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A positive argument against abiogenesis

leroy

Well-Known Member
Some Definitions
.......
In the context of this thread, with abiogenesis I mean the idea that primitive life formed in a primordial soup (or some other environment) by natural mechanisms.

With primitive life, I mean relatively simple self-replicating molecules (much simpler than modern microbes)

I will use to “primodial soup” as a generic term to refer to all of the enviroments that have been proposed by researches (even if these are not literally primordial soups)

With 1s I mean simple self replicating molecules (simply enogh to have formed in a primodial soup)
.....

My argument against abiogenesis

Premise 1: Complex organism could have not been formed in a primordial soup

Premise 2: Life has always been complex

* With complex I mean " nearly as complex as a modern microbe or more"

Therefore Life could have not formed in a primordial soup

........
Supporting premise 1 and premise 2:

Premise 1: is not controversial, the junk yard tornado analogy shows that the premise is true, and no atheist to my knowledge believes that modern-like organisms formed in the primordial soup.

Premise 2: Is supported by the fact that natural selection doesn’t aims at complexity, (the average complexity doesn’t increases) sometimes becoming simpler or staying the same Is better for the organism source at the end of this post.1

This leads to the conclusion that atleast some simple organisms should be livign today.

Consider this scenario.

Let’s assume for the sake of simplicity that we can measure complexity in a scale from 1 -10 where 10 is something as complex as a human 5 is something as complex as a modern microbe and 1 would be a simple self-replicating molecule, simple enough to have formed in a primordial soup.

1 Supposedly all life started with “1” all life was simple in the past.

2 After a few million years any population of organisms could have evolved from 1 to 2 or stay as 1 (depending on the selective pressure)

3 Once you have some “2s” this organism would ether evolve in to 3, stay as 2 of evolve back to 1 (this is because sometimes losing complexity is good for the organism and therefore would be favored by natural selection)…………(let’s assume that each possibility has a 33% probability)

3.1 Once you have 3s they can ether evovle in to 4 stay as 3 or evovle in to 2 ((let’s assume that each possibility has a 33% probability)

3,2 once you have 4 you can evovle to 5 stay as 4 or evovle in to 3 ...((let’s assume that each possibility has a 33% probability)

etc. etc.


4 If you follow this algorithm, eventually you will get small minorities of “10” (something as complex as a human) … but you should still have 1s (and 2s and 3s and 4s)

5 Given that we don’t have 1s currently living today and given that there is no reason for why would then disappear, it follows that maybe 1s have never existed. (the same goes to 2,3 and 4)

Or to put it this way, given what we know about how organisms evolve, at least some of the simplest organisms that have ever lived (or something similar) should still be living today, implying that the simplest organisms that have ever lived are as complex as modern organisms (say as complex as modern microbes)

….

Given that premise 1 and 2 are probably true it follows that probably abiogenesis is wrong
+

Basically evolution doesnt explain the abcense of 1s living today, so ether evolution is wrong or abiogenesis is wrong...........given that evolution is better supported than abiogenesis we most reject abiogenesis.


...............
source 1
Many biologists used to believe that evolution was progressive (orthogenesis) and had a direction that led towards so-called "higher organisms", despite a lack of evidence for this viewpoint.[5] This idea of "progression" and "higher organisms" in evolution is now regarded as misleading, with natural selection having no intrinsic direction and organisms selected for either increased or decreased complexity in response to local environmental conditions
Evolution of biological complexity - Wikipedia.
 

A Vestigial Mote

Well-Known Member
It is pretty sound thinking along the general lines. However, there's something pretty simple that shoots it down, so, back into the "we just don't know for sure... yet" category of ideas/possibilities.

And the "thing" that casts doubt is this:

Perhaps the development of "1s" is an extremely rare process, which takes not only the elements/compounds present in a particular "primordial soup," but also particular infusion of energy or heat to induce some further and required reaction. This rarity would mean that once some "1s" had formed, and then after some time, went on to evolve/change into "2s" and "3s" over their generations, it is extremely possible (and probably likely) that "1s", as simple as they are, could not defend themselves against "2s" or "3s" and, lacking the means to stop or stymie the dinner plans of "2s", "3s", etc. would be gobbled up to extinction. And then the rare event that creates "1s" may either not happen again for some great length of time, or can't happen again due to a change in conditions of more modern eras, or does continue to happen, but the "1s" are all gobbled up (again by "2s" or "3s", etc.") as soon as they come into being - therefore making the witnessing of one of them a most improbable endeavor.
 

leroy

Well-Known Member
This is not even a proper premise. It is really your conclusion and is totally unsupported. I therefore reject it.

