Tinned sardines—clue to the origin of life?
by Gordon Howard
Tinned sardines—I just love ’em! Sardines in tomato sauce (ketchup)
on fresh, warm toast—the thought makes my mouth water.
Even opening the tin is exciting. What if, one day, one of the sardines begins to
flop around, anxious to get back in the sea? But these sardines are dead. Maybe,
instead, there could be just a little bit of green fuzz that has come to life on
my sardines. Wouldn’t that be a blast! Well, no. I think I would be rushing
to the shop for my money back, and sending a letter of complaint to the manufacturer:
‘Your sterilization techniques aren’t working. My sardines are contaminated
with life.’
We could be hopeful about something coming to life in my sardine tin, because those
who say life began by itself tell us ‘less educated’ persons that life
could have begun in a ‘primordial soup’ with only about 10% ‘pre-biotic
matter’. Now my tin of sardines has almost 100% ‘pre-biotic matter’
(well, ‘post-biotic matter’, since they’re dead), but I never
see any signs of life.
Surely, if life can begin by itself, it should happen in a sardine tin. Not only
is there all that’s needed by way of the building blocks for proteins, DNA,
and all that stuff, but also these are already organized into cells, and all the
paraphernalia of living things, all packaged and ready to go. Seems to me a better
deal than the wild conditions in a swirling ocean, or even in Charles Darwin’s
‘warm little pond’, with nothing but chemicals floating around.1
Why doesn’t it happen? Evolutionists keep telling us that things keep going
on the same for millions of years—that natural processes are all that causes
anything. If that is true, life should be popping up afresh all around us. But it
doesn’t.
So you’d think they would realize by now: life only comes from life. This
experiment (does life arise in sardine tins?) has been conducted millions of times
a day for a hundred years or more—with absolutely no evidence of life. It’s
time to give up! Evolutionists talk about a ‘primordial soup’ that got
it going, but surely tomato soup would be better, even though it uses dead tomatoes—at
least they were alive. Now, I’ve never seen a ‘primordial’,
and I’ve never come across a recipe for primordial soup, but I’m sure
there’s less chance of a ‘primordial’ jumping out of primordial
soup than there is of a tomato growing out of tomato soup.
And it doesn’t seem to matter how long we leave the sardines (or the soup)
in the tins. A million years or so would only allow the good stuff in the tin to
deteriorate, so its chances of producing life would only get worse.2 The same surely
would have happened millions of years ago.
Seems to me that the only source of life at the beginning of the universe was someone
who has life within himself—a supernatural superhero. The God of Heaven. That’s
a logical conclusion.
So, next time someone tries to tell you that life began by itself from chemicals,
without God, talk about the tin of sardines. Also suggest that he have a look at
the real explanation for the beginning of life, in the beginning of the Bible. Maybe
even read it yourself. And while you’re reading, enjoy some delicious sardines
on toast.
A reader’s commentGeorge V., Canada, 10 May 2012
I also love sardines, especially Canadian Sardines from New Brunswick. I would only expect these to be dust in a million years, not sprout to life. Evolutionists have a faith in Nature that it somehow has power within itself to begin and propagate life. Purely wishful thinking on their part and vivid imaginations. Futile imaginations I might add. As the Bible says in Romans Ch. 1 verses 18-22, especially verses 22 "Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools". This describes what has happened to Evolutionists in their thinking. |
Related articles
References and notes
- The heating of the sardines during processing denatures proteins.
This upsets their structure, but the amino acids are still present. Membranes are
also disrupted, but the ingredients are still there, and much of the structure.
The sardines have far more of the ingredients necessary for life than any conceivable
warm pond. For some of the problems with life arising by itself, see: Demick, D.,
Life from life … or not? Creation 23(1):36–41,
2000; <creation.com/abio>. Return to text.
- Amino acids come in two forms; mirror images of each other,
like right and left hands, so this is called handedness. Life is based on left-handed
amino acids. With time, amino acids lose their purity of handedness; they racemise.
This then makes the origin of life an even bigger problem, because life requires
purity. See Sarfati, J., Origin of life: the chirality problem, Journal
of Creation 12(3):263–266, 1998; <creation.com/chirality>. Return to text.
| Did you notice that there weren’t any ads or annoying page-covering pop ups on our site? Consider undergirding our efforts with a small donation today!  | | |
|
