LIFE ASCENDING
The ten great inventions of evolution
By Nick Lane. Profile Books. 344 pages. £9.99
ISBN 978-1-86197818-9
Popular science writing has developed enormously over the past decade, such that the genre has become mainstream and financially significant for the book trade. The 2010 Winner of the Royal Society Prize for Science Books was Life Ascending by the biochemist Nick Page. The eulogies are copious: awe-inspiring, exhilarating, vivid and revealing insights, elegant, fascinating, beautifully written, utterly gripping, etc.
The content is about key evolutionary inventions. Lane makes it clear that he is employing an anthropomorphism: ‘I must clarify what I mean by invention, for I don’t want to imply a deliberate inventor. [. . .] Evolution has no foresight, and does not plan for the future. There is no inventor, no intelligent design’ (p.2).
Christians have to wake up when reading erroneous words like this. The Bible reveals that the world and all living things were purposefully made by a Master Craftsman. All things were made through Christ as the divine Logos (John 1.1-3). We have every reason to think that Christ’s work in creation is an expression of wisdom and knowledge. There is a purposeful inventor! There is intelligent design! Many scientists today, however, are committed to a worldview that is hostile to God as Creator and, as a matter of principle, they seek a narrative about origins that firmly excludes divine activity. Nick Lane’s book follows this secularist tradition.
When evolutionists use the Design word, most presuppose that blind natural processes have built complexity and invented amazingly sophisticated nanomachines. Lane writes: ‘Design is all around us, the product of blind but ingenious processes. Evolutionists often talk informally of inventions, and there is no better word to convey the astonishing creativity of nature’ (p.2).
In order to show why the topic is in the top ten of nature’s inventions, Lane elaborates for each case on the breath-taking complexity discovered by scientists. As an example of an ingenious process, here is Lane’s introductory description of photosynthesis. Note: scientists have yet to build a biomimetic system to capture the sun’s energy!
‘The complexes of proteins and pigments [in plants] are so vast, in molecular terms, that they amount to a small city. Altogether they form into two great complexes, known as Photosystem I and Photosystem II, and each chloroplast contains thousands of such photosystems. Their job is to catch a beam of light, and transform it into living matter. Working out how they do it has taken the best part of a century, and took some of the most elegant and ingenious experiments ever done’ (p.69).
The book refers to ten great inventions of evolution. Each chapter is made a showcase for his best examples of elegant design. They are: the origin of life, DNA, photosynthesis, the complex cell, sex, movement, sight, hot blood, consciousness and death.
To take one example, consider the first great invention: the origin of life. Every textbook addressing the subject refers to Stanley Miller’s experiments first reported in 1953 and develops the concept of a primordial soup from which life emerged. Most also link this with Darwin’s speculations about a ‘warm little pond’. However, Lane has no patience with this approach:
‘For all this, the soup is a pernicious idea. [. . .] It is pernicious because the idea of a soup deflected attention away from the true underpinnings of life for decades. Take a large sterilised tin of soup (or peanut butter), and leave it for a few million years. Will life emerge? No. Why not? Because left to themselves the contents will do nothing but break down’ (pp.12-13).
In general, when Lane critiques evolutionary ideas, he does a splendid job! He has, of course, other stories to tell and readers must be prepared for ten persuasive accounts from an enthusiastic advocate of Darwinism. However, remember that this author has a philosophical commitment to an evolutionary approach that rules out an intelligent Creator acting in a purposeful way. The arguments Lane brings are technically quite demanding. As regards abiogenesis, Lane’s interest is in hydrothermal vents, specifically ‘white smokers’, as the cradle of life on earth. Various scientists have made this the focus of their research and their findings are reported very favourably by Lane. What advice can be given to readers who find these new arguments persuasive?
First, a key (and unaddressed) issue for origin of life research is the origin of information. White smokers can supply us with a sophisticated chemistry set with lots of cell-sized reaction chambers and circulating warm fluids, but life requires much more than chemistry. Biological information is needed for DNA to make protein and for every other cellular process. This information does not come about by chance nor by the self-organisation of matter. Significantly, Lane has nothing to say about the information problem for abiogenesis. The nearest he gets is to recognise that the first viable life-form must have progressed a long way beyond the place reached by current models: ‘It seems inescapable life must have evolved a surprising degree of sophistication in its rocky hatchery’ (p.33).
Second, the history of evolutionary thought suggests that we should not be hasty to reach a conclusion about the validity of a proposed narrative. It is worth remembering that most educators, textbook writers, and the scientific community in general have failed to provide any meaningful critique of the Miller-Urey model of abiogenesis. With the passing of time, the vacuity of this model has become apparent. A patient approach helps us reach a clearer understanding of the worth of evolutionary claims.
For those wanting a stimulating read from a talented evolutionist, this book can be recommended. It presents the astounding complexity of living things very well, and discusses honestly the weaknesses of some evolutionary approaches to origins. However, Lane has closed his mind to theistic alternatives to the Blind Watchmaker thesis. He starts his discussions by considering evidences, but concludes them with deductions from theory. This means the book does not get beyond a blinkered perspective on these important issues.
Dr. David J. Tyler,
member of Mottram Evangelical Church,
Secretary of the Biblical Creation Society
