KJV Genesis 1:11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
At first there was no life just chemicals mixed with hot water. As minerals and chemicals percolated, just the right consituents came together, then against incredible odds life started. This transition from sterility to the living requires a miraculous event or series of events to produce the correct sequences of RNA that could self replicate. Other miraculous RNA creation events occured over time that symbiotically supported the various RNA sequences necessary in the first living cell. There is no scientific justification for the fantastic amount of luck needed for the right sequence of nucleic acids that could reproduce. Yet we are living proof that cells came into existance.
The first evidence of bacterial life on earth has been found in rocks that date to about 3.8 billion years about the same time that the oldest rocks appear. This does not mean that living cells or RNA colonies did not exist before this time. It means that no evidence has been found beyond the evidence found from the oldest rock samples. There are strong indications that thermophilic bacteria were the first or near first forms of bacterial life since they could survive in the high temperature conditions present on the earth at that time.
As the ocean temperatures slowly cooled from hot to warm and land masses surfaced, the growing variations of environments permitted new types of bacteria to exist. Near the ocean surface and on the land, photo synthetic bacteria could now thrive. Current evidence for the beginning of photo synthetic bacteria then Cyanobacteria points between 3.5 and 2.4 billion years ago. This event led to the oxygenation of our atmosphere. For details of this history please see the web page at http://www.fossilmuseum.net/Tree_of_Life/Stromatolites.htm
This was a critical step in the evolution of our planet that would permit animal life to come. The young planet had an atmosphere rich in carbon dioxide (~70%) and virtually no oxygen. Cyanobacteria absorbed carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and ocean and used light as energy to convert it into sugars for a food source. As the cyanobacteria as well as other types of bacteria multiply they develop into fibrous mats called stromatolites. Stromatolite fossils dating back to 3.5 billion years can be found extensively around the world. It is unknown whether the oldest stromatolites were built by cyanobacteria or other types of bacteria. At present this results in a large uncertainty in the Creation of the first photosynthetic cell. However, we do know that by 2.3 billion years ago oxygen levels in the atmosphere were rapidly rising and Cyanobacteria (or algae) provide the only reasonable natural explanation. Relatives of these first photo synthetic bacteria are still alive and making very similar fibrous mats today at a few locations around the world where other life forms have difficulty existing.
A high percentage of the initial oxygen produced by the photosynthetic bacteria was absorbed by iron and sulfur that existed in high concentrations in ocean water in the Proterozoic Era. After the soluble reduced iron in the ocean had been oxidized, around 2.3 billion years ago the first evidence of sizeable amounts of oxygen in the atmosphere appears. Between the appearance of cyanobacteria and the first animal life the oxygen levels slowly increased until about 650 millon years ago when levels would be sufficient to support multicellular animal life.
1.5 billion to 650 milliom years ago
A commonly accepted view in science is that the photosynthetic bacteria formed endosymbiotic relationships with eukaryotes to form Protists late in the proterozoic era when the Cyanobacteria took up residence in a eukaryote and never left. This relationship was mutually beneficial to both organisms. Cyanobacteria convert water and carbon dioxide into sugars which benefit it's host and oxygen that benefit animals. The ability to obtain photosynthesized food was important for host survival. The eukaryote provided nutrients and protection for the bacteria. The evidence for this comes from the isolated circular DNA strand in the chloroplast of the cell indicative of prokaryote DNA and not eukaryote DNA.
The eukaryotes later developed into multi-cellular life around 650 million years ago permitting lichen, grasses, trees and other plants with seed. These eukaryotic cells have a structure that is the same for all complex animal and plant life with a defined nuclear membrane in the cell. The seeds of modern plants and trees can be traced back to their beginnings in photo synthetic bacteria, then Cyanobacteria, then symbiosis with eukaryotes and finally the first land plants over 400 million years ago, the ones with visible seeds.
Still after three 'days' the Biblical and scientific accounts are still the same if we consider seeds as the symbiote containing the genetic code that creates the mechanisms and structures that perform photosynthesis. If so, the seed of plant life traces back to an early beginning in bacteria and up through algae, lichens, and higher plant forms as a perfect design to be used again and again.
Photosynthesis has more to do with precise geometrical and energy relationships in the chlorophyll that is further built on specific atomic structures. These complex relationships indicate that photosynthesis is not a result of any random luck but a predetermined process unfolding over time. It must have been planned this way to have any chance of success. The structure of atoms were set at the beginning of the universe. Without plants operating from the power of light from the sun in a narrow frequency band, animals would not have food and could not survive. If animals could not survive, then humans couldn't. The course of the world was set from the very beginning based on this design and needed to evolve in a series of stages to support mankind's existance. This was a stage of necessity.
