Review of “Plant Evolution Tour” - Part 2
It has been quite a busy month, between practice for our church’s Easter play, plans for our kitchen, birthdays, etc. Back to writing on creation and evolution!
Currently, I am reviewing Adam Dimech’s “Plant Evolution Tour”. I really like the detail to which he goes, explaining the earth’s development, but in language a lay person can understand.
Recall that theologically, in Review of “Plant Evolution Tour” - Part 1, I concluded that closing the knowledge gap brings us closer to God, because further discoveries help us separate those things that happened naturally from those that happened supernaturally. Ironically, the effect on atheists is a stronger and stronger conviction that God is unnecessary.
This showed itself in our discovery that that the biological building blocks of life can be made by simply exposing certain chemicals to electricity for a short amount of time. This shows us that the physical processes for creating life are in some way part of the universe. The stumbling block however is that we can only simulate the conditions for a few biological substances at at time. Simulating all of the conditions that appear necessary at once would to require an amount of chance… yet life occurred as early as one might expect. This implies that the seemingly infinite odds of life beginning were beaten, and not by any natural force. It implies, for lack of a better word, God.
So, what do we know about the first life forms God created? Let us go back to Dimech’s article to see.
Cherts and shales have also provided evidence for the world’s first life forms. Some of the most significant cherts are also located in Western Australia; the Warrwoona Group. Carbonaceous cherts there date back to 3500-3300Ma, and contain filamentous and conical structures which are likely to be early life forms, probably photoautotrophic cyanobacteria. This is very significant for a study of plant evolution because plants derive their energy from photosynthesis; a process where light is converted into chemical energy and carbon dioxide into oxygen. The presence of cyanobacteria dating back to 3500Ma indicates the age of photosynthesis.
Recalling our Creation Time Line, Day 1 occurred 3.9 Ga, and Day 2 shortly after. Day 3 didn’t occur until 2.4 Ga, and so we see that the first life forms appeared some time during Day 2, or perhaps overnight between Days 2 and 3.
Over time, this simple life gave way to more complex photosynthetic life. Compared with the cyanobacteria of 3.5 GA…
There are much younger deposits throughout the world dating back to the Proterozoic (2500-540Ma) which show an increasing degree of diversification (creation of new species) and biological sophistication over time.
The beginning of this processing fits nicely with our dating of Day 3, at 2.4 Ga, when Jesus removed the a barrier to land plants, and began plate tectonics. Interestingly, this increase in biological sophistication may not have been evolution exactly, but a combining of initial life forms into something resembling a cooperative, like a body of organs.
The majority of modern life forms are eukaryotes… It is suggested that the eukaryotes didn’t [necessarily] ‘evolve’ all of their organelles, but that some organelles may have started out as separate prokaryotic organisms which were ‘engulfed’ in an “endosymbiotic” process. There is evidence for this in modern day plant cells, as mitochondria and chloroplasts each have their own DNA which is different from the nuclear DNA of the organism they belong to. And this DNA has similarity with the DNA of other primitive prokaryotic organisms.
Plants, animals, fungi and Protista (algaes) are all eukaryotes. The earliest fossil evidence for eukaryotes dates back to 2700Ma. Looking at the sheer number of eukaryotic organisms which have evolved since, this is a very significant event! The oldest fossil which is significant in a discussion of plant evolution is an alga called Grypania which is 2100Ma. Algae were the precursors to plants.
Next time, we will take a slight diversion to discuss the ramifications of God directing the development of life as He appears to have done.
March 30th, 2007 at 10:15 pm
[…] After reading about the arrival of the first multi-celled plants in Review of “Plant Evolution Tour” - Part 2, we took a slight diversion in Did Jesus Stick to the Creation Script? to explore how it could be that God didn’t record the actual development of life on earth, the removal of its hindrances. What we concluded in Did Jesus stick to the Creation script? Yes! is that those areas of development not recorded in Genesis were handled by God the Father. We therefore turn back to our review of the “Plant Evolution Tour” to learn more about what science tells us about the development of plant life, looking as always for those places where our Heavenly Father may have left evidence of His handiwork. Before plants could venture onto land, it was important that certain environmental changes be made to the Earth’s surface. Firstly the near-shore environments needed to be of adequate size and stable. Secondly, soils needed to develop. And thirdly, the climatic conditions needed to be appropriate to support terrestrial plant life. […]
April 18th, 2007 at 10:15 am
[…] After reading about the arrival of the first multi-celled plants in Review of “Plant Evolution Tour” - Part 2, we took a slight diversion in Did Jesus Stick to the Creation Script? to explore how it could be that God didn’t record the actual development of life on earth, but did record (through Moses) the removal of its hindrances. What we concluded in Did Jesus stick to the Creation script? Yes! is that those areas of development not recorded in Genesis were handled by God the Father. We therefore turn back to our review of the “Plant Evolution Tour” to learn more about what science tells us about the development of plant life, looking as always for those places where our Heavenly Father may have left evidence of His handiwork. Before plants could venture onto land, it was important that certain environmental changes be made to the Earth’s surface. Firstly the near-shore environments needed to be of adequate size and stable. Secondly, soils needed to develop. And thirdly, the climatic conditions needed to be appropriate to support terrestrial plant life. […]