Chemical Evolution Has No Bases in Empirical Science

Consider what Dr. James Tour, Professor of Chemistry at Rice University, has to say about life's origens. He also teaches Computer Science, Materials Science, and Nano-Engineering. He is one of the world's leading experts in synthetic chemistry- the science of designing complex molecules. This is from a lecture at the University of Waterloo in 2016: "Abiogenesis is the prebiotic process wherein life, such as a cell, arises from non-living simple organic compounds: carbohydrates, nucleic acids, lipids, proteins, and amino acids. All this is needed before evolution can begin. We have no idea how molecules that compose living systems could have been devised such that they would work in concert to fulfill biology's functions. We have no idea how the basic set of molecules, carbohydrates, nucleic acid, lipids, and proteins, were made and how they could have coupled in proper sequences, and then transformed into ordered assemblies until there was the construction of a complex biological system, and eventually to that first cell. Nobody has any idea on how this was done when using the known mechanisms of chemical science. Those that say this is all worked out, they know nothing: nothing about chemical synthesis. Nothing! From a chemical perspective, neither I nor any of my colleagues can fathom a prebiotic molecule route to construction of a complex system. We cannot even figure out the prebiotic routes to the basic building blocks of life: carbohydrates, nucleic acids, lipids, and proteins. Chemists are collectively bewildered. Hence I say that no chemist understands prebiotic synthesis of the requisite building blocks, let alone assembly into a complex system. I've asked all my colleagues, National Academy members, Nobel Prize winners. I sit with them in our offices. Nobody understands this. So if your professors say, 'It's all worked out,' your teachers say, 'It's all worked out,' they don't know what they are talking about. It is not worked out. You cannot just refer this to somebody else. They don't know what they are talking about."