Chapter 1, Part 3: Can life come from non-life?
Is anyone there? · Lesson 3 of 5 · About 30 minutes · Grades 1–5
The Evidence for Jesus · A lesson for grades 1–5Is anyone there?
Big questionCan life come from non-life?
By the end, kids can
- Name the three things even the simplest cell needs all at once: DNA, proteins, and an oily skin.
- Tell what the best attempts to make life have and haven't done, from Miller's flask in 1953 to the minimal cell of 2016.
- Read a few words of real DNA, and say why a written code points to a mind.
- Keep learning the memory verse: Genesis 1:1 (grades 3–4: Psalm 19:1; grade 5+: John 1:3), now with two words missing.
You'll need
- This part's one-page worksheet for each child's level (grades 1–2, 3–4, or 5), handed out at the start
- Bibles for the look-ups (grades 3–4)
- Pencils and crayons
- A screen with sound and internet: the clips come from the video “Can Life Come from Non-Life?”
Before you teach
This lesson plays one of the chapter's video lessons in clips. Its page makes the same case for teens and adults, with every source written out: watch it to prepare, or use it with older kids and youth groups. Click a part to go to its slide:
- Can life come from non-life? The first cell and the code inside it · In class: Sparks in a flask, All or nothing, The simplest cell, Almost a miracle, A code in every cell, Going deeper · Grades 3–5, Good news
The lesson
- 2 min Warm-up: who left this here?
- 2 min Memory verse: fill in the blanks
- 3 min Sparks in a flask: watch (half a minute), then talk
- 4 min All or nothing: watch (half a minute), then three at once
- 3 min The simplest cell: watch (under a minute), then talk
- 3 min Almost a miracle: watch (1 minute), then talk
- 4 min A code in every cell: watch (1 minute), then read real DNA
- 3 min Going deeper (grades 3–5): ask a synthetic chemist (1½ minutes)
- 1 min A quick check
- 3 min Good news: watch (half a minute), then the worksheet
- 2 min Memory verse again, talk, and pray
Worksheets
Print this lesson's one-page sheet for each child, at their level. They fill it in as you go: the ✎ Worksheet sticker on a slide says which part goes with it.
Send it home
After class, share the one-minute Short with families, to watch together and talk about this week:
Answer key
The worksheets don't print their answers. Here they all are, and on the slide before the credits.
Grades 1–2
- Draw it! Drawings and writing will vary.
- Genesis 1:1: beginning, earth
Grades 3–4
- Look it up! 1. the fountain of life · 2. nothing · 3. life · 4. flesh
- Psalm 19:1: glory, hands
Grade 5+
- Read real DNA: Start, Valine, Histidine, Leucine, Threonine, Proline, Glutamic acid; the typo makes Valine
- John 1:3: things, nothing
Presenting
Each part opens with a ▶ Watch slide that plays a clip of the 7-minute video “Can Life Come From Non-Life? The Origin of Life and God” right on the slide: read the two questions, then click (or press →, or use a clicker) to play the clip. The slides wait while it plays and stops by itself; click twice to stop it early. Then click to show the answers. The clips need an internet connection.
Click the slide, or press → or Space (a clicker works too), to show the next thing; ← goes back, even while a clip plays. F presents full screen (Esc leaves it). P opens the presenter view, a second window with your notes, the next slide, and a timer, that moves with the slides: put it on your laptop and the slides on the projector. N shows the notes under the slides.
Your script
Is anyone there?
Say: So far in this chapter we've seen a universe that had a beginning, and dials set just right for life. Today is Part 3 of five, and the question is life itself.
Say: Every living thing you've ever seen came from another living thing. But the very first cell had no parent. So where did it come from? Let's ask the chemists who've tried to make one.
Who left this here?
Ask: If astronauts found a car parked on the moon, would anyone think it came together there on its own, given enough time?
Answer: No. They'd know someone built it and brought it there. Its parts fit together for a purpose.
Say: Today we'll look inside the smallest living thing there is, a single cell. Keep this car in mind, and see which one looks more like it was put together on purpose.
Clicks: 1. the line “Could it have put itself together there?”
Sources: Apollo 15's lunar rover
Memory verse
Do: Say it together with the motions from last time: “in the beginning” (point back over your shoulder), “God created” (hands up), “the heavens” (reach high), “and the earth” (touch the floor). Click to show the missing words.
