For those who don’t believe in God, origin of life research is one of the most vital areas in science. This is because atheists believe life arose without God. Thus, they require a naturalistic explanation. Further, evolution, we’re told, takes millions of years, so it happens too slowly to observe. Thus, they need something observable. Thirdly, they need something to refute the Law of Biogenesis- life always comes from life. And to do that, they must demonstrate that life can arise naturally, without a creator.

In my last post- 2026 Creation Research Society Conference– I mentioned how researchers built a synthetic cell from nonliving parts capable of growth, replication, division, selection and competition. This is SpudCell. It’s actually a very fascinating achievement which required great ingenuity and creativity.

The cell is made up of a lipid membrane, nine individual DNA molecules, 36 enzymes and a genome consisting of 90,000 base pairs. This is far smaller than estimates for a minimal living cell, which is considered to be about 113,000 base pairs.

This is the first synthetic cell to complete a cell cycle, and one of the reasons why it gets away with such a small genome is because of its unique design. For instance, instead of using metabolism, like ordinary cells, it feeds externally, using its own proteins to fuse with food supplied by researchers. And unlike natural cells, which use internal scaffolding to divide, SpudCell divides when proteins crowd together on the surface of the membrane, and mechanical stress causes the membrane to break.

Researchers observed selection and competition by altering the genes to increase production of the fusion protein. And, after five generations, the genetically enhanced variant surpassed the original strains.

The cell was built so that researchers would know every component and every concentration, allowing them to alter it at any point.

A laboratory tool called a ‘protein expression system’ was used to manufacture target proteins from a desired protein; the system used by SpudCell is called PURE (Protein Synthesis Using Recombinant Elements), which consists of a defined mixture of 36 purified enzymes from e-coli bacteria. The enzymes from PURE read the DNA and make proteins. And because every component and concentration is known, researchers can map out everything happening in the cell.

Remarkably, all the proteins SpudCell needs to function are manufactured within the cell from its own genome. All this is phenomenal. Ingenious!

But let’s be honest. Using intelligence to create a manufactured cell doesn’t explain how a living cell- which is far more complex- could arise through natural processes alone. Evolutionists would have us believe that experiments like this demonstrate how life COULD HAVE come about naturally. If scientists can create life in the lab, they reason, then surely nature could find a way to do it too! But this line of reasoning has no basis in reality.

First, they’re ignoring how complex life truly is, as if millions and billions of years can do anything. This amounts to faith in nature, which sure sounds like a religious belief to me. Or magic. Evolutionists would never admit this, but it is plain to see.

Second, using intelligence to create life sure sounds like intelligent design- the idea that God’s design can be observed from what he has made. The Law of Biogenesis states that life only comes from life, and creating life in the lab is no exception. If life can naturally arise from nonlife, then let’s see it.

There are many more challenges researchers admit to. For instance, they must borrow enzymes and ribosomes from e-coli because SpudCell can’t manufacture its own. Neither does it have the complex machinery needed for gene distribution. Further, SpudCell can’t hunt for its own food, so it must be fed. All these limitations would require greater complexity. Even parasites need a host, but there was no host for the first living organism to take advantage of. Neither were there scientists to feed them. So even if nature “found a way” to create life, the first lifeform would quickly die without food, the ability to hunt, feed itself, metabolize and reproduce. Everything would have to happen quickly and in the correct sequence, otherwise it would go extinct.

Most evolutionists don’t recognize the magnitude of these hurdles. If they did, then they would have to concede that complex life doesn’t arise by natural processes. This is not an argument from incredulity, but an honest assessment of what nature can and can’t do. There’s a reason why we no longer believe in spontaneous generation… we simply don’t observe life arising naturally from nonliving material. This is testable, empirical evidence.

One thing the SpudCell experiment does best is demonstrate that life requires intelligent design. And where there’s design, there’s a designer. A brilliant engineer. And I would argue that God is the designer of life, and he has revealed himself to us in Scripture.