Hi Brent,
There's no doubt that my imagination is not up to the task of coming up
with reasonable explanations of all that I see. I could never imagine
relativity, quantum mechanics, black holes, singularities, the Big Bang,
infinite space, the multiverse, and "Günter Wächtershäuser's recipe for
life." (Boil water. Stir in the minerals iron sulfide and nickel sulfide.
Bubble in carbon monoxide and hydrogen sulfide. Wait for proteins to
form. - from
http://www.resa.net/nasa/links_origins_life.htm#common%20origin).
These explanations are too far-fetched for me to ever dream up. Yet if
I'm asked to provide answers, these are the only ones I can offer. I think
they all qualify as "marvelous circumstances."
Norman Samish
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(Norman writes) However, the part that I have trouble with is figuring
>out exactly how that first living organism was created. ("Living" means it
>has the ability to take in energy from the environment and transform the
>energy for growth and reproduction.) "Living" requires a highly organized
>and complex mechanism - that humans, so far, have not been able to create.
>I can't imagine how such an organism could occur accidentally. I would
>call
>that first living organism a miraculous circumstance.
(Brent writes) Maybe it's just a failure of imagination. Could you have
imagined quantum mechanics? There are several good theories of how life may
have originated on Earth. See "The Origins of Life" by Maynard Smith and
Szathmary and "Origins of Life" by Freeman Dyson for two of them.
Brent Meeker
Received on Wed Jun 01 2005 - 02:08:49 PDT