Answers: beginning, earth.
Older kids: Grades 3–4 fill in Psalm 19:1 and grade 5+ fills in John 1:3. Grade 5, listen for your verse near the end of today's video: John quotes it.
Clicks: 1. the missing word “beginning” · 2. the missing word “earth”
Sparks in a flask · Watch: Sparks in a flask
Do: Read the two questions out loud, then click to play the clip. It's about half a minute and stops by itself.
Ask after: What did Miller run through the flask? What did he get? Click once for each answer.
Prepare: Before class, watch the video lesson this clip comes from, with every source written out: “Can life come from non-life?”
Clicks: 1. play the clip (it stops by itself) · 2. the answer to 1: Electric sparks, like lightning. · 3. the answer to 2: A few simple amino acids, the building blocks of proteins.
Sources: Miller, “A Production of Amino Acids Under Possible Primitive Earth Conditions,” Science 117 (1953) · Lazcano and Bada, “The 1953 Stanley L. Miller Experiment: Fifty Years of Prebiotic Organic Chemistry” (2003) · Cleaves et al., “A Reassessment of Prebiotic Organic Synthesis in Neutral Planetary Atmospheres” (2008)
Building blocks aren't a cell
Say: Stanley Miller filled a flask with methane, ammonia, hydrogen, and water vapor, and zapped it with sparks for about a week. He got a few simple amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. It was a famous result.
Say: Scientists now think the early air was mostly nitrogen and carbon dioxide, not Miller's mix. But either way, a few building blocks are a long way from something alive.
Ask: If you had a pile of bricks, would you have a house? (No. Someone still has to build it.)
Clicks: 1. the line “But a few building blocks are a long way from a living cell.”
Sources: Miller, “A Production of Amino Acids Under Possible Primitive Earth Conditions,” Science 117 (1953) · Cleaves et al., “A Reassessment of Prebiotic Organic Synthesis in Neutral Planetary Atmospheres” (2008)
All or nothing · Watch: All or nothing
Do: Read the two questions out loud, then click to play the clip. It's about half a minute.
Ask after: What three things does a cell need? What happens if one is missing? Click once for each answer.
Prepare: Before class, watch the video lesson this clip comes from, with every source written out: “Can life come from non-life?”
Clicks: 1. play the clip (it stops by itself) · 2. the answer to 1: DNA, proteins, and an oily skin to hold it all together. · 3. the answer to 2: The cell doesn't work. It's all or nothing.
Sources: The central dogma: DNA, RNA, and protein · The cell membrane · The origin of life (abiogenesis)
Three at once
Say: 1. DNA stores the instructions, like a recipe book.
Say: 2. Proteins read and copy the DNA. But here's the catch: DNA's instructions are what build those proteins.
Say: 3. An oily skin holds it all together. And it's made by those same proteins.
Do: Have three kids stand in a circle holding hands, one for each part. Ask one to let go and step out. Say: Take away the DNA, and there's no recipe for new proteins. Take away the proteins, and nothing reads the DNA or makes the skin. Take away the skin, and everything drifts apart.
Ask: Which one had to come first? (None of them can. They all need each other.)
Clicks: 1. step 1 · 2. step 2 · 3. step 3 · 4. the line at the bottom
Sources: The central dogma: DNA, RNA, and protein · The cell membrane · The origin of life (abiogenesis)
The simplest cell · Watch: The simplest cell
Do: Read the two questions out loud, then click to play the clip. It's under a minute.
Ask after: What did the Scripps chemists make? How many genes did the 2016 cell have? Click once for each answer.
Prepare: Before class, watch the video lesson this clip comes from, with every source written out: “Can life come from non-life?”
Clicks: 1. play the clip (it stops by itself) · 2. the answer to 1: Two RNA enzymes that copy each other. But they designed them first, and fed them ready-made pieces. · 3. the answer to 2: 473. They still couldn't say what 149 of them do.
Sources: The RNA world · Lincoln and Joyce, “Self-sustained replication of an RNA enzyme,” Science (2009) · Hutchison et al., “Design and synthesis of a minimal bacterial genome,” Science (2016)
A little help from a living cell
Say: Most researchers think an earlier, simpler world of RNA broke the circle. And in 2009, chemists at Scripps did make two RNA enzymes that copy each other. But they designed them first, and fed them ready-made pieces of RNA.
