abiogenesis,
bacteria,
Charles Darwin,
Darwinian evolution,
early Earth,
factories,
Gerald F. Joyce,
Harvard University,
Holy Grail,
Intelligent Design,
Jack Szostak,
Joseph Hooker,
Max Schultze,
metabolic pathways,
molecules,
National Public Radio,
natural selection,
origin of life,
Oxford University,
protoplasm,
random mutations,
Richard Dawkins,
self-replication,
The Origin of Species,
The Selfish Gene
Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from the the new book from Discovery Institute Press, Evolution & Intelligent Design in a Nutshell. Eric H. Anderson is a lawyer, software engineering executive, and writer on intelligent design. Nobel Prize recipient and Harvard origin-of-life researcher Jack Szostak once remarked, “In my lab, we’re interested in the transition from chemistry to early biology on the early earth…. You want something that can grow and divide and, most importantly, exhibit Darwinian evolution.”1 Another noted origin-of-life researcher, Gerald F. Joyce, says much the same thing. When asked about the idea that chemicals might have come together on the early Earth to form something that could copy itself, Joyce responded, “That’s what we and others are interested in because that’s sort of, you know, the…