when i was a kid, we read about a french scientist who disproved the theory of spontaneous generation. he put meat in two flasks and covered one. maggots appeared in the uncovered flask, but not in the covered.
proof positive that spontaneous generation did not occur.
now flash forward a few years. we were taught that life began through spontaneous generation.
don’t these two ideas contradict each other?
I got news for ya, prslqspellsmomanddad (whew). Nobody really knows how life *ends[/].
Peace,
mangeorge
I only know two things;
I know what I need to know
And
I know what I want to know
Mangeorge, 2000
Well, maggots are pretty complex life. What is generally believed today is that extremely simple forms of life emerged from simple organic compounds. Spontaneous is not a very good way to describe this.
Last time I checked life took like a billions of years to “spontaniously generate” and a few more billion to evolve up to maggots. Maybe the froggy didnt wait long enough, nor did he check for all forms of life.
I’d say its pritnear impossible to have a sample of meat without bacteria a growing on it. Bacteria survived in a camera, on the moon for three years for chissakes
In Pasteur’s famous ‘flask’ experiments, he hypothesized that it was dust particles that carried microorganisms (germs). So, he set up two flasks of sterile broth. One, he left uncovered, one covered (by pouring it in a goose necked flask) so that air could not get to the broth. With in 48 hours, the uncovered broth was teeming with microorganisms, while the covered one isn’t (and still isn’t to this day).
His experiment proved to all but a few stubborn folks that life could not come from non-life, because the covered broth still hadn’t produced anything.
The experiments with the meat and maggots came earlier. And, I imagine that they had something to do with Louis formulating this particular experiment, which couldn’t have been contaminated.
But, as far as the original origins of life, I’m putting all my eggs in God’s hands.
“If we submit everything to reason, our religion will have no mysterious or supernatural element. If we offend the principles of reason, our religion will be absurd and ridiculous.” Blaise Pascal
God does not through eggs?
Ray
prslqspellsmomandda wrote proof positive that spontaneous generation did not occur. Your conclusion is too sweeping. Actually, the experiment was merely a way to show that baby maggots actually came from tiny eggs, and in addition, helped show that contrary to the general belief at that time, spontaneous generation of life was not in fact a common, everyday occurence.
Also, remember that even among evolutionist scientists the question of the appearance of life on Earth is still an open question. It is a real possibility that there was no “spontaneous generation” on this planet, and that Earth was actually like the uncovered flask, in that the first very primitive life on Earth (which was much simplier than the maggots that evolved later) drifted–or dropped–in from space.
This proves, without a doubt, that somebody, at the beginning of the world, had to boil a cow so life could start in the broth. 
This sig not Y2K compliant. Happy 1900.
I had always heard it referred to as “primordial soup”. I didn’t think they actually meant beef stew.
This sig not Y2K compliant. Happy 1900.
Actually, the broth that was used was a solution of “sugared yeast water” that was boiled IN the flask to sterility.
(Biology of Animals Sixth Edition. Hickman, Jr, Cleveland P. and Larry S. Roberts. WCB Publishers, Dubuque, Iowa, 1994. Page 14, figure 1-17A.)
“If we submit everything to reason, our religion will have no mysterious or supernatural element. If we offend the principles of reason, our religion will be absurd and ridiculous.” Blaise Pascal
The current thinking, based on available evidence, is that the first living organisms on the planet were nothing as complicated as entire bacteria. They were little self-replicating strands of RNA. (This theory is known as the RNA World Hypothesis.)
Free-floating RNA would have a devil of a time surviving today because of all the oxygen dissolved in the oceans. You’d have to look for RNA-only life in places were oxygen in the air can’t reach – peat bogs, for example. And there just ain’t that much incentive to go around digging up peat bogs these days.