Say: In 2016, scientists cut a bacterium down to 473 genes, the fewest it could live on. They still couldn't say what 149 of them do.
Say: And to get it going, they put the DNA they made into a cell that was already alive.
Ask: The smartest scientists in the world needed a living cell to start with. What does that tell you? (Even the simplest life is hard to make, even on purpose.)
Clicks: 1. the line “They didn't build a cell from scratch. They made its DNA and put it into a cell that was already alive.”
Sources: Lincoln and Joyce, “Self-sustained replication of an RNA enzyme,” Science (2009) · Hutchison et al., “Design and synthesis of a minimal bacterial genome,” Science (2016) · The minimal cell (Mycoplasma laboratorium)
Almost a miracle · Watch: Almost a miracle
Do: Read the two questions out loud, then click to play the clip. It's about 1 minute.
Ask after: What did Crick say? Where did he think life came from? Click once for each answer.
Prepare: Before class, watch the video lesson this clip comes from, with every source written out: “Can life come from non-life?”
Clicks: 1. play the clip (it stops by itself) · 2. the answer to 1: “Almost a miracle.” · 3. the answer to 2: From aliens, who sent it here on purpose.
Sources: Koonin, Biology Direct 2:15 (2007) · Crick, Life Itself (1981), p. 88 · Crick & Orgel, “Directed Panspermia” (1973)
Two honest scientists
Say: Eugene Koonin is an evolutionary biologist. He says that before anything can copy itself, you already need the machinery that does the copying. Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
Say: Francis Crick shared a Nobel Prize for finding DNA's double helix, and he was a firm skeptic of religion. He wrote that “the origin of life appears at the moment to be almost a miracle.”
Say: Neither man turned to God. Koonin said that in an infinite multiverse, it would happen somewhere by chance. Crick suggested aliens sent life here on purpose. But Crick only moved the question to another planet, and there's no evidence a multiverse exists.
Ask: If life needs someone to start it, who do you think that is?
Clicks: 1. the line “Francis Crick, who helped find DNA's double helix, said it “appears at the moment to be almost a miracle.””
Sources: Koonin, Biology Direct 2:15 (2007) · Crick, Life Itself (1981), p. 88 · Crick & Orgel, “Directed Panspermia” (1973)
A code in every cell · Watch: A code in every cell
Say: Here's what chemistry would have had to write.
Do: Read the two questions out loud, then click to play the clip. It's about 1 minute.
Ask after: How is DNA read? What did scientists compare it with? Click once for each answer.
Prepare: Before class, watch the video lesson this clip comes from, with every source written out: “Can life come from non-life?”
Clicks: 1. play the clip (it stops by itself) · 2. the answer to 1: Three at a time. Each three-letter word means one building block of a protein. · 3. the answer to 2: A million random codes. Only about one softens typos better than the real one.
Sources: The genetic code · The human hemoglobin gene, HBB (NCBI) · Freeland & Hurst, “The genetic code is one in a million” (1998)
Read real DNA
Say: DNA has four letters: A, C, G, and T. Your cells read them three at a time. Each three-letter word means one building block of a protein.
Say: These are the first seven words of the real gene for hemoglobin, the protein that carries oxygen in your blood. ATG means start. GTG means valine. And so on. Your ribosomes read six to nine words like these every second, and misread only about one in a thousand to one in a hundred thousand.
Say: One typo matters. Click: the seventh word changes from GAG to GTG, and glutamic acid becomes valine. Someone who inherits that typo from both parents has sickle cell disease.
Say: DNA works like software: a written message, read by machines, using a lookup table. And every code we've ever traced back to its source came from a mind.
Ask: When you see writing, what do you know? (Someone wrote it.)
Worksheet: Grade 5+ decodes these words with the code table on their sheet now.
