So say the New York Times. Not for some of us: anyway,
What’s even more astonishing is that Earth started out with an oxygen-free atmosphere. It took billions of years before there was enough of the element to keep animals like us alive.
Although scientists have been struggling for decades to reconstruct the rise of oxygen, they’re still making fundamental discoveries. In just the past two weeks, for example, Dr. Canfield and his colleagues have published a pair of studies that provide significant clues about some of the most important chapters in oxygen’s history. They’re finding that our weirdly oxygen-rich atmosphere is the result of a complicated dance of geology and biology.
How hard could it be? Just take fourteen parts by weight of nitrogen mix, one part *hydrogen mix, dash in neutrons to taste, mix all ingredients, spread evenly over cookie sheet and bake 10 minutes on high (very high). Let cool, there you have it! Breath in, sigh!
No mixing bowl? No problem! Just find a warm pond. 😉
* raw proton substitute optional
Contrary to what atheistic materialism would expect, we now have fairly strong evidence of extremely complex oxygenic photosynthesic life in the oldest sedimentary rocks ever found on earth:
Moreover, evidence for ‘sulfate reducing’ bacteria has been discovered alongside the evidence for photosynthetic bacteria:
Of semi-related note as to how finely tuned the atmosphere/ecology of the earth actually is for higher life;
I seriously doubt that oxygen somehow evolved to fill the earth’s atmosphere. That doesn’t sound any more likely tha the idea that comets delivered the water to earth that is so necessary for life. Imagine how many water laden comets would have been necessary!
And I highly doubt that there is any good logical theory as to how oxygen could have evolved.
I believe the earth is unique because God created it “to be inhabited” like Isaiah tells us. I confess to believing in the poof theory here. God created birds and fish on Day 5 so there had to be oxygen by then. But oxygen was probably created on day 2 when God created the atmosphere.
I suppose you could actually say that it was first created on day one since the earth started out as a ball of water. Water contains oxygen as we all know.
But this doesn’t fit the Big Bang that postulates earth beginning as hot molten rock if I’m not mistaken. However, that is not a problem for me since I am not a proponenof or believer in the Big Bang.
And I highly doubt that there is any good logical theory as to how oxygen could have evolved.
Photosynthesis is quite a good theory, I think.
wd400, if you are claiming that photosynthesis ‘randomly evolved’, you are without any empirical support for your claim. As I already pointed out we have fairly good evidence indicating that photosynthesis was present on earth as soon as water was on the face of earth, in the oldest sedimentary rocks on earth. But besides that, photosynthesis is an exceedingly complex process that exhibits irreducible complexity in spades:
At the 6:00 minute mark of the following video, Chris Ashcraft, PhD – molecular biology, gives us an overview of the Citric Acid Cycle, which is, after the 10 step Glycolysis Pathway, also involved in ATP production:
Of related note: anoxygenic (without oxygen) photosynthesis has some more complex chemical pathways than oxygenic photosynthesis does:
Moreover photosynthesis is found to be widespread among different bacteria phyla with no clear evolutionary relationships between them:
There is actually a molecular machine, that surpasses man made machines in engineering parameters, that is integral to the photosynthetic process:
As well, in what I find to be a very fascinating discovery, it is found that photosynthetic life, which is an absolutely vital link that all higher life on earth is dependent on for food, uses ‘non-local’ quantum mechanical principles to accomplish photosynthesis. Moreover, this is direct evidence that a non-local, beyond space-time mass-energy, cause must be responsible for ‘feeding’ all life on earth, since all higher life on earth is eventually completely dependent on this non-local ‘photosynthetic energy’ in which to live their lives on this earth:
At the 21:00 minute mark of the following video, Dr Suarez explains why photosynthesis needs a ‘non-local’, beyond space and time, cause to explain its effect:
Related note:
Verse and Music:
I seriously doubt that oxygen just happened to slowly appear over time all by itself! That sounds about as likely as comets bringing all the water for the vast oceans of the world! (Imagine how many comets would have been necessary for that to happen and how long it would have taken!)
And I highly doubt that there is any good logical theory as to how oxygen could have evolved on the planet.
I believe the earth is unique simply because God created it “to be inhabited” just like Isaiah says. I confess to believing in the poof theory here. God created the atmosphere on day 2 so this is probably when God created oxygen. But, I suppose you could actually say that it was first created on day one since the earth started out as a ball of water. (Water contains oxygen as we all know)
But this doesn’t fit with the Big Bang that postulates earth beginning as hot molten rock(if I’m not mistaken.) However, that is not a problem for me since I am not a proponent of or a believer in the Big Bang.
II Peter 3:5-6 “For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.”
Frankly tjguy, if you want to get into a purely theological debate with no real empirical support, UD is not the place for it. But if you want to put some empirical evidence on the table countering the evidence thus far presented please do so. Repeating a theological claim, as you have now done, does nothing to resolve the issue, and is, as far as I’m concerned, just as bad as the overt metaphysical claims that Darwinists continually make. I’m sorry if I ruffled your feathers, but that is the way, for good or for bad, I see it.
Sorry, that was a double post.
You didn’t ruffle my feathers. Besides, I don’t have any feathers last time I checked.
I think I posted from my iphone and didn’t see it post and then rewrote it and sent it from my computer.
Apologies!
But BA, I think there is value in showing what the Bible has to say about the issue as well. It does matter and some might be interested.
WD400 @4
WD400
The story used to be that oxygen was first produced about 2.7 – 2.8 billion years ago. But this was a problem because what they call the Great Oxidation Event didn’t take place for another 300 – 700 million years after that! Why? It doesn’t make sense. This is a huge time interval.
That was bad enough, but as BA pointed out, now there is evidence of photosynthesis a full 1 billion years earlier than that! So now the claim is even more absurd! Now they say that it must have taken 1.3 – 1.7 billion years for oxygen to comprise a significant part of the atmosphere. Again, that just doesn’t make sense.
You know what? I don’t think they know what they are talking about.
Why did the oxygen level grow to 21% and then level out and stay there? No one knows.
We all know that photosynthesis plays an important role in the oxygenation of the atmosphere now, but the question is, what about back then?
You can’t just say “photosynthesis did it.”
For that to be a viable answer to the problem, you have to be able to explain where photosynthesis came from and how it evolved. Otherwise, how do you even know it did evolve? It’s easy to throw out stories, but a bit harder to back the stories up scientifically.
You know what? I don’t think they know what they are talking about.
It’s usually a good idea to at least consider the idea that the experts in a given field do, in fact, no more about it than you.
In this case, the “Great Oxidation” occure only after the various Oxygen “sinks”, in particular free iron, were filled up. This can be seen from the huge number of iron oxide deposits from the time before the event. Once the free O2 could longer be sucked up chemically it had to go somewhere, and it ended up in the atmosphere.
It’s imply not true that the “oxygen level [grew] to 21% and then level[ed] out”. It’s fluctuated ever since, since oxygen levels depend on many biological and geological processes.
I agree!
Photosynthesis is not a theory.