Sigh, I wish that all arguments were so easy to refute.
Premise 1 is not controversial, all the premise claims is that a complex modern-like cell cannot pop in to existence form a primordial soup. (Presumably something much simpler formed in that primordial soup, and it later evolved in to complex modern like microbes)

The junk yard tornado analogy explains in detail why this premise is true

Junkyard tornado - Wikipedia
 

leroy

Well-Known Member
Your logical is flawed as the conclusion basically restates the first premises.
Circular reasoning - Wikipedia.
It's also flawed because life beginning as as simple organisms doesn't mean it started there as complex.
It’s not circular reasoning , you can accept premise 1 and reject the conclusion…………………you can argue for example that life was simpler in the past. That way you can accept premise 1 and reject the conclusion
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
given that evolution is better supported than abiogenesis we most reject abiogenesis.

Not clever. What you appear say there is we don't know and we don't want to know.

Well maybe you wish to remain ignorant of how life came about but i would really love to know... For two reasons, first, its nice to know these things, second, it fills in another god gap.
 

Shadow Wolf

Certified People sTabber
It’s not circular reasoning , you can accept premise 1 and reject the conclusion…………………you can argue for example that life was simpler in the past. That way you can accept premise 1 and reject the conclusion
That is illogical.
And it is circular because the conclusion basically paraphrases the premeses.
That is the very definition of circular reasoning.
The conclusion doesn't even necessarily follow the premeses either.

P1 and p2 are both flawed, the conclusion is p1, thus the entire argument must be rejected.
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
Premise 1: Complex organism could have not been formed in a primordial soup

You know this how?
Given conditions at the time it more likely that life formed is fresh, clean water.

Premise 2: Life has always been complex

Has it? I always understood DNA (the root of life) was made up of just 4 chemicals. There is a lot of it but you shouldn't confuse quantity with complexity.
 

ADigitalArtist

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
Premise 2: Life has always been complex
This is wrong. Simple self-replicators are not considered biologically complex.
This leads to the conclusion that atleast some simple organisms should be livign today.
This is also not correct. There are entire basal lines of modern groups that no longer exist. Evolution does not always increase complexity, but that doesn't mean that more basal versions will survive. If the environment that produced and sustained simple-self-replicators is gone, it's sensible to conclude they didn't survive the change until evidence shows otherwise. There might be tiny localized environments where they could be trapped, but we haven't found any.
 

Shadow Wolf

Certified People sTabber
It’s not circular reasoning ,
P1: It is dark and overcast today.
P2: There are puddles of water on the road.
Conclusion: It rained today.
Not necessarily true (it could just be cloudy and I'm seeing water from sprinklers), but that has a conclusion that necessarily follows from the premises.
P1: I could not have sunburned easily if it was a cold day.
P2: I worked up a big sweat.
Conclusion: It's not a cold day because I sunburned easily and worked up a big sweat.
That is circular, and looks more like the OP.
 

leroy

Well-Known Member
It is pretty sound thinking along the general lines. However, there's something pretty simple that shoots it down, so, back into the "we just don't know for sure... yet" category of ideas/possibilities.

And the "thing" that casts doubt is this:

Perhaps the development of "1s" is an extremely rare process, which takes not only the elements/compounds present in a particular "primordial soup," but also particular infusion of energy or heat to induce some further and required reaction. This rarity would mean that once some "1s" had formed, and then after some time, went on to evolve/change into "2s" and "3s" over their generations, it is extremely possible (and probably likely) that "1s", as simple as they are, could not defend themselves against "2s" or "3s" and, lacking the means to stop or stymie the dinner plans of "2s", "3s", etc. would be gobbled up to extinction. And then the rare event that creates "1s" may either not happen again for some great length of time, or can't happen again due to a change in conditions of more modern eras, or does continue to happen, but the "1s" are all gobbled up (again by "2s" or "3s", etc.") as soon as they come into being - therefore making the witnessing of one of them a most improbable endeavor.
I honestly and sincerely appreciate that fact that you actually read the argument (written in my bad English) and that you actually made an effort and tried to understand it.