Worksheet answers: Grade 5+, Read real DNA: Start, Valine, Histidine, Leucine, Threonine, Proline, Glutamic acid; the typo makes Valine
Clicks: 1. what each one means · 2. the line at the bottom
Sources: The human hemoglobin gene, HBB (NCBI) · Translation: how ribosomes read the code, how fast, and how often they slip · Sickle cell disease · The genetic code
Going deeper · Grades 3–5 · Watch: Ask a synthetic chemist
Say: James Tour builds complex molecules for a living, at Rice University. He's studied the attempts to make life from scratch, and he names three problems.
Do: Read the two questions out loud, then click to play the clip. It's about 1½ minutes.
Ask after: What are the three problems? What did Tour say? Click once for each answer.
Do: Hold up your two hands, palms facing. Say: They look alike, but your left glove won't fit your right hand. Many of life's molecules come in left- and right-handed forms like this, and life uses only one. As Tour puts it, “Their mirror images cannot do their work.”
Prepare: Before class, watch the video lesson this clip comes from, with every source written out: “Can life come from non-life?”
Clicks: 1. play the clip (it stops by itself) · 2. the answer to 1: Messy mixtures, handedness, and putting the parts together. · 3. the answer to 2: “Nobody understands them.”
Sources: James Tour, “Animadversions of a Synthetic Chemist,” Inference 2, no. 2 (2016) · Shapiro, “Prebiotic ribose synthesis: a critical analysis” (1988) · Homochirality
True or false?
Do: Read each one and have kids stand up for true and sit down for false. Click to stamp each answer.
Answers: 1. False. 2. True. 3. False. 4. True.
Clicks: 1. the answer to 1: False. It made a few building blocks. · 2. the answer to 2: True. · 3. the answer to 3: False. They put the DNA they made into a cell that was already alive. · 4. the answer to 4: True.
Good news · Watch: Life from the living God
Say: The chemists can't yet say how life could start on its own. The Bible's answer is simpler.
Do: Read the two questions out loud, then click to play the clip. It's about half a minute.
Ask after: Where is the fountain of life? Who is John talking about? Click once for each answer.
Prepare: Before class, watch the video lesson this clip comes from, with every source written out: “Can life come from non-life?”
Clicks: 1. play the clip (it stops by itself) · 2. the answer to 1: With God: “For with you is the fountain of life.” · 3. the answer to 2: Jesus. “In him was life.”
Sources: Psalm 36:9 · John 1:1–4, 14
Life comes from the living God
Say: Life doesn't come from a flask. It comes from the living God. He is the fountain, and every living thing gets its life from him.
Say: And John tells us whose life it is: “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.” John is talking about Jesus.
Say: And the same Jesus who gave you life “became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” He isn't a mystery in a lab. He's someone you can know.
Ask: What would you like to thank Jesus for about the life he gave you?
Worksheet: Grades 1–2 draw a living thing God made. Grades 3–4 look up the four verses on their sheet.
Worksheet answers: Grades 1–2, Draw it!: Drawings and writing will vary.
Worksheet answers: Grades 3–4, Look it up!: 1. the fountain of life · 2. nothing · 3. life · 4. flesh
Clicks: 1. the line “John says this life is in Jesus: “In him was life.” The one who gave you your first breath is someone you can know.”
Sources: Psalm 36:9 · John 1:1–4, 14
Say it again
Do: Say the verse together, filling in the missing words. Then try it with eyes closed.
Answers: beginning, earth (the same words as the grades 1–2 sheet).
Older kids: Grade 5+, your verse, John 1:3, was in today's video. It's about Jesus.
Worksheet: Everyone fills in their own memory verse now and colors a star each time they say it.
Worksheet answers: Grades 1–2, Genesis 1:1: beginning, earth
Worksheet answers: Grades 3–4, Psalm 19:1: glory, hands
Worksheet answers: Grade 5+, John 1:3: things, nothing
Clicks: 1. the missing word “beginning” · 2. the missing word “earth”
Talk and pray
Do: Talk about one or two of the questions, then pray together. Kids can repeat the prayer one line at a time.
Say: Next time, Part 4: there's a motor inside a germ. Could blind evolution have built it?
Do: Send the worksheets home, with this part's one-minute Short for families. The link is in your guide, under “Send it home.”
Clicks: 1. the prayer
Answer key
Do: Show this when kids check their work, or keep it on your laptop in the presenter view. The worksheets don't print their answers, so this is the key.
Pictures and Scripture
Every picture on these slides, with its credit, license, and a link to its source.