Science in the Bible – Biogenesis

(3 Minute Read)

Do frogs come from bogs? Do slugs come from mud? Is that the source of their life and existence?

We would laugh or roll our eyes at that kind of notion, yet these used to be widely held beliefs. People thought most insects generated spontaneously from their environments, and they believed that putrefying meat produced maggots.

But these misconceptions about spontaneous generation of life were eventually refuted by careful experimentation and observation.

In 1668 Italian physician and biologist Francesco Redi (1626-1697) demonstrated experimentally that maggots come from eggs laid on rotting meat by flies. Maggots are not generated spontaneously.

Law of Biogenesis

Francesco Redi is famous for his statement expressing the principle he demonstrated: Omne vivum ex vivo — “All life comes from life.”

This was an early expression of the Law of Biogenesis: Life only comes from pre-existing life.

Several centuries later in the early 1860s when spontaneous generation was still widely believed, French chemist and biologist Louis Pasteur (1822–1895) showed experimentally that microorganisms do not spontaneously generate, but rather they come from airborne sources. Pasteur concluded,
“Never will the doctrine of spontaneous generation recover from the mortal blow of this simple experiment. There is no known circumstance in which it can be confirmed that microscopic beings came into the world without germs, without parents similar to themselves.”

Pasteur’s work definitively settled the controversy of his day over spontaneous generation of life. He received the Alhumbert Prize in 1862 for disproving the theory of spontaneous generation. Pasteur had confirmed the Law of Biogenesis.

Thus several centuries ago, scientists eventually refuted spontaneous generation of life and verified the Law of Biogenesis, showing that life only comes from pre-existing life.

The Law of Biogenesis is one of the most fundamental laws of biology. Throughout the history of man, it has never been observed to be violated and has never been refuted. All human experience confirms the truth of the Law of Biogenesis. You can never get a living creature from something dead.

Law of Biogenesis in the Bible

But this is what the Bible taught from the beginning, long before scientists confirmed it through experimental tests.

The Bible teaches that Yahweh, the living God of the Bible Who created everything, is the origin of all life on earth.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. (John 1:1-4)

The Bible reports very clearly the beginning of life (biogenesis) on earth:
Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them”; and it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1:11-12)

Then God said, “Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.” God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” (Genesis 1:20-22)

Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind”; and it was so. God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good. . . . God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. (Genesis 1:24-25, 27)

Evolutionists and Biogenesis

Since the Law of Biogenesis is taught in the Bible and confirmed through all human experience and observation, why do evolutionists dogmatically insist that in the beginning life originated from lifeless matter? Doesn’t that belief contradict the Law of Biogenesis that life only comes from life?

Why do people continue to believe in the theory of evolution when its foundation violates the Law of Biogenesis, one of the foundational scientific laws of biology?

Science Catches Up to the Bible

Thousands of years before scientists verified the Law of Biogenesis, the Bible clearly taught that life comes from Yahweh, the Giver of life.

Although the Bible is not primarily a science textbook, it does contain many scientific truths like this and those mentioned in this Science in the Bible series, truths that long pre-date their discovery by today’s scientists. This is strong evidence of divine authorship of the Bible.

Questions to Ponder

1. Do people believe in evolution because of investigation, evidence, and proof?
2. Do claims like “Everybody thinks . . .” or “Everybody knows . . .” or “Everybody says . . .” influence your opinions?
3. What beliefs or perspectives have you embraced just because they are generally accepted?

Share your thoughts on these questions in the comments below. It could encourage or help another reader.

Soli Deo Gloria.

This is the 24th article in the Science in the Bible series of blog posts. While there is much science connected with Creation and Noah’s Flood, this series will focus on lesser known scientific truths that were alluded to in the Bible long before they were known to scientists.
Read the prequels:
1. Science in the Bible – Blood
2. Science in the Bible – Ocean Currents
3. Science in the Bible – Undersea Mountains
4. Science in the Bible – Ocean Reservoirs
5. Science in the Bible – Good Medicine
6. Science in the Bible – Round Earth
7. Science in the Bible – Don’t Marry Kin
8. Science in the Bible – Fearfully and Wonderfully Made
9. Science in the Bible – Hanging Earth
10. Science in the Bible – Thermodynamics
11. Science in the Bible – Water Cycle
12. Science in the Bible – Quarantine
13. Science in the Bible – Starry Host
14. Science in the Bible – Turning Earth
15. Science in the Bible – Hygiene
16. Science in the Bible – Seed of Life
17. Science in the Bible – Circumcision
18. Science in the Bible – Expanding Universe
19. Science in the Bible – Visible From Invisible
20. Science in the Bible – The Sun
21. Science in the Bible – Atomic Fission
22. Science in the Bible – Surgery
23. Science in the Bible – Dinosaurs

Read the sequel:
25. Science in the Bible – Pigs with Wings?

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©William T. Pelletier, Ph.D.
“contending earnestly for the faith”
“destroying speculations against the knowledge of God”
“for the defense of the gospel”
(Jude 1:3; 2 Cor 10:5; Phil 1:16)
Wednesday December 6, 2017 A.D.

Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. (Psalm 119:105)