Evidence for God – Part 3

3- Life Exists

An Associated Press headline reads, “Scientists Believe Artificial Life Will Be Possible in 3 to 10 Years.” The article is dated August 20, 2007. The report discusses a new scientific discipline known as synthetic biology, which aims to create life in the laboratory.

Two of the pioneers in synthetic biology were Jack Szostak and the late Craig Venter. Szostak’s team took a bottom-up approach to building artificial life forms, aiming to assemble biomolecular building blocks step by step until they had a living cell. Venter’s team took the top-down approach, trying to re-engineer existing cells by changing the DNA to create novel forms of life. Neither team has achieved the ultimate goal of creating artificial life.

The AP article said there are three major hurdles to creating artificial life. First, you need a container or cell membrane. It serves as a protective wall, keeping the materials required for life inside while keeping harmful molecules out. Living cells must have that. Second, you need a genetic system that controls all cell functions. This system has to allow the cell to mutate in response to the environment and, very importantly, to reproduce. Third, you need a metabolic system. The cell must be able to take raw materials from the environment and convert them into energy to power itself.

Those three hurdles challenge scientists today. If scientists ever overcome those barriers and create fully synthetic artificial life, what will they have proven? Will they have shown that life arises spontaneously from non-life? No. They will have proven that great intelligence, under carefully controlled conditions, can turn non-living matter into life-forms. They will have shown that life is not an accident but the creation of an intelligent being. That is what the Bible has said for thousands of years.

Even if scientists manage to create a living cell, they will NOT have created it from nothing. They will use the materials (and intelligence) God has given us. It reminds me of the old story about a scientist who challenged God, saying that it was no big deal to create a man from the dust of the ground. God said, “Go ahead and do it.” The scientist grabbed a handful of dust, and God interrupted him, saying, “Wait a minute! Make your own dust.”

— Roland Earnst © 2026

Meet us at the International Conference on Missions at America’s Center in St. Louis, November 12-14, 2026, booth 1223 in the Exhibit Hall.