What Did the First Living Cell Eat?

Colossians 1:16 "For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:"

Not long ago, I was talking with another creationist about the impossibility of the first living cell coming into being through natural causes from non-living chemicals. I asked him, "Even if such a thing were possible, what would the first living cell eat?" Without missing a beat, my friend said: "Cellery?"

The two of us shared a good laugh together, but I can assure you that the origin of life is no laughing matter to evolutionists. Many evolutionists, in fact, prefer to sidestep the issue completely, asserting that evolution deals only with the origin of different species after that first living cell has somehow come into being.

But have you ever stopped to think about how that first living cell could have survived for even a millisecond? Unless its environment was perfectly suited to sustain that cell's life, it would have died in an instant. Unless the cell had necessary nutrients, it would likewise quickly perish. And unless it had the means to reproduce itself, that first living cell would be the last. Or, perhaps, hundreds of millions of years later, the second living cell would ooze out of a primordial soup of non-living chemicals … and once again die a millisecond later!

No, as the great scientist Louis Pasteur demonstrated in 1859, life comes only from life. Pasteur confirmed what the Bible tells us – that life on Earth came from the living God.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank You for continuing to frustrate scientists who believe that life could have come about through natural causes. Reveal to them that life was created by Your Son. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

Dave Wright to ml/nj: "The original work on the replication of the RNA chain was done by Sol Spiegelman in 1965.
Later work by Sumpter and Luce and showed that even with just the base nucleotides present in the solution RNA replication could also be induced using a catalytic enzyme to produce replicating molecules. "

The basic answers here are pretty simple:

The first plants "ate" sunlight to create energy.
The first animals ate plants or other animals.

But the real question, as Dave Wright's recommendation of Addy Pross's book "What is Life?" (post #63) suggests is: where, exactly, do we draw the line between "complex chemistry" and "simple life"?
Notice first: it's we who are drawing lines, just as we draw lines between biological sub-species, species, genera & families, etc.
So, some natural processes we call "organic chemistry" and others we call "simple life".
We draw lines based on a more-or-less arbitrary listing of essential functions of life -- if those are all present we call it "living", if not then "chemistry".

Point is: "chemistry" can "eat" other "chemistry" without being alive, or life can eat chemistry.

As for life's origin and/or early evolution, much current scientific thinking is highly speculative, though increasingly plausible.
But such ideas are still hypotheses, not even theories, much less facts.
Interesting, though far from "settled science".

On the theological issue, if you believe as the Bible says (I do) that God created everything we can see or surmise, then there are no such things as "natural laws" because all laws of nature are God's laws, and all "natural processes" are God's processes, and so there is no practical distinction between God's creation and natural creation.
Therefore, the study of "natural science" is really the study of God's science.

So, the real miracle here is how God's Universe could create and evolve life capable of recognizing and worshiping its own Creator.

"What is Life?" Addy Pross 2012

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