Answers to
Pop Quiz on
Evolution and the Origin of Life
Thank you for participating in the pop quiz.
This quiz was not so much a test of right or wrong answers, as
intelligent people have different answers to many of the questions that
were asked.
This was, however, a test of your underlying beliefs and attitudes, and
perhaps of your willingness to explore the mysteries and possibilities of life.
If you found yourself curious, stimulated or intrigued by the questions,
you passed with flying colors. You're willing to consider the
viewpoints and accept that you
may not have all the answers and to acknowledge that there is much about
life that is unknown and still to be discovered.
If you found yourself feeling defensive or irritated by
the questions, it could be that you feel you have to have all the
answers about life you need and thus react negatively to anything that challenges
your beliefs. Once we think we have all the answers, however, we
tend to stop asking questions, and once we stop asking questions, we
create barriers to our growth, as individuals, for others and as a society.
As expressed by Herbert Spencer, "There is a principle which is a bar
against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which
cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance - that principle is
contempt prior to investigation."
The goal of this quiz, and of this site, is to challenge people to think about their own
viewpoints, to consider other
viewpoints, to think critically about the underlying assumptions of
evolution as an explanation for our origins and
to go beyond the self-created boundaries that keep us from exploring the
deeper mysteries of life's origin and purpose.
There are no certain or provable answers yet to some of the questions that were asked on
this quiz. Go out and explore! Read. Learn.
Grow. Apply your critical thinking to all positions taken on this
critical issue. Live your life based on your own conclusions, not
those given to you by someone who takes a narrow viewpoint on
any issue.
My answers may not be your answers, but here they are with some LINKS
 to
added food for thought:
| 1) |
False |
|
Even Frog soup is NOT pre-life, life or living
as it has no life functions, the most critical of which is the
ability to reproduce itself. It will just decompose. |
| 2) |
B |
|
Life is a DYNAMIC SYSTEM of many separate interdependent
systems (e.g., ingestion, digestion, energy conversion, excretion,
respiration, reproduction, circulation, growth, locomotion,
regulation, response to stimuli, etc.), not just an assemblage of
the right proteins. |
| 3) |
False |
|
Natural selection and change in LIVING organisms really only
proves micro-evolution to the level of speciation. Even scientists
still debate whether this proves the changes necessary to explain
the macro-evolution of entire phylla, orders or kingdoms. It does
NOT prove spontaneous generation of life as it's based on a
process that already exists in LIVING systems. An entirely
different set of processes would be required to create LIFE from
NON-LIVING matter, just as driving a car requires a different
process than building a car. |
| 4) |
D |
|
Theories A, B and C have all been in and out of favor, and
just in the past few decades. Nobody really has an explanation for
how life originated, so how can we say we have answers? |
| 5) |
False |
|
A specific outcome can be assumed or predicted in
probabilities ONLY in those cases in which an outcome is REQUIRED,
such as in a lottery, a hand from a deck of cards or words from a
monkey pecking on a typewriter. Life is
not a required outcome from a universe being created or from
chemicals coming together ... unless that outcome was DESIGNED
into the system. |
| 6) |
B |
|
No evidence exists for spontaneous generation of life and our
best laboratory efforts really produce nothing at all like life.
Abiogenesis and chemical evolution theories are conjecture
required to support naturalistic views of life's origins. |
A question: If
theories stating that life arose naturally do not have a solid
foundation in reason and evidence, how sound are other theories about life that are
built on that foundation?
|
