In order to understand the possible origin of life on earth we must first understand the discovery of DNA and our present understanding of life's dynamics.

DNA stand for deoxyribonucleic acid. In the nucleus of cells of each living organism packets of genetic material are strung together into a double helix. This chemical code contains four "letters" as specified in the drawing.

In a way it is similar to computer 2 digit code. For example, in order to produce the letter A on the screen of the computer the code 01000001 must be entered. The chemical code of living things instead contains 4 chemical letters which when combined in given exact sequence contain information about the organism. In the nucleus is found not only information but also a planning department and command center of enormous complexity.

Let us take E.coli as an example. The code for this single celled organism is very great. All the books in one of the largest library of the world could not contain all the stings of codes necessary to build and energize such a living organism.

"Since life is at its core a chemical code, the origin of life is the origin of the code." 67 Such a vastly complex code and its dynamic interpretation could only have been created by a cosmic mind whom we call God.

"How precious to me are your designs, O God; how vast the sum of them!
Were I to count, they would outnumber the sands; to finish, I would need eternity."
(Ps 139:17-18)

Where did God begin to write the chemical code for life?

We know that the earth is 4.6 billions years old and that living organisms resembling blue-green algae appeared 1 billion years later. It is thought that chemical interactions energized by radiation set the stage for the emergence of life. We know that amino acids and nitrogen containing bases needed for like are found in stellar dust and could have been delivered to earth in is earliest stages by cosmic dust, meteorites and comets. Perhaps ribonucleic acid (RNA) performed chemical reactions to prepare for life.

It has been a long standing philosophic principle that life cannot come from non-life because it is an insufficient cause. Although God by his mighty power prepared the planet for life, the original code of life itself could not originate in the primal chemistry but with God himself when he said: "Let the earth bring forth vegetation..." (Gn 1:11) Although God wrote the original code upon the chemistry of the primal earth, the chemistry is not the cause of life but a necessary environment.

We can sum up God's role in his creation as follows: "God is both the transcendent source ex nihilo of the universe as a whole, including its sheer existence at each moment and the laws of nature, and the immanent Creator of all physical and biological complexity, acting continuously in, with, under, and through the processes of nature." (Webpage: Special Providence and Genetic Mutation....)

Man's Place in Nature