Abiogenesis—The Chemical Evolution Miracle?
Bodie Hodge, M.Sc., B.Sc., PEI
Biblical Authority Ministries, April 16, 2026 (Donate)
In atheistic, materialistic religions, life must come from
non-life. They cannot have God create life, since they don’t believe in God and
deny that a spiritual God even exists.
So, for life to be here, the atheist must have life accidentally or randomly come from non-life. This is called “abiogenesis” or “chemical evolution”. I have often lectured on this subject.
What Is Abiogenesis Specifically?
Abiogenesis is the idea that life arose naturally and
randomly from non-living matter through purely chemical and physical processes,
without any need for our Creator. In secular humanistic origins models (atheism
is a form secular humanism), it is often proposed that billions of years ago,
simple chemicals in a “primordial soup” gradually formed more complex
molecules, eventually producing the first self-replicating cell.
This concept is a foundational necessity to naturalistic
evolution because secularists and atheists attempt to explain how life could begin
without God. The problem is that this is pure speculation and merely an
arbitrary story. Abiogenesis has never been observed and never been repeated.
So, keep in mind that the idea of abiogenesis is not science.
Naturally from a biblical creation perspective, abiogenesis
is rejected for both scientific and theological reasons. Let’s
look at some of these reasons.
It Conflicts With The Biblical Account Of Creation
Scripture teaches that life was created directly by God.
“Then God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its
kind’… and it was so” (Genesis 1:24, NKJV). Humans are uniquely created in
God’s image: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being”
(Genesis 2:7, NKJV).
In this framework, life originates from God’s creative act during Creation Week,
not from non-living matter organizing itself. Because God disagrees with chemical
evolution, this enough to refute the idea of abiogenesis.
Abiogenesis Violates The Law Of Biogenesis
The Law of Biogenesis states that life comes only from
pre-existing life. This principle is well-established through scientific observation
and experimentation (for example, the work of Louis Pasteur). To go against it,
is a blatant denial of good science.
No experiment has ever demonstrated life arising
spontaneously from non-life. Despite decades of research, scientists and
researchers have not observed even the simplest living cell forming naturally
from chemicals. Even when they design (using intelligence) experiments to do
so, they have all failed to make life. From this perspective, abiogenesis or chemical
evolution is in stark contradiction with this principle law of biology.
The Problem Of Homochirality
Living systems use molecules with a specific handedness (this
is called “chirality”)—right-handed or left-handed (as it is looking in a
mirror). For example, amino acids in life are almost exclusively left-handed. Thus,
life utilizes homochirality or uniform chirality because it uses
virtually all left-handed amino acids.
Having right-handed amino acids are usually lethal. They are
used in venom for instance. Although some are popping up for unique specified
purposes.[1]
However, natural chemical processes produce a mixture of
left- and right-handed molecules. Not only is chemical evolution not even close
to being observed, but adherents who push abiogenesis ideas struggle to explain
how life could arise with the left-handed uniformity which is required for
biological function.
The Origin Of Genetic Information Remains
Unexplained
Chemical evolution requires not just chemicals, but organized
information. DNA functions like a coded instruction set that directs
cellular processes. From a creationist viewpoint, information is best explained
by the God of the Bible, not unguided processes. There is no known natural
mechanism that can produce the kind of specified, complex, functional
information found in living and growing organisms from purely random chemistry.
The Instability Of Proposed Early Environments
Many abiogenesis models depend on specific conditions (such
as a carefully balanced atmosphere or protected environments), but these
conditions are often unrealistic or mutually incompatible. For example, the
chemicals needed to form life can also destroy each other under the same
conditions.
Water, which is necessary for life, also breaks down many of
the molecules needed to build it—Dr. A.E. Wilder-Smith once a book (The Creation
Of Life; A Cybernetic Approach To Evolution) specifically on this very
subject in 1970 and the water problem is still a crucial devastation to chemical
evolution after all these years.[2]
Chemical Evolution Cannot Produce The Complexity Of
Life
Even the simplest cell is extraordinarily complex,
containing DNA, RNA, proteins, and molecular machines working together in a
coordinated system. DNA itself carries vast amounts of specified information,
comparable to of an advanced language or code.
Random chemical reactions do not generate meaningful,
information-rich systems. Efforts like the Miller-Urey experiment produced some
amino acids under controlled conditions, but they did not come close to forming
living cells or the information systems required for life. Let’s discuss the Miller-Urey
experiment for a moment because many think this was a good stepping stone to
make life. But it wasn’t.
Miller-Urey Experiment Failed
The Miller-Urey experiment (1953) did not come close to
producing life and actually highlights major problems for abiogenesis.
