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The Book of Continuing Creation:
Finding Life’s Meaning and Purpose – In Nature, Reason, and Science
(Earth-centered spirituality, without myths or miracle stories)

The Book’s Essays will be posted month-by-month, as they are written.  Each Essay stands alone, independent of the others; but you will want to read the Introduction and How to Read This Book first (they are both very short), and then read the Overview.  The 27-page Overview presents all the major concepts in the Book of Continuing Creation.  A list of all the posted Essays appears in the right-hand column.  

(This website also contains all of J.X. Mason’s weekly Author’s Blog Posts.  If you wish, you can subscribe to the Blog Posts and receive them in your email.  Everything is free and without advertising.)

 

Table of Contents

Table of Contents For The Book of Continuing Creation Notes:     > The Book of Continuing Creation is opposed to biblical, fundamentalist, “creationism.”   > Our Essays can be thought of as Chapters in our Book.   > Most of our Essays can be read independently of each other. Part One: Intros and Guides   Essay […]

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Energy Flows, Membranes, Carbon-based

Energy Flows, Membranes, Carbon-based      This is the first of Three Essays on “Abiogenesis” — the Evolution of First Life   Introduction Most biologists agree that all organisms living today evolved from a single primitive one-celled lifeform. 104 The consensus holds that this “First Life” emerged by natural geo-chemical processes about 3,900 million (3.9 billion) […]

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Medieval Catholicism to Protestant Reformation

Medieval Catholicism to Protestant Reformation Note:  Our “Timeline of Christianity,” lists the dates of key events across the 2,200 years since Jesus’ Crucifixion. You can find it in APPENDIX A at the end of this Essay. This is our third Essay on Christianity. The first was Evaluating Jesus’ Teaching, and the second Essay was Early Christianity: From Jesus’ Death […]

