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How many people have heard of or been influenced by reading the Miller-Urey experiment that demonstrated a possible way that the first living things occurred on earth? I read about it as a child and it made me question every time anyone said "God created life on earth." Perhaps Darwin coming up with Evolution was a way larger theory that pushed folks away from needing religions, but for me it was Nobel prize winning Miller-Urey. I'm sort of surprised that so few have heard of this.

Bizarre 5 Apr 7
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I recall hearing about it during one of Disney's science films. While there is still much investigation how replication molecules did originate, it at least showed one idea.

I am more upset by folks who confuse Darwin (evolution) with abiogenesis, so need to know about abiogenesis to deflect that part of conversation on evolution

I'd never heard of "abiogenesis", so I looked in Wikopedia, wow!! And I'd never heard of Alexander Oparin. I was shocked at all that was written about the sources of the first living things on earth, but then again it has been some forty plus years since I took Biology, and way back then little was mentioned about even Darwin. I think teachers and professors now feel a bit less pressure about keeping quiet on anything disputing God creating life, and God being the only possible source.

@Bizarre Yet, the only a minority of Americans believe that evolution occurred by natural selection alone. Yes, 62% believe that humans evolved over time, but just a bit more than half (33%) believe it occurred by natural selection alone. 25% believe the evolution occurs with divine intervention. Add to that the 34% who deny evolution, you have 60% believing in a divine being's role. So while the trend might be encouraging "less pressure as you say", there is still a long, long way to go.....

(Source: Pew Research Center Religious Landscape Study. [pewresearch.org]

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I'm sure I have heard of it, I have always had an interest in abiogenesis. It's made great progress in recent decades, and at this point it's looking like life is inevitable under the right conditions. [quantamagazine.org]

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I just read the Wikipedia article and it was fascinating! It's so interesting that over 50 years later they found even more amino acids in dishes that had been sealed since the original experiment. There is a lot of food for thought here. I just wish I remembered more from the two years I majored in chemistry 20 years ago.

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It's an extremely well-known experiment, one of the few that are widely known among the non-scientific as well as by scientists.

Jnei Level 8 Apr 7, 2018

@HoracioM My favorite experiment is Michelson-Morley experiment to find aether and the direction of it.. That helped define the properties of light. Surprise, surprise, no aether.

@HoracioM Yes, got to love the Double Slit!

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It was a break-thru experiment result at the time, but it bogged down because it never produced anything to show life emerging. Now we find amino acids and other molecules freely existing in the Universe but no real form of life yet. Religions hopped on board to say, 'see you still need God' to make life'.

To me what the experiment said, "if you can do this in this short of time, what result would a few thousand years of this result in."

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Not familiar with Miller-Urey. Please enlighten.

Read on Wikipedia.

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