An interesting scientific problem is how did life get a foothold on Earth 3.5 Billion years ago. There's been much progress but ......?

Question

An interesting scientific problem is how did life get a foothold on Earth 3.5 Billion years ago. There's been much progress but more research is required. Every scientist working on this problem agrees it was a natural process.

MY QUESTION: Why do Christians think this is a safe hiding place for their god of the gaps?

Answer 1

For a long time, religion held most of the answers about our universe. As our understanding of the universe has expanded, religion has had to back peddle. At this point, we're at place where religion has to look at the things science hasn't explained and start declaring 'God did it!!!'.

Answer 2

Your statement, "Every scientist working on this problem agrees it was a natural process." is baseless conjecture.



If you actually do your research you will find a very large question mark about life. It cannot be analyzed, quantified, duplicated or created. Existing life can be modified. But that is all we know except for this. Psalm 36:9 just tells us God is the source. That is all anyone knows. Period.



The Bible tells us after the earth was cool enough for a world ocean God started the process of preparing the earth for being the home of us humans. How much time that took is unknown. Billions of years? The Bible just breaks it up into six creative days. And to make matters more interesting, those days overlapped in cases.



God of the gaps? What gap are you speaking of? Maybe you are referring to the totally erroneous view of those who style themselves as creationists? If so, know this. The Bible does not back up their claim.



All we know is the human family was created a little more than 6,000 years ago.



How long will humans live on earth? Here are two places in your Bible to check.



Psalm 72:7 tells us until the moon is no more. At its present rate of pulling away from earth, the moon will cease affecting out tides in about 3 billion years. That is close to the time when our sun will run low on hydrogen and start fusing helium and become a red giant.



But is that all? Look here...



"25 Long ago you laid the foundations of the earth,

And the heavens are the work of your hands.+

26 They will perish, but you will remain;

Just like a garment they will all wear out.

Just like clothing you will replace them, and they will pass away.

27 But you are the same, and your years will never end.+

28 The children of your servants will dwell securely,

And their offspring will be firmly established before you.” (Psalm 102:25-28)



Bottom Line



By the time entropy (heat death) makes the universe "wear out" and need to be replaced, man will still be. And when the replacements are ready, man will still be. But no matter what assignments we have throughout the universe or how many people live, the earth will always be our ancestral home. That will be tru even if the planet no longer exists.



Any more questions? Go here for answers.



http://www.jw.org/en/bible-teachings/questions/

Answer 3

They feel that way because they think science should be able to reproduce life from ingredients in a test tube. That of course may one day yet happen but, because we have not established the principles in assembling known building blocks of life that we (science) is wrong. Yet they have no problem accepting a magic genie in the sky created everything out of nothing, out of a breath (air doesn't yet exist), out of dirt, a rib, etc. They don't have to prove this because only the invisible genie can do such things. They can't explain how genie does things without energy or how he existed without atoms but they don't have to because laws of physics don't apply to god. Only that god always was even when there was nothing and 'he' was the god of nothing.



There is some speculation that life came to earth via meteorite. Of course this still beckons the question where did it come from? We could all just do as theist do and say life always was but, we know better. However matter is another story.

edit:

I would guess because life took such a long time to evolve it also took a long time to get started. Just as with evolution many factors probably come into play. The just right conditions, 'all the stars in alignment', time, proteins, and such and once it got a foothold it continued to evolve as it still does.

Answer 4

I used to believe in Evolution. I took Biology 1 &2, and Physiology classes.



But when I thought about it all and found out more from various angles of science, I found that they were asking me to believe that even on a subatomic level, everything happened by accident.



So, I think evolution could be true, but not if it all had to happen by accident. I found that even protons didn't have to work the way they work. Another spoke of something called "Mass Scale", she was a physicist who told Charlie Rose that science didn't know what set the Mass Scale.



Things like that make me question science because science apparently doesn't know anything about spiritual things, and I think that's a major missing piece of the puzzle. And I know how unimportant it is for atheists, but that's what I think.

Answer 5

You will never fill in all of the gaps. For all the minuteness of a single atom, a single atom is still comprised mostly of empty space between the nucleus and its orbiting electrons. Like a solar system in microcosm. God exists between and behind the gaps.

Answer 6

what has been used to claim the earth to be 3.5 billion years old? all that scientists use to claim this can be debunked from beginning to ending. heat, pressure, gravity, carbon dating etc. can all be explained in a literal sense and does not need science as a foundation.

Answer 7

God created life 6000 yrs ago

Answer 8

That is a really good question. Some bubbles that came out of early oceans, from what I have heard, had some cell structure and eventually one came that had the structure of a cell, IDK if it's correct

Answer 9

Life is woven into space/time geometry. The question is, "why?". Why is it there?

Answer 10

It was a lab accident.