Time Period 4:
NIV Genesis 1:14 And God said "Let there be lights in the expanse of sky to separate day from night and let them serve as signs to mark the seasons and days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of sky to give light on earth." And it was so...
16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.
17 God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth,
18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good.
~650 million to ~ 550 million
For billions of years the skies remained overcast. The atmosphere of the early earth contained more water vapor, carbon dioxide, vaporized meteor dust and volcanic exhaust due to it's youth in a young solar system. The large nearby moon increased tidal action at shorelines of the growing land masses adding additional nutrients and salts to the ocean. Higher wind velocities, and wave action driven by earth's higher rotational rate and warm oceans produced more sea-salt aerosols to act as precipitation sites for water vapor.
All of these factors increased the cloudiness of our planet, while the atmospheric chemistry, ocean temperature, and spin rate of the earth slowly changed. Eventually as the earth's rotation rate slowed, wind generated sea-salt aerosol production decreased which reduced cloud formation. The volcanism rate also slowed as radioactive isotopes decayed and the earth cooled. This resulted in a reduction of atmospheric dust and ash that further degraded cloud formation.
Eventually the humidity over some areas above the surface fell below 100%. Small patches of clear sky at first cleared which allowed periodic views of space through the cloud canopy allowing the stars, sun and moon to be seen from the planet’s water or land surface.
The luminosity of the sun also increased ~20% during the time from the earth’s creation to this period that precisely matched the changes in the atmosphere. By design this is an amazing balancing act of it's own right. This prevented cold or hot thermal run-away conditions and maintained the proper temperature ranges at the land surface and near the surface of the oceans for photosynthetic bacteria, algae, and higher level plants to survive and thrive. As plants flourished more of their oxygen wasteproduct was released which increased the percentage of this gas in the atmosphere to about 21% that we as animals enjoy today.
Finally the sun, moon, and stars could be seen from the planet's surface through the atmosphere not unlike what we witness today on a clear day and night. It was all a matter of time, the laws of heaven and earth and precise planning before our universe came into existance.
So after four 'days' we see that the scientific and biblical accounts still match. Each step in the evolution of the earth prepares it for the next. In this case animal life coming soon in the Cambrian Explosion.
Next post coming after my vacation. I need one!
Lee
At first there was no life just chemicals mixed with hot water. As minerals and chemicals percolated, just the right consituents came together, then against incredible odds life started. This transition from sterility to the living requires a miraculous event or series of events to produce the correct sequences of RNA that could self replicate. Other miraculous RNA creation events occured over time that symbiotically supported the various RNA sequences necessary in the first living cell. There is no scientific justification for the fantastic amount of luck needed for the right sequence of nucleic acids that could reproduce. Yet we are living proof that cells came into existance.
The first evidence of bacterial life on earth has been found in rocks that date to about 3.8 billion years about the same time that the oldest rocks appear. This does not mean that living cells or RNA colonies did not exist before this time. It means that no evidence has been found beyond the evidence found from the oldest rock samples. There are strong indications that thermophilic bacteria were the first or near first forms of bacterial life since they could survive in the high temperature conditions present on the earth at that time.
As the ocean temperatures slowly cooled from hot to warm and land masses surfaced, the growing variations of environments permitted new types of bacteria to exist. Near the ocean surface and on the land, photo synthetic bacteria could now thrive. Current evidence for the beginning of photo synthetic bacteria then Cyanobacteria points between 3.5 and 2.4 billion years ago. This event led to the oxygenation of our atmosphere. For details of this history please see the web page at http://www.fossilmuseum.net/Tree_of_Life/Stromatolites.htm
This was a critical step in the evolution of our planet that would permit animal life to come. The young planet had an atmosphere rich in carbon dioxide (~70%) and virtually no oxygen. Cyanobacteria absorbed carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and ocean and used light as energy to convert it into sugars for a food source. As the cyanobacteria as well as other types of bacteria multiply they develop into fibrous mats called stromatolites. Stromatolite fossils dating back to 3.5 billion years can be found extensively around the world. It is unknown whether the oldest stromatolites were built by cyanobacteria or other types of bacteria. At present this results in a large uncertainty in the Creation of the first photosynthetic cell. However, we do know that by 2.3 billion years ago oxygen levels in the atmosphere were rapidly rising and Cyanobacteria (or algae) provide the only reasonable natural explanation. Relatives of these first photo synthetic bacteria are still alive and making very similar fibrous mats today at a few locations around the world where other life forms have difficulty existing.
