Without life, there cannot be evolution. Therefore, the evolutionist’s quest to discover the origin of life remains a top priority.

There have been many attempts to solve this mystery without success, and this latest attempt offers more speculation. According to Stanford University, ‘microlightning’ may have been what sparked first life.

The famous Miller-Urey experiment in 1952 used water, methane, ammonia, hydrogen, and an electrical spark to form amino acids- the “building blocks of life”- and a few organic molecules (some harmful to amino acids). However, the experiment didn’t come close to producing life in a lab, which would require those amino acids to be arranged in a meaningful way, and there’s no evidence to suggest that could ever happen. The experiment utterly failed to demonstrate that life could form naturally, given the right conditions and ingredients.

Now this latest experiment from Stanford uses water spray to create an electrical charge in the presence of early earth gases to form amino acids. These microlightning charges are produced by water droplets from crashing waves. And the results? According to lead author, Richard Zare, they were able to produce all the organic molecules as the Miller-Urey experiment and some amino acids. Bravo!

The researchers are excited because their experiment competes with the Miller-Urey experiment and offers “a new mechanism for the prebiotic synthesis of molecules that constitute the building blocks of life.”

That’s nice, but even if all the ingredients for life were available- all the correct amino acids and organic molecules- there’s nothing to shape them into meaningful proteins, create a strand of DNA, RNA, and all the components found in a living cell and zap it to life.

Seriously, what would happen if we took a living cell, pulled it apart so all that remains are the bare molecules, add them to a jar of water, and produce a spark… would we ever get life? I suggest we wouldn’t because, for one thing, there’s nothing to arrange the molecules into the correct shape and correct order at the right time.

Neither the Miller-Urey experiment nor the Stanford study shed light on the origin of life via natural processes. They’re cool science experiments, but that’s about it. Molecules are doing what molecules do. Why should anyone care if striking the right molecules produces the “building blocks necessary of life”? Those building blocks can’t thoughtfully design themselves. If they could, then we should observe this, and we don’t. Simply assuming millions and billions of years isn’t helpful because it’s unobservable and cannot be empirically tested or validated. So it becomes faith-oriented (a.k.a. a religion).

I suggest that the solution to the origin of life is simple- God created life, just as he revealed in Genesis. Nature didn’t do it. It was not a spark of lightning or microlightning. It was an intelligent creator. Life only comes from life. This is the Law of Biogenesis.