I thank God for The Stairway to Life by Change Laura Tan and Rob Stadler. At a time when
some people tragically cite science (by which they usually mean
molecules-to-man evolution) as a reason for rejecting Christianity, this book
demonstrates that without the intervention of a supernatural Creator, natural
forces could never have created the first life. Far from working against belief
in God, recent scientific advances continue to pile up more and more evidence pointing
in the direction of a great, super-intelligent Creator as the best explanation
for the origin of life.
Tan and Stadler focus on the minimum requirements to
produce the first living, replicating cell. When it comes to what is required
to make a living cell, they don’t have to guess. They base their book on scientific
research. Their book is well researched and includes references to many
scientific publications. Tan and Stadler especially draw on the work of Craig
Venter and his team in creating a synthetic cell in 2010 and then further modifying
the cell to produce a cell with approximately the smallest possible genome in
2016 (calling it a “synthetic cell” is in some ways misleading and an exaggeration,
you’ll have to read the book to see why). Venter’s work helps identify the
minimum requirements for a cell to work at all.
The central portion of The Stairway to Life is an
examination of twelve requirements that are needed to produce even the simplest
living, reproducing cells. The twelve requirements are:
1. Formation and concentration of building blocks
2. Homochirality of building blocks
3. A solution for the water paradox
4. Consistent linkage of building blocks
5. Biopolymer reproduction
6. Nucleotide sequences forming useful code
7. Means of gene regulation
8. Means for repairing biopolymers
9. Selectively permeable membranes
10. Means of harnessing energy
11. Interdependency of DNA, RNA, and proteins,
12. Coordinated cellular purpose
The book is organized like a stairway with twelve steps
where each step is one of the above requirements. The authors evaluate the various
proposed natural methods that origin of life researchers have suggested to
account for each step. For the sake of argument and explanation, the authors
assume that completely natural processes have been able to accomplish all the
preceding steps when examining each new step. For each step, they convincingly
argue that no realistic natural solution has been found and for many of the
steps there is very strong evidence that a natural solution without
supernatural aide is for all practical purposes impossible. Tan and Stadler
emphasize that treating the production of life like a stairway is only a useful
way of organizing the book because in the case of producing a real living cell
all the steps have to be available at once. In all actual living cells, many of
the earlier “steps” (perhaps all of them) are dependent on the later steps
already existing and working. Thus, in addition to the unique challenges of
each step, the entire combination of steps works like a super-massive chicken
and the egg problem.
Although their tone is respectful and academic, from an
intellectual viewpoint by the end of the second step in the stairway the
authors have shattered any hope that chemical evolution could have produced the
first living cell without aid from an intelligent Creator. Although godless explanations
for life lie on the floor like so much shattered pottery, Tan and Stadler keep up
the evidential pounding for ten more steps, turning the shattered pieces into
dust and then blowing the dust away. In other words, their arguments, are
strong, effective, and overwhelming. When they reach the end of the final
chapter their conclusion, while strong and clear, actually sounds like an
understatement:
Living organisms and the
Stairway to Life are powerful evidence of God – an inescapable conclusion when
one is free to follow the evidence wherever it leads.
I’ve read extensively on this topic and even written a
few blog posts on it myself. In 2016, I even wrote a blog post specifically explaining how Craig Venter’s research provides strong
evidence for God (my blog post was far more limited in scope and detail compared
to Tan and Stadler’s excellent book). So, this topic is not new to me.
Nevertheless, I learned a lot from reading The Stairway to Life. Arguments
I already knew were reinforced and there were new (at least to me) arguments as
well. I’ll give one example.
Throughout the book, Tan and Stadler engage with the theories
and research of origin of life scientists who have different views from their
own (basically, these origin of life scientists believe an entirely natural
explanation for the origin of life exists through some form of chemical
evolution). One of the major theories of chemical evolution is that there were
self-replicating RNA molecules before there were cells. Sometimes this is
called “the RNA world.” Tan and Stadler point out numerous reasons that an RNA
world is not realistic. But one big problem they point out was new to me (or
else, if I’ve read it elsewhere, I had forgotten about it). In living cells RNA
is best known as being an intermediate information carrier in between the long
term storage of information in DNA and the expression of that information as
proteins. But RNA also sometimes works more like a protein, carrying out some
of the many complex functions in a cell. RNA’s ability to work like a protein
is limited (in other words, proteins are generally much better at their jobs
than RNA would be). However, in the hypothetical RNA world (it’s important to
remember there is no evidence that an RNA world ever really existed), RNA
carries out many of the functions needed for replication and biochemical
evolution until eventually DNA and proteins coded for by DNA appear. Once DNA
appears, since it is much better suited for long term information storage and
passing information on to future generations, evolution selects DNA to take over
the information storage role from RNA. The DNA then starts coding for proteins
that can take over roles from RNA that proteins are better at. But there’s a
huge problem with this abiogenesis story. In an RNA world, specific nucleotide
sequences of RNA are arranged to directly perform specific functions. These sequences,
however, are not a code for proteins. They are not a code at all. The sequence
of RNA nucleotides that might catalyze a needed reaction for life are in no way
related to the code for a string of amino acids that form a protein that could
perform that same function. So, some of the functional information stored up in
RNA in the RNA world (even if such a world existed) would be useless when DNA
finally showed up. In terms of the really important issue of information (which
is a really huge, central feature of all life that any origin of life theory
must account for), there would be a massive disconnect between the RNA in the
RNA world and the DNA. When I
read Tay and Stadler’s explanation of this (which is better than my attempt at
a summary in this paragraph), I thought, “wow, that really ruins the RNA world as
being a helpful precursor to cells even if the RNA world existed, which it didn’t.”