A high percentage of the initial oxygen produced by the photosynthetic bacteria was absorbed by iron and sulfur that existed in high concentrations in ocean water in the Proterozoic Era. After the soluble reduced iron in the ocean had been oxidized, around 2.3 billion years ago the first evidence of sizeable amounts of oxygen in the atmosphere appears. Between the appearance of cyanobacteria and the first animal life the oxygen levels slowly increased until about 650 millon years ago when levels would be sufficient to support multicellular animal life.
1.5 billion to 650 milliom years ago
A commonly accepted view in science is that the photosynthetic bacteria formed endosymbiotic relationships with eukaryotes to form Protists late in the proterozoic era when the Cyanobacteria took up residence in a eukaryote and never left. This relationship was mutually beneficial to both organisms. Cyanobacteria convert water and carbon dioxide into sugars which benefit it's host and oxygen that benefit animals. The ability to obtain photosynthesized food was important for host survival. The eukaryote provided nutrients and protection for the bacteria. The evidence for this comes from the isolated circular DNA strand in the chloroplast of the cell indicative of prokaryote DNA and not eukaryote DNA.
The eukaryotes later developed into multi-cellular life around 650 million years ago permitting lichen, grasses, trees and other plants with seed. These eukaryotic cells have a structure that is the same for all complex animal and plant life with a defined nuclear membrane in the cell. The seeds of modern plants and trees can be traced back to their beginnings in photo synthetic bacteria, then Cyanobacteria, then symbiosis with eukaryotes and finally the first land plants over 400 million years ago, the ones with visible seeds.
Still after three 'days' the Biblical and scientific accounts are still the same if we consider seeds as the symbiote containing the genetic code that creates the mechanisms and structures that perform photosynthesis. If so, the seed of plant life traces back to an early beginning in bacteria and up through algae, lichens, and higher plant forms as a perfect design to be used again and again.
Photosynthesis has more to do with precise geometrical and energy relationships in the chlorophyll that is further built on specific atomic structures. These complex relationships indicate that photosynthesis is not a result of any random luck but a predetermined process unfolding over time. It must have been planned this way to have any chance of success. The structure of atoms were set at the beginning of the universe. Without plants operating from the power of light from the sun in a narrow frequency band, animals would not have food and could not survive. If animals could not survive, then humans couldn't. The course of the world was set from the very beginning based on this design and needed to evolve in a series of stages to support mankind's existance. This was a stage of necessity.
Time Period 4:
NIV Genesis 1:14 And God said "Let there be lights in the expanse of sky to separate day from night and let them serve as signs to mark the seasons and days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of sky to give light on earth." And it was so...
16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.
17 God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth,
18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good.
~650 million to ~ 550 million
For billions of years the skies remained overcast. The atmosphere of the early earth contained more water vapor, carbon dioxide, vaporized meteor dust and volcanic exhaust due to it's youth in a young solar system. The large nearby moon increased tidal action at shorelines of the growing land masses adding additional nutrients and salts to the ocean. Higher wind velocities, and wave action driven by earth's higher rotational rate and warm oceans produced more sea-salt aerosols to act as precipitation sites for water vapor.
All of these factors increased the cloudiness of our planet, while the atmospheric chemistry, ocean temperature, and spin rate of the earth slowly changed. Eventually as the earth's rotation rate slowed, wind generated sea-salt aerosol production decreased which reduced cloud formation. The volcanism rate also slowed as radioactive isotopes decayed and the earth cooled. This resulted in a reduction of atmospheric dust and ash that further degraded cloud formation.
Eventually the humidity over some areas above the surface fell below 100%. Small patches of clear sky at first cleared which allowed periodic views of space through the cloud canopy allowing the stars, sun and moon to be seen from the planet’s water or land surface.
The luminosity of the sun also increased ~20% during the time from the earth’s creation to this period that precisely matched the changes in the atmosphere. By design this is an amazing balancing act of it's own right. This prevented cold or hot thermal run-away conditions and maintained the proper temperature ranges at the land surface and near the surface of the oceans for photosynthetic bacteria, algae, and higher level plants to survive and thrive. As plants flourished more of their oxygen wasteproduct was released which increased the percentage of this gas in the atmosphere to about 21% that we as animals enjoy today.
Finally the sun, moon, and stars could be seen from the planet's surface through the atmosphere not unlike what we witness today on a clear day and night. It was all a matter of time, the laws of heaven and earth and precise planning before our universe came into existance.
So after four 'days' we see that the scientific and biblical accounts still match. Each step in the evolution of the earth prepares it for the next. In this case animal life coming soon in the Cambrian Explosion.
Next post coming after my vacation. I need one!
Lee