BACTERIOLOGY

Spontaneous generation is the evolutionary idea that life could arise

from nonliving materials, rather than exclusively from an already living

and a like kind of parent organism. Many variations of this basic theme

and speculative notion were imagined, such as frogs from mud, maggots

from meat and moths from wool.

"The idea of spontaneous generation was no doubt first suggested by

universally inaccurate observations of how certain lower types of life

appeared in such environments as soil, water, and especially in

decayings organic substances" (2).

This notion was held as fact until

people like S.Pallanzani, Redi, and finally Pasteur, proved once and for

all that all life arise from pre-existing life (3). These scientists

were abel to debunk the myth of spontaneous generation by good

experimental design and accurate observation. It was Louis Pasteur who

finally annihilated this long-held concept, as he demonstrated that even

micro-organisms could not be spontaneously generated:

..."the resultant recognition that micro-organisms, like all the

ore visible forms of life, are reproduced only by their own

kind, made possible the establishment of bacteriology as a

precise science, and its revolutionary application in immunology

and in the treatment of infectious disease (4).

Through Pasteur's efforts in these fields, he did more for medical

science and the health of the world than anyone before or since.

Although he was a notably insightful scientist, any others would have

had as much opportunity of doing what he did if they had started out

with the Biblical presupposition that things reproduce only "after their

kin" (Genesis 1:11, 21, 24, 25). It is very difficult to stop a

pathogenic "bug" from spreading, if you think it could spontaneously pop

up in your body.

But if one reasons, as the creation model suggests,

that for every disease organism there is a parent and a grandparent, and

so on, then disease pathways can be sought, traced, and blocked. This

may all seem very simple and logical now, but for hundreds of years,

much of the scientific community would not give up on the idea of

spontaneous generation and, in effect, tragically delayed the onset of

modern medical science.