Evolutionism

7 Pages 1784 Words

Geologists believe that the earth’s early atmosphere contained water vapor, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and nitrogen. It also may have contained ammonia and methane. It did not contain oxygen, which is the main reason why the Earth could not have supported life at that time. As for oceans, they couldn’t have existed at first because the Earth’s surface was extremely hot. But about 3.8 billion years ago, the Earth’s surface cooled enough for water to remain a liquid on the ground. Thunderstorms wet the planet for many years and oceans began to fill. This is known because the earliest sedimentary rocks have been dated to that time period.
But how could the first life form appear? What did it come from? Miller and Urey were two scientists who attempted to answer these questions without referring to any supernatural events. They performed an experiment that suggests how the Earth’s atmosphere might have formed. Miller mixed "atmospheric" gases (hydrogen, methane, ammonia, and water vapor) in a sterile glass container and charged them with energy by adding electric sparks to them. The electric sparks resembled lightning at the time of the Earth’s formation. After about a week, the mixture turned brown and was found to contain amino acids. This organic compound produced in this e...