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  1. Kate Bowler, Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel, 2013, Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199827695. Pp. 11 and 31-32.
  2. Arvin Ash, “Abiogenesis: How Life Came from Inanimate Matter,” a video film, 9-6-2019, www.arvinash.com
  3. Wikipedia article on “Panspermia,” particularly footnotes 163 through 169.
  4. Wikipedia article on “Panspermia,” particularly footnotes 171 through 173.
  5. Jurassic Park, motion picture, 1993, Amblin Entertainment, Universal Studios; Dr. Malcolm was played by Jeff Goldblum; after the 1990 novel of the same name by Dr. Michael Crichton.
  6. https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/science-magazines/did-life-earth-begin-little-warm-pond.
  7. https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/science-magazines/did-life-earth-begin-little-warm-pond.
  8. Martha Henriques, “The Idea that Life Began as Clay Crystals Is 50 Years Old” 8-24-2016, BBC.
  9. W. Martin and M. Russell, “On the Origins of Cells: A Hypothesis for the Evolutionary Transitions from Abiotic Geochemistry to Chemoautotrophic Prokaryotes, and "From Prokaryotes to Nucleated Cells,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, B, published online at Nature.com. doi:10.1098/rstb.2002.1183 (2002). https://www.nature.com/news/2002/021202/full/news021202-2.html.
  10. John Whitfield, “New Theory for Origin of Life: Mineral Cells Might Have Incubated First Living Things,” Nature, 12-4-2002, doi:10.1038/news021202-2. See also, N. Roldane, N. Hollinsworth, et al., “Bio-inspired CO2 Conversion by Iron Sulfide Catalysts Under Sustainable Conditions,” Royal Society of Chemistry, 3-24-15. https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2015/cc/c5cc02078f.
  11. D. Luo, D. Yang, S. Peng, and G.Q. Lu, “Enhanced Transcription and Translation in Clay Hydrogel and Implications for Early Life Evolution,” Scientific Reports, 11-7-2013; https://www.nature.com/articles/srep03165.
  12. Paraphrased from Bill Steele’s article, “Before Cells, Biochemicals May Have Combined in Clay,” 11-7-2013, Cornell Chronicle, Cornell University.
  13. Bill Steele, Ibid.
  14. Bill Steele, Ibid.
  15. Martha Henriques, “The Idea that Life Began as Clay Crystals is 50 Years Old,” 8-24-2016, BBC.
  16. Leslie March, “Life's Crystal Code,” 3-19-2009, www.space.com.
  17. https://sites.google.com/site/originsoflifecarlmont/clay-theory. See also Martha Henriques, “The Idea that Life began as clay crystals in 50 years old, 8-24-2016, BBC.
  18. Leslie Mullen, “Life's Crystal Code,” www.space.com.
  19. Arvin Ash, “Abiogenesis,” a video film, Ibid.
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  21. Leslie Mullen, “Life's Crystal Code,” www.space.com]
  22. Martha Henriques, Ibid.
  23. Michael Schirber, “Diamonds May Be Life's Birthstone,” Space.com, 9-25-2008,  https://www.space.com/5882-diamonds-life-birthstone.html.
  24. Michael Schirber, Ibid.
  25. Michael Schirber, Ibid.
  26. Leslie Mullen, “Life's Crystal Code,” www.space.com, 3-19-2009.]
  27. Robert Hazen, Ibid., p.138.
  28. Leslie Mullen, “Life's Crystal Code,” www.space.com, 3-19-2009.
  29. D.R. Colman, S. Poudel, et.al, The Deep, Hot Biosphere: Twenty-five Years of Retrospection,” Proceeding of the National Academy of Science, (PNAS), 7-03-2107, https://www.pnas.org/content/114/27/6895. See also, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1701266114.
  30. Martin Homann, et al., "Microbial life and Biogeochemical Cycling on Land 3,220 Million Years Ago,” 7-23-2018, Nature Geoscience,11 (9): 665–671. Bibcode:2018NatGe..11..665H. doi:10.1038/s41561-018-0190-9. S2CID 134935568; from the article, “Bacteria,” on Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacteria.
  31. Jonathan Watts, “Scientists Identify Vast Underground Ecosystem Containing Billions of Micro-organisms,” The Guardian, 12-10-2018, https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/dec/10/tread-softly-because-you-tread-on-23bn-tonnes-of-micro-organisms.
  32. HC Tung, NE Bramall, PB Price, 2005, "Microbial Origin of Excess Methane in Glacial Ice and Implications for Life on Mars," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 102 (51): 18292–6. Bibcode:2005PNAS,10218292T. doi:10.1073/pnas.0507601102. PMC 1308353. PMID 16339015.
