Life — How Did It Get Here? By Evolution or by Creation?

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'''''Life &mdash; How Did It Get Here? By Evolution or by Creation?''''' is a book published in 1985 by the [[Jehovah's Witnesses|Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania]].<ref name=life>Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, ''Life- How did it get here? By evolution or by creation?'' Watchtower, 1985.</ref>

The book sets out to answer the supposed question of whether life originated through [[evolution]] or [[Creationism|creation]]. However, as with many anti-evolution texts, ''Life'' confuses the [[theory of evolution]] (concerned with the development of life) with [[abiogenesis]] (hypotheses concerning the origin of life). As the theory of evolution itself makes no claims about the origin of life the book attempts to answer a non-existent question.

''Life'' consists primarily of a series of [[Quote mining|mined quotes]] and [[Argumentum ad verecundiam|appeals to authority]]. It is a good source of [[creationist claims]], mostly based on [[Argument from incredulity|arguments from incredulity]], on topics that include [[abiogenesis]], [[Transitional fossil|transitional fossils]], [[mutation]], [[Anthropic principle|fine-tuned universe]], [[Intelligent design|evidence of design]], and [[Essay:Scientific consensus|doubt about evolution]].

As evidence of the inadequacies of evolution, the authors of ''Life'' rely heavily on quotes from [[J. Francis Hitching]], who they identify as an "evolutionist", though in reality he is simply a sensationalist author. Other quotes in ''Life'' come from ''The Neck of the Giraffe,'' a book which discredits creationism as much or more than it does evolution.<ref name=hitching>Francis Hitching, ''The Neck of the Giraffe,'' Signet, 1983. ISBN 0451622324</ref>

As an example of reliance on Hitching, ''Life'' makes the unreferenced claim:

{{quotebox|What is the chance of even a simple protein molecule forming at random in an organic soup? Evolutionists acknowledge it to be only one in 10^113 (1 followed by 113 zeros). But any event that has [[Borel's Law|one chance in just 10^50 is dismissed by mathematicians as never happening]]. An idea of the odds, or probability, involved is seen in the fact that the number 10^113 is larger than the estimated total number of all the atoms in the universe!<ref name=life />{{rp|44}}}}

This argument quite obviously comes from Hitching's discussion of the subject:

{{quotebox|...let us consider a simple protein containing only 100 amino acids. There are 20 different kinds of L-amino acids in proteins, and each can be used repeatedly in chains of 100. Therefore, they could be arranged in 20^100 or 10^130 different ways. Even if a hundred million billion (10^17) of these combinations could function for a given purpose, there is only one chance in 10^113 of getting one of these required amino acid sequences in a small protein consisting of 100 amino acids. By comparison, Sir Arthur Eddington has estimated there are no more than 10^80 (or 3,145X10^79) particles in the universe...Mathematicians usually consider 1 chance in 10^50 as negligible. In other words, when the exponent is higher than 50, the chances are so slim for such an event ever occurring, that it is considered impossible.<ref name=hitching />{{rp|70-71}}}}

However, Hitching indicated he was quoting directly from ''Impact,''<ref>[http://www.icr.org/article/glycolosis-alcoholic-fermentation/ Glycolosis and Alcoholic Fermentation], Jean Sloat Morton</ref> a monthly [[Institute for Creation Research]] publication. Thus the argument based on acknowledgments from "evolutionists" in fact comes from a creationist. There are other similar examples of misattribution in ''Life''.

==See also==
*[[Abiogenesis]], for scientific discussion about how life arose
*[[List of fallacious quotes by creationists]], for most of the book's quotations

==External links==
*[http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/jw-book.html Reviewed by a former Jehovah's Witness Corey Carroll, talkorigins.]
*[https://www.dimaggio.org/evolution.html Critical analysis by a practicing Jehovah's Witness minister.]
''Life'' was published in 1985. Today, JWs generally instead use two smaller brochures to propagate their brand of creationism. These are deconstructed in the following two links:
*[http://www.thebattles.net/rationality/Weighed1.1.pdf Weighed and Found Wanting]
*[http://www.thebattles.net/rationality/JW_The_Origins_of_Life_Five_Questions_Worth_Asking.html Deconstructing "The Origins of Life: Five Questions Worth Asking"]

==References==
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[[Category:Creationism]]
[[Category:Religious books]]

Categories: Creationism, Religious books