it is extremely possible (and probably likely) that "1s", as simple as they are, could not defend themselves against "2s" or "3s" and, lacking the means to stop or stymie the dinner plans

That certainly is a possibility, but seems unlikely to me, there would have been presumably millions of different populations of 1s each living in a different environment, so while it is possible that in some environments the 2s and the 3s would have eaten or killed the 1s, there would have been other environments where 1s where completely isolated, other enviroments where 1s and 2s coexisted happily in the same niche, and even some environments where the 1s outperformed the 2s (sometimes being simpler is an avantage)………

This is entirely consistent with what we see today and with what we see in the fossil record………… for example the evolution of complex eyes didn’t caused the extinction of “simple eyes” we still have creature with simple eyes, and there are some environments where simple eyes are better than complex eyes………the point that I am trying to make is that the idea that complex organisms will always outperform simple organisms seems wrong based on the data that we have today.

Sure you can argue that maybe* things were different in the distant past, but that would be special pleading.

Based on what we see today and based and as far back as we can see in the fossil record, it seems obvious that sometimes simplicity outperforms complexity, sometimes they both do well, and sometimes complexity outperforms simplicity.

Also keep in mind that some 2s would evolve in the 1s (sometimes becoming simple is good)……….so we would have a constant flow of 1s…………..making unexplainable (or at least hard to explain) why is it that we don’t have any 1s today



...
I wouldn’t say that this is a knock down argument against abiogenesis, but it is a good probability argument
 
Last edited:

Yerda

Veteran Member
Hi again, Leroy.

My argument against abiogenesis

Premise 1: Complex organism could have not been formed in a primordial soup

Premise 2: Life has always been complex

* With complex I mean " nearly as complex as a modern microbe or more"

Therefore Life could have not formed in a primordial soup

........
You said, "with abiogenesis I mean the idea that primitive life formed in a primordial soup (or some other environment) by natural mechanisms.

With primitive life, I mean relatively simple self-replicating molecules (much simpler than modern microbes)..."

So maybe P2 already contains the conclusion that you were attempting to argue for. Which would be an issue of circularity unconnected to the posts above.

Also, I'm wondering why the source you cited as evidence of P2 suggests to you life has always been complex?

Anyway, thanks for putting something up for people to evaluate.
 

leroy

Well-Known Member
This is wrong. Simple self-replicators are not considered biologically complex.

Sure, if you can show that these simple self replicators excited my argument would collapse.


This is also not correct. There are entire basal lines of modern groups that no longer exist. Evolution does not always increase complexity, but that doesn't mean that more basal versions will survive.


Sometimes “basal versions” survive “sometimes they don’t” and sometimes they outperform more complex versions. ……….. any disagreement form your part?... this is not controversial this is what we see today with modern organisms, and this is what we observe as far back as we can see in the fossil record………….so why assuming that things where different 4.3B years ago?


If the environment that produced and sustained simple-self-replicators is gone, it's sensible to conclude they didn't survive the change until evidence shows otherwise. There might be tiny localized environments where they could be trapped, but we haven't found any.

The problem is that we are talking about millions of different environments where “simple self-replicators lived” …… so statistically speaking in at least some of this environments these simple organisms should have survived ether because they were isolated, or because they coexisted happily with more complex life forms or because they outperformed complex life sometimes being simpler is better)
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
Some Definitions
.......
In the context of this thread, with abiogenesis I mean the idea that primitive life formed in a primordial soup (or some other environment) by natural mechanisms.

With primitive life, I mean relatively simple self-replicating molecules (much simpler than modern microbes)

I will use to “primodial soup” as a generic term to refer to all of the enviroments that have been proposed by researches (even if these are not literally primordial soups)

With 1s I mean simple self replicating molecules (simply enogh to have formed in a primodial soup)
.....

