare. It ain’t happening.
Here are some more problems: 1) Steam vent life is animal life not plant life, and offers no explanation for the origin of plant life; 2) Because of the chemistry on which it is based, steam vent life is primitive and inefficient in its energy processing; 3) Natural processes work against the transformation of neutralizing chemistry life into oxidizing-chemistry life.
Although the vents offer a fascinating look into a unique form of life, they can’t be used to seriously explain the origin of life on earth.
17. If life did not arise out of a primordial soup, couldn't it have arisen out of clay structures?
This is one popular origin-of-life hypothesis, yessirree Bob. It's appeal lies in the abundance and stability of clay minerals upon the earth. According to the hypothesis, life arose in the clay, advanced into the more familiar forms we see in the fossil record, and then the clay-life vanished as the more advanced life beat it out in the competition for resources.
The problems with this hypothesis are serious.
First, clay-based life would draw upon different resources from the life-forms seen in the fossil record; so there would be no competition for resources.
Secondly, we can’t suggest that conditions were radically different in the past. Geophysical evidence shows that the clay structures we see today are essentially the same as the clay structures that have existed throughout the earth's history. Thus, if there is any validity to the clay-life theory, the fossil remains of ancient clay-based life-forms should be abundant and easy to find. We could even expect new clay-based life-forms to be originating before our eyes.
The fact that we see nothing of either powerfully argues against this model for the origin of life.
18. Why was Noah asked to take only two of each kind of animal onboard the ark?
God's purpose in asking Noah to take pairs of certain bird and mammal species on board the ark was not necessarily to preserve those species. There was more to it.
The Genesis Flood was universal in that it wiped out all mankind and all the bird and mammal species that had contact with him, but mankind's spread was limited to the regions about Mesopotamia. Animals elsewhere would be unaffected. We believe God's purpose was that Noah and his family would have ongoing access to all the animal resources they were accustomed to before the Flood.
Given that the Flood lasted a year, we can reasonably expect that nearly all the pairs of animals had given birth to at least one litter or brood. Notice that God commanded Noah to bring aboard seven pairs, not just one pair, of each of those species that were to be most heavily used for sacrifice and livelihood by Noah's descendents.
The motive for taking seven pairs of certain species of birds and mammals seems to have sprung more from economic rather than from ecological or other concerns. God was planning for the restart of the human race.
19. Why did God create us if He knew we would perpetrate evil and oppression?
The answer is that God can see beyond the present circumstances to the final outcome. According to the Bible, God has so designed the universe that the evil and oppression that we inflict on ourselves and one another ultimately works to perfect those who choose to be perfected. This is yet another instance of hoe God can turn evil around and create good from it.
God could have forced perfect behavior upon the human race in the Garden of Eden, but to do so would have been to create robots. God's desire was to see love magnified in His creation, and love would be impossible for us without the freedom of choice.
So God risked our rebellion. But, actually there was no risk at all, for God had so arranged the laws of the cosmos that man's sin, and the evil and oppression that accompanies that sin, actually serves to transform people step-by-step into His character - the people who want to be transformed, that is.
The Bible says that when this transformation process is complete, God will replace the universe with a better one to reward those who have chosen to serve Him.
20. What about the evidence for reincarnation?
The so-called “evidence” for reincarnation consists of certain people's claims to remember past lives. The recall of "past lives" may in some cases be remarkably accurate. But, it does not necessarily follow that the source of this memory lies with the human individual.
God created two kinds of intelligent life that we know of, humans and angels. One third of the angels followed Lucifer in rebelling against God. As part of their rebellion, they try to deceive mankind about God's purposes and to draw people away from God and toward Satan.
It appears they have the power to “mess with people’s minds” and even, somehow, influence their memories. These people will have memories of events that have never been experienced by that person. In thinking that he/she has experienced a so-called “past life,” the individual may conclude that God gives him or her many chances to become “good," or to pass the exam of life. When you notice things like this, a red flag should go up that the enemy is somehow involved. You can see how this deception is totally counter to what the Lord taught us.
Besides what the Bible teaches, the research of many others indicates that these planted memories come only to people who invite them in through occult practices, and it is only such people who have ever been documented to have such experiences.
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FAQs 16-20
