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Science and the Bible by Bolton Davidheiser, Ph.D.
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A NEW THEORY ABOUT LIFE
I N 1963 a conference was held at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Space Administration, New York. Outstanding physicists, astronomers, and geologists met to discuss the origin and evolution of the earth’s atmosphere and oceans. Doctors L. V. Bekner and L. C. Mar shall, both of the Southwest Center for Advanced Studies, Dallas, Texas, presented a paper about the develop ment of oxygen in the earth’s atmos phere. Those who postulate the develop ment of life from non-living matter through natural means must face some dilemmas. It is admitted that if the atmosphere of the earth had contained oxygen before life evolved, life never could have evolved. This is so because oxygen would have acted as a poison to the chemical precursors of life, destroying them. But practically all living things re quire free oxygen in order to exist. This includes the green plants, which produce an excess of oxygen during the daylight hours. Bekner and Mar shall believe that practically all of the oxygen of the atmosphere was produced by green plants. Thus the ancient atmosphere o f the earth would have had to be without oxygen in order for life to come into being, but as life developed it would have had to have oxygen in order to live and evolve further till it could sup ply oxygen for the atmosphere. A very important point which they consider is the fact that oxygen in the form of ozone in the upper at mosphere is necessary for the exist ence of life on earth because it screens out the lethal radiations of the sun. To solve the problem of how life could come about and exist in a world with an oxygen-less atmos phere, they are forced to abandon the customary belief that life originated at the surface of the water. They postulate that it began at a depth of 33 feet or more. This depth of water would be required to screen out the destructive radiation. To be consis tent with this theory, they must also postulate that life began in some shallow, protected body of water in stead of in the sea, for in the ocean currents would have brought the
primitive living thing up into the lethal zone near the surface. Speculations of this sort bring Bekner and Marshall to conclude that life may have evolved separately at various places on the earth. This leads to the conclusion that unless one form and its descendants de stroyed all the others when they eventually came together, various forms of life which now seem rather similar may have had a completely different evolutionary ancestry all the way back to the origin of life. It should be kept in mind that the problem of the evolution of life is by no means a simple one. Cells are com plex structures, and these authors ad mit that the simplest living cell is “ a very advanced evolutionary en tity.” Other evolutionists have said that when the first cells came into being, evolution had already proceed ed at least half way to its culmina tion in human beings. In spite of the numerous difficul ties and dilemmas, these scientists believe that life came about in this way. In fact they believe their theory that essentially all of the oxy gen in the atmosphere came from the excess oxygen produced by green plants solves two evolutionary puz zles. One of the great evolutionary mysteries has been why the fossil record seems to begin with a great abundance of aquatic animal types. They believe that when green plants had supplied sufficient oxygen to the atmosphere, and thereby to the wa ters of the earth, aquatic animal life rather suddenly became able to exist, and so it did indeed appear in abun dance. The other problem is the appar ent sudden appearance of terrestrial life at a later time. They say this happened when the green plants had produced enough atmospheric oxy gen to protect terrestrial life from the deadly radiation of the sun. Thus when the deadly rays were screened so that life could live on land, life suddenly evolved to take advantage of terrestrial habitats. It is characteristic of evolutionary explanations that they raise as many problems as they “ solve.” nn
®L. P. CO., INC. 1967
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