| Formal discussion on Abiogenesis
Order and design
Part 1 - Order
Does "order" need a designer? Could complex molecules come about by random chance?
A thought experiment:-
Take a large transparent tank filled with 100,000 balls, half of them black and the rest white.
Stir the tank so that all the balls are randomly mixed.
Now shake and vibrate the tank vigorously.
After 5 minutes, record the final position of all the balls.
What are the chances of a random distribution of black and white balls throughout the tank with about 50 percent of the white balls ending up in the top half of the tank and about 50 percent in the bottom half. Pretty good odds I'd say, this is what I would expect, a truly random distibution.
How about 60 percent in the top of the tank and 40 percent in the bottom half. Unusual, but not impossible.
What would the chances of the balls spontaneously ordering themselves without any external influence so that 95 percent of the white balls by random action end up in the top half of the tank and only 5% in the bottom half? Astronomical?
How about perfect order from a totally random event. After 5 minutes of shaking, vibrating and random agitation, the balls manage to position themselves into a perfectly ordered arrangement. All the white balls have neatly arranged themselves at the top and all the black balls at the bottom? Impossible.
What are the chances of repeating this experiment and getting the same freak result a second time. It's obvious isn't it? Someone has placed the balls in the correct place.
They emptied the tank and placed all the black balls in first, then carefully placed all the white balls on top.
There must have been an external influence, a designer. It's the only possible explanation of such an astronomically improbable event.
This is the argument used over and over by Creationists to explain why complex ordered structures had to have a designer. Amino acids and RNA molecules could not occur by chance therefore there must be a designer.
In the above example it's obvious that the white balls are simply lighter than the black balls (white Ping-Pong balls and black billiard/pool balls). Add a bit of kinetic energy and the balls will order themselves automatically without anyone manually ordering them.
It's exactly the same with atoms and molecules. Apart from the first few atoms in the periodic table, All atoms have space for 8 electrons in their outer electron shell. An atom with all 8 spaces occupied with electrons is incredibly stable. Atoms with 7 electrons in their outer shell will be strongly attracted to atoms with 1 electron in their outer shells (Sodium and Chlorine bond to make Sodium Chloride).
Atoms will always try to achieve the stable state of having 8 electrons in their outer shells, this is done by sharing electrons. Oxygen has 6 electrons in its outer shell and will readily bond to 2 Hydrogen atoms which have 1 electron in their outer shells 6 + 1 + 1 = 8 = stable configuration.
H2O means 2 hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. H2O is an extremely stable configuration, this is why we have so much water on this planet. This is very simple chemistry as taught to 11 and 12 year olds.
The basic building blocks of life are a natural stable configuration of the component atoms. All that is needed to get atoms to build reasonably complicated Hydro-carbon molecules is the component atoms and a little energy input such as ultraviolet light, Thermal energy, lightning etc.
If we had agitated the tank full of balls and they had stayed in a completely random configuration, this would be quite remarkable. In fact it would be virtually impossible not to create a high degree of order. It's exactly the same with atoms. Add a bit of energy and you will always see an increase in order and molecular bonding. (remember what you did in chemistry class to get 2 elements to form a compound..... Heat it up).
The Creationist argument that order must have a designer is fallacious. Order or decreasing entropy is simply the natural consequence of a localised increase in energy.
No Magical Being or talking snakes are required, It happens by itself. It would be a miracle if it didn't happen.
In order to explain all life as we see it today, all we need is one single molecule capable of replication and mutation. Once we have that, Evolution will take over. This can be achieved in a molecule containing sequence of only 32 amino acids. If we can order 100,000 coloured balls in 5 minutes. How long will it take to order just 32 molecules out of the Billions of Billions of atoms available over a period of billions of years? Remember that these molecules are attracted to each other and will readily bond together given appropriate conditions.
Hoyle's "tornado in a junkyard making a 747" is a red herring because complex molecule formation is not a random process, it is the inevitable consequence of a local reduction of entropy in an environment containing atoms and molecules that are pre-disposed to bond together. This process is totally consistent with the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics.
Part 2 - Self Replicators
There are many known self replicating molecules. such as the hexanucleotide self-replicator, the SunY self-replicator or the RNA polymerase described by the Eckland group.
The "self-replicating" peptide from the Ghadiri group is a 32 amino acid long enzyme with a sequence of RMKQLEEKVYELLSKVACLEYEVARLKKVGE. It is a peptide ligase that makes a copy of itself from two 16 amino acid long subunits.
It is also of a size and composition that is ideally suited to be formed by abiotic peptide synthesis. But most importantly it Self Replicates.
The formation of this self-replicating peptide is not a huge improbability. When you consider the billions of amino acid molecules all trying to react and bond with each other over a billion years, what are the chances of just 32 of them coming together in the right order.
Part 3 - Life
The bacteria: Mycoplasma genitalium is probably the simplest modern life form that we know of today. It has a genome of only 400 units.
The self replicator molecules discussed earlier have 32 Units.
At what point do we say something is a life form and not just a chemical reaction that causes molecules to replicate?
Mycoplasma genitalium is still viable with just the core 250 units.
Would a self replicator with say 120 units be considered a life form or just a more sophisticated molecule replication process.
The boundary between Life and replicating molecules is very hazy, it is not a case of saying one replicating molecule constitutes a simple life form and another is a chemical reaction. When does a puppy become an adult dog? there is no single specific moment, it is a smooth gradient.
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