Two events, when they happen, will send millions into shock. One is the discovery of life on another planet. The other is creation of life in a test tube here on Earth. Every thinking person will be profoundly touched, but to those who believe that Earth and everything on it was created about 8,000 years ago, it might seem like an existential threat. Some will close eyes, ears, and minds, retreat into shells, and live in denial, like those who still deny evolution.
Scientists peering through telescopes saying that lines in a spectrum prove there is life on another planet will be dismissed out of hand. And if SETI (the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) suddenly announces intelligent signals from another planet, they’ll dismiss that too. But bugs wriggling in test tubes are less easily denied.
Reports leaking out of the Scripps Research Institute in California that scientists are close to coaxing life out of inanimate matter made page one in a recent issue of the NY Times. But Scripps scientists do not claim to have created life. In addition to showing proper scientific caution, they know that it would be a bombshell.
If a Creator created the fundamental forces and matter, visible and invisible, that constitute the galaxies, stars, planets, and all else of the Universe including life on this Earth, then life is inherent in the Universe, even if it exists only on this Earth. And if humans one day learn to coax out molecules that can replicate, evolve, even that become self-aware, they would not be creating life.
Scientists have learned how to bring sperm and ovum together outside of the womb—test tube babies—but do not create that life. They can clone animals, but no one argues that this is creating life. If they one day learn to arrange molecules so that life can flow in and express itself, that life will be as much the Creator’s as any life. Scientists striving to learn how to liberate the gift of life are learning about Creation itself, which makes it truly God’s work.
Scientists peering through telescopes saying that lines in a spectrum prove there is life on another planet will be dismissed out of hand. And if SETI (the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) suddenly announces intelligent signals from another planet, they’ll dismiss that too. But bugs wriggling in test tubes are less easily denied.
Reports leaking out of the Scripps Research Institute in California that scientists are close to coaxing life out of inanimate matter made page one in a recent issue of the NY Times. But Scripps scientists do not claim to have created life. In addition to showing proper scientific caution, they know that it would be a bombshell.
If a Creator created the fundamental forces and matter, visible and invisible, that constitute the galaxies, stars, planets, and all else of the Universe including life on this Earth, then life is inherent in the Universe, even if it exists only on this Earth. And if humans one day learn to coax out molecules that can replicate, evolve, even that become self-aware, they would not be creating life.
Scientists have learned how to bring sperm and ovum together outside of the womb—test tube babies—but do not create that life. They can clone animals, but no one argues that this is creating life. If they one day learn to arrange molecules so that life can flow in and express itself, that life will be as much the Creator’s as any life. Scientists striving to learn how to liberate the gift of life are learning about Creation itself, which makes it truly God’s work.
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