Look around you in Jersey these days. Everywhere things are coming to life after the winter. It's not just one tree - it's all trees. It's not just one field of Jersey Royals - everywhere where seed was planted a few weeks ago new potatoes are coming into being. And, on the cliffs of the North Coast greening is taking place, not just at one spot. And the gorse, yellow somewhere in Jersey throughout the year, is aflame with yellow - everywhere.
Life is in vegetation, in plants that then produce seed that produce plants that produce seed ... Fruit trees are coming alive - to bear fruit - and each fruit has a seed that makes another tree that bears fruit with a seed .... Life.
And it's the same with humans. Men and women, when combined, produce life. And each new-born life will have the ability, in combination, to produce life - ad infinitum.
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‘The man who regards his own life and that of his fellow creatures as meaningless is not merely unfortunate but almost disqualified for life.' (Albert Einstein, , Theoretical Physicist, 1879-1955)
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What is very odd about all this is the fact that "life" cannot be explained scientifically. It is often said, taught, and believed that life "evolved". We are used to scientists claiming that evolution explains everything about nature. Unwittingly, we include in that explanation the origin of "life" within highly complex DNA. But this is not so.
For many years a non-religious group has posed an unanswered but serious challenge to all scientists. The Gene Emergence Project ('GEP') seeks a scientific explanation of the origin of the genetic instructions contained within DNA and is offering a prize of US$1,000,000 for a scientific answer to the question, "By what mechanism did the initial genetic code arise in nature?" In other words, how did "life" begin? or "How did "life" generate itself?"
Astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle did some calculations on the likelihood of a hypothetical mini self-reproducing cell coming together purely by chance. He based his calculations on a cell of only 400 enzymes/proteins whereas even a bacterium has about 2,000 (a human has vastly more). For this hypothetical minimum cell, Fred Hoyle calculated a probability of it forming by natural random processes of 1 in 10 followed by forty thousand zeros.
Yes, that is unlikely. One chance in 10 million, million, million, million, mill....and a further 6,000 of that word "million" before the end of this sentence.
But, hold it a minute, we do have life, such unlikely life, here in Jersey.....everywhere in Jersey. Where has it come from? See Genesis (=beginning, origin) above.
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‘...the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.' (Moses, National Leader of Israel, c.1350 BC, Genesis 2:7)
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But how does Professor Dawkins fit into all this? Surely Richard Dawkins could straight away claim the $1 million prize. Well, no - at least not if he relied, as he does in his book The Blind Watchmaker, on mathematical computer models unrelated to biology.
The GEP asks for "a highly plausible mechanism for the spontaneous rise of genetic instructions in nature sufficient to give rise to life". The proposed mechanism must connect with the real world of biochemistry and molecular biology.
Where does that leave us - as living creatures?
For some of us, this is a reason to feel small - to think - and to listen to Jesus Christ with his promise of eternal life.
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