The "Life only comes from life" claim.

Many Creationists assert that "Life only comes from life, therefore evolution / evolutionary theory is wrong." Such an assertion demonstrates an all-powerful ignorance on the part of the asserter in at least three ways:

It is a logical falacy;
It is an argument based upon ignorance, not knowledge;
It assums that invalidating biopoesis somehow invalidates evolutionary theory and / or the fact that evolution occured and occurs.

Starting with number (1) above, the assertion that "Life can only come from life" is logically impossible: if true, life would not exist. Since we observe that life does in fact exist, the assertion is blatantly, flagrantly false. If the assertion were true, every succeeding life form would require a previous life form to exist for it to exist--- there would be an infinate series of life forms spanning into an infinate past: a logical impossibility. If a Creationist asserts that a god created the "first" life form, that means that that god is not alive--- which invalidates the assertion. If the Creationist then asserts that that god is alive, then the Creationists' own assertion insists that that god required a preceeding life form to exist. The Creationists cannot have it both true and false. The assertion is equal to stating "In the series One Two Three Four Five, Three always comes before Three." The assertion refutes itself.

With number (2) above, the assertion that "Life only comes from life" is based upon the asserter's lack of knowledge on how life forms came to exist. Just because the asserter does not know how life came to be, that does not mean that it was impossible or that a god (which, if alive, must have required another life to preceed it) created it. Generally when a scientist does not know how something happened, she or he either learns how it happened, or refrains from making any conclusions about how it happened. A reasonable person does not posit an insane impossibility (as in number (1) above) or posit that it cannot or did not happen: a reasonable person refrains from making assertions on the issue. There are a great many things in the universe that no human being knows the "hows" and "whys" about: there is no shame in addmitting we are ignorant.

And with number (3) above, asserting that "Life only comes from life" says nothing at all against evolution and evolutionary theory. Evolutionary theory (i.e. Darwinian natural selection with reproductive success) is a totally different subject than how life came to exist. The existance of life falls under the body of knowledge known as "biopoesis", not evolutionary theory.

Thus we have, yet again, Creationists making assertions about subjects they know noting at all about.