First, the experiment produced only a few simple amino
acids, not life. Amino acids are merely building blocks of proteins, and
proteins themselves are only one component of a living cell. A functioning cell
requires complex systems including DNA, RNA, membranes, replication ability, and
coordinated molecular machinery. The experiment never produced these higher
levels of organization, let alone a self-replicating organism.
Second, the amino acids formed were a mixture of left-handed
and right-handed (racemic) molecules. Living organisms use almost exclusively
left-handed amino acids. This uniformity, again called homochirality, is
essential for biological function. The experiment did not solve this problem
and instead showed that natural processes produce the wrong kind of
mixture for life.
Third, the experimental conditions were unrealistic. The
apparatus used a carefully controlled environment with a strongly reducing
atmosphere (methane, ammonia, hydrogen), which many origin-of-life researchers (evolutionists
themselves) now reject as representative of their proposal of what the early earth
would have been like in their view. In addition, the system included a trap to
remove products from the reaction chamber so they would not be destroyed by the
ongoing electrical sparks. Without this intelligent intervention, the same
energy source that formed the amino acids would also break them down.
Fourth, the experiment required deliberate design and
guidance. Scientists selected the gases, controlled the temperature,
applied energy, and protected the products. This demonstrates that intelligence
was necessary even to produce simple molecules, which undermines the idea that
unguided natural processes could generate life. It simply defeated the purpose
of the experiment!
Lastly, the experiment did not address the origin of
information. Even if amino acids form, they must be arranged into specific
sequences to produce functional proteins, and those proteins must be encoded by
DNA. The Miller-Urey experiment provided no mechanism for generating this kind
of specified, functional information.
The Miller-Urey experiment shows that while simple organic
molecules can be formed under controlled conditions, it fails to demonstrate
any realistic pathway to life or living systems.
Lack Of Major Observational Or Experimental Advances Since Miller-Urey
Despite advances in chemistry and molecular biology, no experiment has successfully demonstrated a plausible pathway from non-life to life. And I’ll go one step further, each of these experiments require intelligent people to design them in an attempt to make life.
Even if they were to succeed, they are only copying what God
has already made by studying the blueprints of life using their God-given
intellect. This seems to go against the stated purpose of no intelligence
was involved (i.e., no God) to make life.
To do the experiment properly would be to let chemical be natural,
without design, or prompting. It defeats the purpose of letting researchers manipulate
conditions in highly controlled laboratories. Yet even then, they still fail to
produce anything remotely close to life. When understood, abiogenesis remains a
speculative assumption that violates the laws of science.
Conclusion
Abiogenesis—chemical evolution—is the hypothesis that life
arose from non-life through natural processes, but it fails scientifically and
biblically. It contradicts Scripture and the Law of Biogenesis. But every
aspect of life arising naturally on its own in accidental or random fashion is more
of a hoped miracle than a reality.
Biblically, life is the result of God’s direct creation,
consistent with the testimony of the 66 books of Scripture.
Bodie Hodge, Ken
Ham's son in law, has been an apologist defending 6-day creation and opposing
evolution since 1998. He spent 21 years working at Answers in Genesis as
a speaker, writer, and researcher as well as a founding news anchor for Answers
News. He was also head of the Oversight Council.
Bodie
launched Biblical Authority Ministries in 2015 as a personal
website and it was organized officially in 2025 as a 501(c)(3). He has spoken
on multiple continents and hosts of US states in churches, colleges, and
universities. He is married with four children.
Mr. Hodge earned a
Bachelor and Master of Science degrees from Southern Illinois University at
Carbondale (SIUC). Then he taught at SIUC for a couple of years as a
Visiting Instructor teaching all levels of undergraduate engineering and
running a materials lab and a CAD lab. He did research on advanced ceramic
materials to develop a new method of production of titanium diboride with a
grant from Lockheed Martin. He worked as a Test Engineer for Caterpillar,
Inc., prior to entering full-time ministry.
His love of science was coupled with a love of history, philosophy, and theology. For about one year of his life, Bodie was editing and updating a theological, historical, and scientific dictionary/encyclopedia for AI use and training. Mr. Hodge has over 25 years of experience in writing, speaking and researching in these fields.
[1] Sarah
Everts, Medical Mystery: Mirror Images of Amino Acids Provide Clues to
Schizophrenia, Stroke and Lobster Sex, Scientific American, Vol.
308 No. 5 (May 2013), p. 78.
[2] A.
E. Wilder-Smith, The Creation Of Life; A Cybernetic Approach To Evolution, H.
Shaw Publishers, Wheaton, IL., 1970.