  33. F. Puente-Sanchez, A. Arce-Rodrigues, et al., Viable Cyanobacteria in the Deep Continental Subsurface, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 10-1-2018, https://www.pnas.org/content/115/42/10702. From Wikipedia, “Earliest Known Life Forms.”
  34. Carl Zimmer, "What Came Before DNA,?” Discover Magazine, 6-26-04.
  35. Sean Chamberlin, "Black Smokers and Giant Worms," 1999, Fullerton College, Retrieved 2-11-2011. See also, Brent C. Christner, 2002, "Detection, Recovery, Isolation, and Characterization of Bacteria in Glacial Ice and Lake Vostok Accretion Ice,” 2002, Ohio State University.
  36. Office of Legislative Affairs, “Microbe from Depths Takes Life to Hottest Known Limit,” 8-14-2003, National Science Foundation, https://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/news/03/pr0384.htm.
  37.   A.V. 22  Sysoev, A. V.; Kantor, Yu. I. (1995). "Two new species of Phymorhynchus (Gastropoda, Conoidea, Conidae) from the hydrothermal vents" (PDF). Ruthenica. 5: 17–26. From the Wikipedia article, “Hydrothermal Vent.”
  38. "Extremes of Eel City,” Astrobiology Magazine. 28 May 2008. See also, A. V. Sysoev and Y.I. Kantor, (1995). "Two New Species of Phymorhynchus (Gastropoda, Conoidea, Conidae) From the Hydrothermal Vents,"1995, at Ruthenica. 5: 17–26. See also, S. Botos, "Life on a Hydrothermal Vent," Hydrothermal Vent Communities.
  39. Live Science Staff, “Boiling Hot Water Found in Frigid Arctic Sea,” LiveScience, https://www.livescience.com/9588-boiling-hot-water-frigid-arctic-sea.html.
  40. Kenneth Chang, "Conditions for Life Detected on Saturn Moon Enceladus," 4-13-2017, New York Times. See also, "Spacecraft Data Suggest Saturn Moon's Ocean May Harbor Hydrothermal Activity," NASA, 3-11-2015. See also, M. Paine, "Mars Explorers to Benefit from Australian Research," 5-15-2001, Space.com. Both references from Wikipedia article, “Hydrothermal Vent.”
  41. For 19 separate footnote references to Dr. Muller’s scientific papers on this topic, see the Wikipedia article on Thermosynthesis.
  42. See the Wikipedia article, "Panspermia."
  43. C. Mileikowsky, F.A. Cucinotta, J.W. Wilson, et al., "Natural Transfer of Microbes in Space, Part I: From Mars to Earth and Earth to Mars," 2000, Icarus, 145 (2): 391–427. Bibcode:2000Icar.145..391M.
  44. From Wikipedia article on “Panspermia.”
  45. A. Dalgarno, A. "The Galactic Cosmic Ray Ionization Rate," 2006, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 103 (33): 12269–73. Bibcode:2006PNAS..10312269D. See also, Laurie Brown, Abraham Pais, and A.B. Pippard, "The Physics of the Interstellar Medium," 1995, Twentieth Century Physics (2nd ed.), p. 1765. ISBN 978-0-7503-0310-1.
  46. Seth Shostak, "Comets and Asteroids May Be Spreading Life Across the Galaxy – "Are Germs From Outer Space the Source of Life on Earth,?" 10-26-2018, NBC News. See also, Idan Ginsburg, M. Lingham, and Abraham Loeb, "Galactic Panspermia," 11-19-2018, The Astrophysical Journal Letters. 868 (1): L12. arXiv:1810.04307v2. Bibcode:2018ApJ...868L..12G.
  47. Edward Belbruno; Amaya Moro-Martı´n, et.al., "Chaotic Exchange of Solid Material between Planetary [Systems],” 2012, Astrobiology. 12 (8): 754–74. arXiv:1205.1059. Bibcode:2012AsBio..12..754B. doi:10.1089/ast.2012.0825. PMC 3440031. PMID 22897115. See also, "Impacts 'More Likely' to Have Spread Life from Earth," 8-23-2011, BBC. See also, Yuki Morono, Motoo Ito, et. al., "Aerobic Microbial Life Persists in Oxic Marine Sediment As Old as 101.5 Million Years," 7-8-2020, Nature Communications. 11 (1): 3626. Bibcode:2020NatCo..11.3626M. doi:10.1038/s41467-020-17330-1. ISSN 2041-1723. PMC 7387439. PMID 32724059.
  48. M.A. Line, "Panspermia in the Context of the Timing of the Origin of Life and Microbial Phylogeny," 2007, International Journal . Astrobiol. 3. 6 (3): 249–54. Bibcode:2007IJAsB...6..249L. See also, D.T. Wickramasinghe and D.A.  Allen, (1980). "The 3.4-µm Interstellar Absorption Feature," Nature., 1980, 287 (5782): 518–19. Bibcode:1980Natur.287.518W. See also, D.A. Allen Wickramasinghe, D. T. (1981). "Diffuse Interstellar Absorption Bands Between 2.9 and 4.0 µm," 1981, Nature. 294 (5838): 239–40.