My argument against abiogenesis

Premise 1: Complex organism could have not been formed in a primordial soup

Premise 2: Life has always been complex

* With complex I mean " nearly as complex as a modern microbe or more"

Therefore Life could have not formed in a primordial soup

........
Supporting premise 1 and premise 2:

Premise 1: is not controversial, the junk yard tornado analogy shows that the premise is true, and no atheist to my knowledge believes that modern-like organisms formed in the primordial soup.

Premise 2: Is supported by the fact that natural selection doesn’t aims at complexity, (the average complexity doesn’t increases) sometimes becoming simpler or staying the same Is better for the organism source at the end of this post.1

This leads to the conclusion that atleast some simple organisms should be livign today.

Consider this scenario.

Let’s assume for the sake of simplicity that we can measure complexity in a scale from 1 -10 where 10 is something as complex as a human 5 is something as complex as a modern microbe and 1 would be a simple self-replicating molecule, simple enough to have formed in a primordial soup.

1 Supposedly all life started with “1” all life was simple in the past.

2 After a few million years any population of organisms could have evolved from 1 to 2 or stay as 1 (depending on the selective pressure)

3 Once you have some “2s” this organism would ether evolve in to 3, stay as 2 of evolve back to 1 (this is because sometimes losing complexity is good for the organism and therefore would be favored by natural selection)…………(let’s assume that each possibility has a 33% probability)

3.1 Once you have 3s they can ether evovle in to 4 stay as 3 or evovle in to 2 ((let’s assume that each possibility has a 33% probability)

3,2 once you have 4 you can evovle to 5 stay as 4 or evovle in to 3 ...((let’s assume that each possibility has a 33% probability)

etc. etc.


4 If you follow this algorithm, eventually you will get small minorities of “10” (something as complex as a human) … but you should still have 1s (and 2s and 3s and 4s)

5 Given that we don’t have 1s currently living today and given that there is no reason for why would then disappear, it follows that maybe 1s have never existed. (the same goes to 2,3 and 4)

Or to put it this way, given what we know about how organisms evolve, at least some of the simplest organisms that have ever lived (or something similar) should still be living today, implying that the simplest organisms that have ever lived are as complex as modern organisms (say as complex as modern microbes)

….

Given that premise 1 and 2 are probably true it follows that probably abiogenesis is wrong
+

Basically evolution doesnt explain the abcense of 1s living today, so ether evolution is wrong or abiogenesis is wrong...........given that evolution is better supported than abiogenesis we most reject abiogenesis.


...............
source 1

Evolution of biological complexity - Wikipedia.
A little study on how RNA and DNA and how proteins came about along with how atoms form and bond into molecules should solve that confusion adequately.
 

shunyadragon

shunyadragon
Premium Member
Premise 1 is not controversial, all the premise claims is that a complex modern-like cell cannot pop in to existence form a primordial soup. (Presumably something much simpler formed in that primordial soup, and it later evolved in to complex modern like microbes)

The junk yard tornado analogy explains in detail why this premise is true

Junkyard tornado - Wikipedia

No as Subduction zone described it is a conclusion without evidence. Besides a negative hypothesis cannot be falsified.

This is a 'Junk yard tornado' trash argument.
 

Subduction Zone

Veteran Member
Premise 1 is not controversial, all the premise claims is that a complex modern-like cell cannot pop in to existence form a primordial soup. (Presumably something much simpler formed in that primordial soup, and it later evolved in to complex modern like microbes)

The junk yard tornado analogy explains in detail why this premise is true

Junkyard tornado - Wikipedia

I was a bit hasty in that post. But an even bigger problem is premise two. I was a bit to quick there. I missed the "complex" in your premise one. For premise two you take on a gigantic burden of proof. You would need to prove that live needs to be complex. Modern life needs to be complex because it is competing with other modern life that has billions of years of evolution behind it. The original life, with no competition to speak of, did not need to be complex.
 

Evangelicalhumanist

"Truth" isn't a thing...
Premium Member
My argument against abiogenesis

Premise 1: Complex organism could have not been formed in a primordial soup
Since this is what you are trying to prove, it's pretty absurd to make it your first premise. The "logic" fails on that point alone. And especially because, first, you don't know that it's true -- you merely assume it, almost as an axiom.
 
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