If evolution is true, why can't we make life in a lab?

Question

I asked this question before but people got confused. Evolution works on the principle of abiogenesis -- and scientists say that life on earth started when molecules randomly came together to make a living cell.

Well, why can't we replicate this in a lab? Nobody has managed to get a beaker of material which resembled primordial Earth, and observe a living cell being made randomly from the unliving molecules.

I'm not talking about amino acids -- I mean a whole living cell, coming together through chance in an experiment. It HASN'T happened.

And don't say test-tube babies are an answer, because that's using sperm and eggs from people, and using something supposedly already evolved to make life.

Why hasn't it happened?

Answer 1

Evolution does not explain abiogenesis.

Just leave some bread out for a month.

If creationism were true, all living things would have no genetic link to anything else because it posits that God magically created everything else individually.

They were conjured into existence with the "wave of its hand".

Answer 2

Because evolution is not true. This is just one more piece of evidence showing that.

Answer 3

>If evolution is true, why can't we make life in a lab?

What do you mean, why can't we? We've already done so...inside computer simulations. Digital life has as a matter of fact demonstrated that evolution by natural selection WORKS, at least in principle, and due to experiments in digital life forms it is no longer possible for creationists to argue that evolution is completely impossible.

That said, the reason we have not yet succeeded in making biological life from scratch is because biological life is quite complicated and our knowledge of biochemistry isn't up to the task yet. Keep in mind that it took the entire Earth hundreds of millions of years to develop life, so we can't just expect to be able to make some in a test tube at a moment's notice.

>Evolution works on the principle of abiogenesis

Wrong. Evolution works just as well whether a life form is spawned through abiogenesis or not. The laws of natural selection work on ALL life forms, the source of the life forms doesn't make any difference.

>scientists say that life on earth started when molecules randomly came together to make a living cell.

Wrong again. By now it is widely recognized in scientific circles that the first life on Earth was almost certainly much simpler than modern cells. The chances of a complete cell arising from nonliving material are very small, but the chances of it evolving from simpler life forms which in turn arose from nonliving material is much larger.

Answer 4

So what if it hasn't happened yet? It doesn't mean they won't do it.

I don't see how this is evidence against evolution either? Just because that particular experiment hasn't happened?

Evolution is a fact. It is the change in allele frequencies in a population over time. It happens. I don't see what this has to do with recreating the beginning of life.

Answer 5

Read up on evolution.  This time, go very slowly when you're reading the beginning bits.  Stuff to pay attention to:  the amounts of time required, odds and probability.

Misunderstanding what evolution states and then proving THAT wrong, really isn't proving anything.

Answer 6

Faith in the impossible does not work.

Answer 7

I think life is given by God & nobody can make but comforts can be gained by using science

Answer 8

There is no confusion except with you. Evolution is not about creating life in the laboratory. That is a completely different field. How many times do you ask this question before it sinks in.

Answer 9

or science is limited - our minds are not.  

Answer 10

That's like asking "if race cars are real, how come we can't fly them to the moon?"

Answer 11

We can and have.

Primitive cells were made in an American university.

Evolution has nothing to do with abiogenesis.

Go learn anything and come back later. Protobions are simple to make and even I could probably have a crack at making them. Membranes and variants of RNA. Woooo difficult.

Answer 12

Wow... Just wow...

How old are you, and what was your grade in Science?

Answer 13

Because we don't yet know the key to abiogenesis, I believe.

Answer 14

several reasons. it took immeasurably perfect conditions and it happened by chance. so even if we had those perfect conditions we would very small chance of actually getting the right combination unless we tried of millions of years. secondly it took hundreds of millions of years for those organic compounds to eventually create cells and there is no way to speed up that process. so why would we bother trying to create something when we have no chance of succeeding?

Answer 15

Evolution is a lie. God created the world, it is as clear as day light.