  49. D.T. Wickramasinghe, and D.A. Allen, D. A. (1983). "Three Components of 3–4 μm Absorption Bands," 1983, Astrophysics and Space Science, 97 (2): 369–78. Bibcode:1983Ap&SS..97..369W.  See also, Fred Hoyle, Chandra Wickramasinghe & John Watson, Viruses from Space and Related Matters, 1986, University College Cardiff Press.
  50. Arvin Ash, “Abiogenesis,” Ibid.
  51. Queenie H.S. Chan, et al. (10 January 2018). "Organic Matter in Extraterrestrial Water-bearing Salt Crystals," 1-10-2018, Science Advances. 4 (1, eaao3521): eaao3521. Bibcode:2018SciA....4O3521C. PMC 5770164. PMID 29349297.  See also, Staff, Lawrence Berkeley National laboratory, 1-10-2018, "Ingredients for Life Revealed in Meteorites that Fell to Earth – Study, Based in Part at Berkeley Lab, Aso Suggests Dwarf Planet in Asteroid Belt May Be a Source of Rich Organic Matter". AAAS – EurekAlert. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
  52. From the Simple Wikipedia article on “Origin of Life.”
  53. J.F. Kasting, “Earth’s Early Atmosphere, 2-12-1992, Science, Vol. 259, Issue 5097, pp. 920-926.  DOI: 10.1126/science.11536547.
  54. Robert M. Hazen, The Story of Earth: The First 4.5 billion Years, from Stardust to Living Planet, 2013, Penguin Books, p. 128, paraphrased.
  55. See the Wikipedia article on Unicellular Organism. See also, Andrew Pohorille, and David Deamer, "Self-assembly and Function of Primitive Cell Membranes,” Research in Microbiology 6-23-2009. 160 (7): 449–456. doi:10.1016/j.resmic.2009.06.004. PMID 19580865.
  56. I. Wagner and H. Musso, "New Naturally Occurring Amino Acids,” November, 1983, Angewandte Chemie International Edition in English. 22 (11): 816–828. doi:10.1002/anie.198308161.
  57. M.C. Latham, "Chapter 8. Body composition, the functions of food, metabolism and energy," 1997, Chapter 8: Human nutrition in the developing world. Food and Nutrition Series, 1997, No. 29.
  58. K. Saladin, Anatomy & Physiology: The Unity of Form and Function (6th ed.), 2011,. McGraw-Hill. p. 67. ISBN 9780073378251. See also: "Proteins," IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 2nd ed. (the "Gold Book"), 1997, online corrected version, 2006, doi:10.1351/goldbook.P04898. See also: "What are Peptides," Zealand Pharma A/S. Archived from the original on 4-29-2019.
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  61. Prion Diseases, https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/prion-diseases. See also, See also, "Prion: Infectious Particle,” Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 15 May 2018. 60 https://www.britannica.com/science/prion-infectious-agent.
  62. C.M. Dobson, "The Structural Basis of Protein Folding and its Links with Human Disease,” Feb. 2001, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B, Biological Sciences. 356 (1406): pp. 133–45. doi:10.1098/rstb.2000.0758. PMC 1088418. PMID 11260793. See also, Todd E. Golde, David R. Borchelt, Benoit I Giasson, and Jada Lewis, "Thinking Laterally About Neurodegenerative Proteinopathies,” 5-01-2013, Journal of Clinical Investigation. 123 (5): pp. 1847–1855. doi:10.1172/JCI66029. ISSN 0021-9738. PMC 3635732. PMID 23635781.
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  71. Celia Henry Arnaud, “How the first nucleotides might have formed on Earth,” Chemical and Engineering News, 4-27-16, referencing the publication: “Spontaneous Formation and Base Pairing of Plausible Prebiotic Nucleotides in Water,” by Brian J. Cafferty, David M. Fialho, Jaheda Khanam, Ramanarayanan Krishnamurthy & Nicholas V. Hud, Nature Communications, volume 7, Article number: 11328 (2016).  DOI: 10.1038/ncomms11328).
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  73. S. Konikkat,“Dynamic Remodeling Events Drive the Removal of the ITS2 Spacer Sequence During Assembly of 60S Ribosomal Subunits,” February 2016, in S. cerevisiae (Ph.D. thesis), Carnegie Mellon University. See also, E.W.  Weiler and L. Nover, (2008). Allgemeine und Molekulare Botanik, in German, Stuttgart: Georg Thieme Verlag. p. 532. ISBN 978-3-13-152791-2. See also J. de la Cruz J, K. Karbstein, and J.L. Woolford, (2015). "Functions of ribosomal proteins in assembly of eukaryotic ribosomes in vivo". Annual Review of Biochemistry. 84: 93–129. doi:10.1146/annurev-biochem-060614-033917. PMC 4772166. PMID 25706898.
