@ farmerman:
Neither of us are researchers in the field so we have to rely on the experts and much later papers (2012) on RNA world detail the problems with it. Harold Barnhardt ( not an ID advocate) noted a lot of the problems with it and he accepts it ONLY because it's the only thing abiogenesis has to hang it's hat on.
Charles Carter (also not an ID advocate) has his take on it and he dismisses it completely.
Quote:
Harold C. Bernhardt notes that "Catalysis is a relatively rare property of long RNA sequences only," and he offers a nice discussion of the gross improbability of randomly producing a long, self-replicating RNA molecule:
The RNA world hypothesis has been criticized because of the belief that long RNA sequences are needed for catalytic activity, and for the enormous numbers of randomized sequences required to isolate catalytic and binding functions using in vitro selection. For example, the best ribozyme replicase created so far -- able to replicate an impressive 95-nucleotide stretch of RNA -- is ~190 nucleotides in length, far too long a sequence to have arisen through any conceivable process of random assembly. And typically 10,000,000,000,000-1,000,000,000,000,000 randomized RNA molecules are required as a starting point for the isolation of ribozymic and/or binding activity in in vitro selection experiments, completely divorced from the probable prebiotic situation.
Charles Carter, in Biology Direct, said:
Quote:
"I, for one, have never subscribed to this view of the origin of life, and I am by no means alone. The RNA world hypothesis is driven almost entirely by the flow of data from very high technology combinatorial libraries, whose relationship to the prebiotic world is anything but worthy of "unanimous support". There are several serious problems associated with it, and I view it as little more than a popular fantasy"
These arguments directly parallels ID proponents who observe that it's extremely unlikely for an RNA molecule with just the right nucleotide sequence needed for self-replication to arise by chance. In other words, he's making the information sequence challenge to the origin of life.
It has?
