The term "primeval atmosphere" is used to describe the atmosphere when the Earth was first formed. For a long time, adherents of the theory of evolution maintained that the primitive atmosphere consisted of a mixture of gasses that permitted the spontaneous appearance of organic compounds that would form the building blocks of life. Evolutionists hypothesized that these primeval gasses consisted of ammonia, methane, hydrogen and water vapor. On that assumption, they carried out a large number of experiments aimed at synthesizing amino acid molecules, the building blocks of life. These experiments' objective was to simulate those primeval atmospheric conditions in a laboratory environment.
Nothing about these experiments (apart from the fact they pulled the wool over people's eyes) provided any backing for evolution. First of all, the laboratory environment was controlled in every way. Such an environment bore no resemblance to the spontaneous, uncontrolled, disordered and destructive atmosphere of the primeval world.
The best-known of this series of primitive atmosphere experiments was the Miller Experiment. In that experiment, Stanley Miller prepared an artificial environment similar to the primeval atmosphere in order to show that amino acids could have been synthesized by chance. To that end, he reacted ammonia, methane, hydrogen and water vapor-gasses he assumed were present in the primeval atmosphere, but which subsequently, were realized to not be present at all. As a result, he did indeed synthesize a few amino acid forms. Yet research in later years revealed that the mixture of gasses that Miller has assumed to have constituted the primeval atmosphere did not reflect the actual state of affairs. It was realized that carbon dioxide and nitrogen, present in the primitive atmosphere, were not chemically suited to forming amino acids and other organic compounds. An article titled "Life's Crucible" in the February 1998 edition of the well-known evolutionist publication Earth admitted this:
Geologists now think that the primordial atmosphere consisted mainly of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, gases that are less reactive than those used in the 1953 experiment. And even if Miller's atmosphere could have existed, how do you get simple molecules such as amino acids to go through the necessary chemical changes that will convert them into more complicated compounds, or polymers, such as proteins? Miller himself throws up his hands at that part of the puzzle. "It's a problem," he sighs with exasperation. "How do you make polymers? That's not so easy."187
Miller was now aware that his experiment was meaningless in terms of accounting for the origin of life. Another article, titled "The Rise of Life on Earth," in the March 1998 edition of National Geographic, contained the following lines:
Many scientists now suspect that the early atmosphere was different from what Miller first supposed. They think it consisted of carbon dioxide and nitrogen rather than hydrogen, methane, and ammonia.
That's bad news for chemists. When they try sparking carbon dioxide and nitrogen, they get a paltry amount of organic molecules-the equivalent of dissolving a drop of food coloring in a swimming pool of water. Scientists find it hard to imagine life emerging from such a diluted soup. 188
In short, neither the Miller experiment nor any other evolutionist endeavors have answered the question of the origin of life on Earth. All the research reveals the impossibility of life's coming into being by chance, and thus shows that life was created.
187. Peter Radetsky, "Life's Crucible," Earth, February 1998, p. 34.
188. "The Rise of Life on Earth," National Geographic, March 1998.
