The Origins of Life

In today's news on Yahoo.com, the founder of a genomics research institute, Craig Venter, spoke about how a breakthrough of creating synthetic bacteria will benefit industries like pharmaceuticals, energy and materials. Stuart Fox, the writer of the article, states the following:




This work could lead to staggering findings in two major ways. First, cells with synthetic genomes could allow scientists to essentially snip out the complexities of living cells leaving only the simpler parts. This would give researchers a better way to untangle the enormously complicated interactions that occur in natural cells, and could help unravel the secrets of baffling diseases like cancer.

Second, while cells with synthetic genomes couldn't be used to recreated extinct creatures, they could be used to create organisms that have the genes of extinct organisms, possibly even those of Earth's earliest life forms. This could lead to a better understanding of the very nature of life and how life began, scientists say.

Hm...very interesting indeed! However, we would then still have the question, "How did life begin?" A synthetically made bacteria or organism will not tell us where life began. In fact, it would simply mean that the men who created such a thing would be the maker of that particular organism. And even if they were to design a synthetic organism that is less complex as a natural organism, they still would not be able to account for the origins of life.

Now we know that most of the people that working on this are no doubt evolutionists. They have studied and studied different theories of how life began. Some have said that there was a great explosion in space that caused an organism in some primordial goo to come into existence. Some have believed that all live forms began when lightening struck some crystals on a hillside. Some others believed that everything simply has evolved into what it is today and that evolution itself is still happening even before our very eyes.

Well, Mr. Venter, let me suggest to you that the answer to the question, "How did life begin?" is not as complicated as you and others are making it out to seem. Now I understand what you might be thinking: "This guy is a nut job! He's not even credentialed as a scientist." Well, as the old adage goes, "This isn't rocket science!"

The answer is this: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth...And God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light...And God said, 'Let there be an expanse int he midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from he waters"...And God said, 'Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear'...And God said, 'Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth'...And God say, 'Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night'...And God said, 'Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens'...And God said, 'Let the earth bring forth living creatures according tot heir kinds - livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds'...Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let the have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.'" (Genesis 1:1-31)

True Happiness

A recent articles on Yahoo.com was entitled "Internet Use Makes Us Happier, Says Mental-Health Study". It truly is an interesting article when you think about how much time you actually spend on the internet. There are some that make their living on the internet. There are some who just use the internet for games. There are some who use it for Facebook or other social networking sites. Whatever the case may be, there are hundreds of millions of people who use the internet on a daily basis.

"A May 12 report by British researchers from the U.K.'s Chartered Institute of IT (known as BCS) have found a link between Internet access and well-being. But some benefit more than others from tapping into the information supherhighway, including those with lower incomes or fewer qualifications, people living int he developing world and, perhaps most suprisingly, women." http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20100515/hl_time/08599198924400

Now there's a quote! You mean to tell me, then, that the internet actually makes people happy? Well, when you consider that men and women around the world are searching for happiness they are likely searching for that happiness on the internet (as far as developing countries go). However, there is a more reliable source to find true happiness. It is a source that few find and for which many are searching. It is called the Bible. Eugene Peterson has paraphrased the Bible and he really did a pretty good job of getting the point across. Here's Psalm 1 from The Message Bible:

How well God must like you - you don't hang out at Sin Saloon, you don't slink along Dead-End Road, you don't go to Smart-Mouth College. Instead you thrill to God's Word, you chew on Scripture day and night. You're a tree replanted in Eden, bearing fresh fruit every month, never dropping a leaf, always in blossom. You're not at all like the wicked, who are mere windblown dust - without defense in court, unfit company for innocent people. God charts the road you take. The road they take is Skid Row.

Hey! Try something that is lasting - the Bible. It will help you not only to have happiness but true joy.

Damage Control

It was most likely a quiet evening. There in the Garden the man and the woman were walking. Hand-in-hand they strolled through the beaten walkway. It was a time of rest along the pathway - they were unaware of their surroundings. The man, looking aloof, stepped away from the woman and that's when it happened. The snake in the tree began to speak to the woman. There he caressed her listening ears with words of deceit. She took the bait.

The man was standing next to her. The question that I have wanted to ask him is, "What reason do you have for turning away from her? Why didn't you protect her?" It is an age-old question. There he was, standing next to his wife, watching the snake speaking to her. There was no reaction on his part; he just stood there and watched.

The snake talked the woman into eating of the forbidden fruit. She saw that the fruit was good for food. It was pleasurable to her sight. The man watched her knowing that his Maker forbade the eating from that tree. Then, in a moment of time that seemed like an eternity, the man took the forbidden fruit from the woman and he ate. It was in that instant that their eyes were opened to the disobedience to their Maker. They thought that they could fix what they had done. It was not possible, they could not do anything to fix it.

Their Maker was walking in the Garden. He called out to the man asking, "Where are you?" The man answered, "I heard you in the Garden and I was afraid of You." The Maker asked, "Why were you afraid? Did you disobey Me and eat of the forbidden fruit? Tell Me, man, what have you done?"

The man retorted, "It's Your fault! You made me first and then You gave me this woman! She gave me the forbidden fruit and I ate."

The woman, no doubt stunned by the man's remarks, was asked by her Maker, "What is this you have done?" His questioning of the woman was of a different kind. He was gentle with her bringing her to the realization of what she had done. She shot back at her Maker, "It's the snake that You created! He deceived me and I ate!"

Damage control was in order. The Maker saw that they had covered themselves with leaves because they were ashamed of their nakedness. He saw that it was an incomplete solution. He knew that they could not fix this for themselves. The Maker said to Himself, "I will fix this for them, but it will take sacrifice on My part."

He killed a bull, took it's skin and covered the man and the woman. It was done, but they could not remain in the Garden. Had they eaten of the tree of life, they would be perpetually in their shame. Damage control by their Maker - it was the only way.

The moral of the story is this: We cannot make this sacrifice for ourselves. We have to trust our Maker's way to take away our shame. But who is this Maker? What is His name? His name is Jesus Christ.

Read Genesis 3.