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  82. https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaerobic_respiration.
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  88. https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwiki.biomine.skelleftea.se%2Fwiki%2Findex.php%2FSulfate_reducing_bacteria&psig=AOvVaw0lzzAafSRHXcc93VaXn8L-&ust=1613421722267000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCKjI5bae6u4CFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD, footnotes 2, 12, 13, and 14.
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  90. Robert Hazen, Ibid., p. 135.
  91. https://www.umassmed.edu/rti/biology/role-of-rna-in-biology/.
  92. Christopher Packham, “Researchers Produce all RNA Nucleobases in Simulated Primordial Earth,” 4-21-2017, Phys.org News, https://phys.org/news/2017-04-rna-nucleobases-simulated-primordial-earth.html. See also, Walter Gilbert, "The RNA World," February 1986, Nature 319 (6055): 618. Bibcode:1986Natur.319..618G. doi:10.1038/319618a0. S2CID 8026658.
  93. Khan Academy, RNA World AP.BIO: SYI‑3 (EU), SYI‑3.E (LO), SYI‑3.E.2 (EK)
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  95. Nicholas Wade, Nicholas (May 4, 2015). "Making Sense of the Chemistry That Led to Life on Earth," 5-4-2015, The New York Times.  See also, SD Copley, E Smith, and HJ Morowitz, "The Origin of the RNA World: Co-evolution of Genes and Metabolism," Bioorganic Chemistry. 35 (6): 430–43.
  96. M. Root-Bernstein M and R. Root-Bernstein, "The Ribosome as a Missing Link in the Evolution of Life," February 2015, Journal of Theoretical Biology. 367: 130–158. doi:10.1016/j.jtbi.2014.11.025. PMID 25500179.
  97. “The RNA Origin of Life,” NOVA Labs, https://www.pbs.org/video/nova-labs-rna-origin-life/. See also, Kahn Academy, “The RNA Origin of Life, https://www.khanacademy.org/science/ap-biology/natural-selection/origins-of-life-on-earth/v/originoflife.
  98. Liang Shen and Ji Hong-Fang, "Small Cofactors May Assist Protein Emergence from RNA World: Clues from RNA-Protein Complexes," 2011, PLOS ONE. 6 (7): e22494. Bibcode:2011PLoSO...622494S. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0022494. PMC 3138788. PMID 21789260.
  99. R.J. Mackenzie, “DNA vs. RNA – 5 Key Differences and Comparison,” 12-18-2020, Genomics Research from Technology Networks.
  100. “Genome Variations: How Different is One Human Genome from Another?,” Jan 15, 2003, www.genomenewsnetwork.org.,resources, Ch. 4_1.
  101. Robert Hazen, Ibid. pp. 129-30.
  102. Kendall Powell, “How Biologists are creating life-like cells from scratch: Built from the bottom up, synthetic cells and other creations are starting to come together and could soon test the boundaries of life,” Nature, News Feature 11-7-2018.”
  103. Kendall Powell, How biologists are creating life-like cells from scratch, Nature Magazine, Nature 563, 172-175 (2018) https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07289-x
  104. Emily Singer, “Mongrel Microbe Tests Story of Complex Life,” 11-30-2015, Quanta Magazine, re-reported in Scientific American https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/mongrel-microbe-tests-story-of-complex-life/.
  105. Guenther Witzany, "Crucial Steps to Life: From Chemical Reactions to Code Using Agents," 2006, BioSystems. 140: 49–57. doi:10.1016/j.biosystems.2015.12.007. PMID 26723230.
  106. Arvin Ash, Abiogenesis – How Life Came from Inanimate Matter, a video film, 9-6-2019, www.arvinash.com
  107. Arvin Ash, Abiogenesis – How Life Came from Inanimate Matter, 9-6-2019, a video film, www.arvinash.com
  108. Arvin Ash, Abiogenesis – How Life Came from Inanimate Matter, 9-6-2019, a video film, www.arvinash.com
  109. Arvin Ash, Abiogenesis – How Life Came from Inanimate Matter, 9-6-2019, a video film, www.arvinash.com.
  110. Bobby Azarian,The Romance of Reality: How the Universe Organizes Itself to Create Life, Consciousness, and Cosmic Complexity, 2022, BenBella Books.
  111. A. Bejan and J. P. Zane, Design in Nature: How the Constructural Law Governs Evolution in Biology, Physics, Technology, and Social Organization, 2013, First Anchor Books, flyleaf.
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