A Strength and Weakness of the Book
One aspect of The Stairway to Life that is both a
strength and a weakness is that the language and content will be a bit too
technical for some readers. This is a strength, because it allows Tay and Stadler
to really get into some of the important details of scientific issues related
to the origin of life. It is a weakness because it somewhat limits the audience.
A good test to see if the book is too technical for you is your response to the
paragraph I wrote above this one discussing RNA. If you could follow that, then
you should have no problem with their book. If my paragraph was a bit difficult
to follow but you generally understand how DNA, RNA, and proteins are related
in all living cells, then the only problem may be that my paragraph is not that
well written compared to their book (which includes some helpful analogies to explain
some of the technical stuff). Also, by no means is the entire book as technical
as the paragraph above. However, if you’re struggling to remember the different
roles of DNA, RNA, and proteins, then Tay and Stadler’s book might not be a good
fit for you (unless you want to go slow and do a little review of high school
level biology as you read, in which case you will learn a lot of really interesting
stuff).
Related Material
Tay and Stadler do a good job interacting with the top
proponents of abiogenesis. This is not a book full of strawmen. They reference the
top scientific research and arguments of
those who disagree with them. A slight weakness of their book is that they do
not, from what I saw, equally reference some of the top work of those who agree
with them. They are far from the first authors to argue on scientific grounds
that natural forces alone cannot account for the origin of life and that the
evidence points to an Intelligent Designer. For example, Stephen Meyer wrote an
excellent book on this same topic, Signature in the Cell. However, from what I can tell (and I searched) neither
Meyer nor his book are mentioned or referenced at all. Likewise, while Michael
Behe has focused mostly on biological evolution as opposed to chemical
evolution, Behe’s brilliant explanation of the concept of irreducible
complexity is very relevant to Tay and Stadler’s topic. Yet, Behe (who, like
Meyer, has been hugely influential in this field of inquiry) is not mentioned
at all. This is not a major flaw, but I do count it as a minor flaw in an
overall excellent book.
Why this topic is important
I want to close this blog post with a few thoughts about
why a topic that might seem to be a bit esoteric and is certainly technical has
wide and deep relevance to people today. What is at stake is nothing less than
the glory of God.
When we glorify God, we are not making God any more
glorious (good, beautiful, wise, holy, powerful, loving, intelligent) than He
already is. Rather, when we glorify God, we are helping ourselves and other
people to see and understand a little more clearly how wonderful God is.
Nature, including living things, should glorify God. In other words, looking at
the created world we live in should help us to see more clearly how powerful
and intelligent our Creator must be. Nature does tend to have this effect on
people. However, the molecules-to-man evolution myth robs God of glory He would
otherwise receive by deceiving some people into thinking that a great, powerful,
super-intelligent Creator really isn’t needed to account for humming birds, dolphins,
and flowers after all. Evolution claims to explain all that without any need
for God. But evolution, even if it works (which it doesn’t, except at the
microevolution level, which is totally different from the molecules-to-man
level), cannot get started at all until the first living cell existed and was
reproducing. Where did that first cell come from? Many scientists believe and convince
others that it came from chemical evolution (also called abiogenesis). Tay and
Stadler show convincingly that chemical evolution cannot account for even the
simplest life forms. Only God can. Tay and Stadler are continuing the good work
of an ancient psalmist who wrote:
For you have made me rejoice, LORD, by what you have
done;
I will shout for joy because of the works of your hands.
How
magnificent are your works,
LORD,
how profound your thoughts!
(Ps.
92:4-5 CSB17)
For further reading:
I love thinking about God’s glory as seen in creation and
also about the scientific evidence for God. I’ve read extensively on this topic.
It reinforces for my mind and intellect what my heart feels when I’m walking
early in the morning and listening the birds sing, looking at flowers in bloom,
and watching the sun rise. It leads to worship of my God and Savior. I’ve written
on this topic a fair bit. Here are some of my blog posts on this topic:
How the Sun glorifies the Son
Seeing God in Creation Gives Me Courage to Keep Serving Him
Nuclear Submarines and Living Cells
Seeing God in Creation Gives Me Courage to Keep Serving Him
Nuclear Submarines and Living Cells
Hebrews 13:16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others . . .
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