The Bible states that God is the source of all life.
After creating the earth, he commanded the plant and animal kinds to come forth. Then he formed Adam in a separate act of creation and breathed life into him. He then created Eve through yet another creative act.
Life Begets Life
The universe comprises energy, matter, space, and time. Each of these fundamental components is inherently lifeless.
Living things could not have spontaneously emerged from these lifeless ingredients. Non-life cannot procreate life. Only existing lifeforms can produce new life.
God is a living being, not an abstract concept or an impersonal force. He has always been alive. He is the logical source of all other life.
DNA
The DNA found in cellular organisms affirms that God is the source of life.
DNA is an instructional message that dictates how cells behave, written in a special language using a unique genetic alphabet.
Nature does not randomly produce written instructions. Alphabets and languages are not natural phenomena.
These things emanate from a mind that seeks to convey specific information to intended recipients.
The instructions embedded in DNA had to originate in a mind. Their logical author is God.
Alternate Explanations
Those who deny God’s existence or his role as the creator must rely on alternative explanations for the origin of life on earth. Here are the common ones.
- Life spontaneously willed itself into existence out of nothing.
- The inert components of the universe inadvertently gave rise to life on earth through a series of random events.
- Life existed elsewhere in the universe, fortuitously arrived on earth when conditions were right via a cosmic wind or a fallen meteorite, and then evolved mindlessly.
- Life existed in a parallel universe and appeared on earth through a warp in time or space.
- Someone other than God created life on earth, i.e., aliens.
- The world is unreal. We live in a giant computer simulation created by aliens, i.e., a matrix.
Believing in any of these six explanations requires more faith than believing that God is the source of all life. The evidence for his existence is far stronger than the evidence supporting these alternatives.
Scientist Affirmations
The methods scientists use to create new organisms in laboratories indirectly affirm that God is the source of all life.
Their manual creations do not spontaneously will themselves into existence. They are not inadvertently spawned by inert matter. They do not drift into the lab through an open window or crash through the ceiling aboard a meteorite. They do not suddenly appear through a time or space warp. They are not dropped off at the lab by aliens. They are not computer simulations.
Scientists use their knowledge and imagination to intentionally create new organisms, just as God did at creation. However, unlike him, they create new life forms by modifying existing ones. God started from scratch.
Scientists know it would be futile to expect viable life forms to spontaneously emerge from an inert mixture of raw ingredients, even if they selected the correct materials and placed them in an ideal environment.
The existence of life, in all its variations, attests to the existence of God and his role as our creator.
Important Implications
The origin of life has important implications.
If we are products of random chance, we are born without purpose and possess no inherent value. Instead, society subjectively determines our significance on an ad hoc basis. If this capricious appraisal ever deems us worthless, we become disposable.
However, if God is the source of life, he created each of us for a purpose and assigned us a divine destiny. We are individually significant and endowed with inherent dignity. Therefore, our lives are objectively precious and worthy of preservation.
More About Creation Theories And Our Divine Destiny
God’s participation is implicit in the Big Bang and the evolution of plant and animal species within kinds. The Bible indicates that the earth could be either very old or relatively young. The Bible and science are harmonious.
Discovering our divine destiny requires us to count the cost.
