A recent Portland Oregonian article criticized the Boy Scouts for expelling an atheist assistant scoutmaster and said: "Lambert, who is 19, and has been an atheist since studying evolution in the ninth grade..."

The article also states that the school district had recently been sued because the Boy Scouts were recruiting in the schools. Judge Ellen Rosenblum ruled: "recruiting pitches to captive groups of school children is tantamount to discrimination."

Neither the newspaper nor the judges seem to mind that Lambert, and thousands of others are "captive groups" of kids "recruited" to atheistic evolution by the schools and universities.

Many schoolbooks teach that chemicals in the ocean or in a pond became more and more complex until they formed the first living cell. Abundant evidence to the contrary is censored out of the books.

The fact is, if even one of the essential steps in the progression from chemicals to cell was scientifically impossible, the development of the first cell would have been stopped in its tracks. In my book, How Life Began, I show solid evidence that not one, but many of the essential steps could not and did not happen.

Many scientists who are not willing to accept a Creator have evaluated the mounting evidence, and have come to the same conclusion. The famous astronomer and mathematician Sir Fred Hoyle did an analysis and concluded: "The likelihood of the spontaneous formation of life from inanimate matter is one to a number with 40,000 naughts after it.... It is big enough to bury Darwin and the whole theory of evolution."

But to avoid admitting a Creator, Hoyle suggested that life came from some planet far off in space. As evidence mounts against evolution, this theme has been taken up by many other atheists, agnostics and evolutionists. They have convinced the governments of the world to spend billions of dollars on radio telescopes and listening equipment in search of life in space.

However, all they have done is compound their problem. On earth or on another planet, the start up problems would have been about the same but many additional difficulties would have been added if life came to earth from somewhere in space:

• the time required for the trip through space,
• the lack of anything to breathe during the trip,
• the destructive effects of cosmic rays,
• the extreme cold,
• the heat and shock of passing through our atmosphere and striking earth.

Putting the spontaneous beginning of life somewhere off in space has only made it more impossible than on earth!

What kind of planet?

Another funny thing happened while atheists and agnostics were looking for a planet where life could develop. They began to realize that it would need to have a rare set of characteristics: the right temperature, atmosphere, gravity, etc. They analyzed the data to determine what kind of planet they should look for. Their conclusion? A planet just like earth!

Life from space is not science. It is just another way of avoiding the Creator by saying, "Once upon a time, far, far away!"

This article was adapted from the new book by Thomas Heinze, How Life Began, 160 pages, Chick Publications.