Have we created life in the lab? That was the implication from some of the news stories that declared that scientists have built a cell from scratch. That might be overstating the case a bit, but what was accomplished is significant.

A synthetic biologist and professor at the University of Minnesota said she and her team constructed a cell piece by piece from chemical components. This very primitive cell does feed and can only reproduce for about five generations. As one biochemist explained, this isn’t “life created in the lab,” but it is a “genuine milestone on the road toward that question.”

This cell is quite primitive and merely composed of 150-200 molecules. The normal simple cell has millions of molecules. In a sense, it is a foundation (or what one scientist called a chassis) that future advances can build upon.

You might wonder if this synthetic cell poses any danger. It does not seem to pose any biosafety risk and could not be used in its current form as a biological weapon. But further scrutiny is warranted given our history of what can escape from a biolab. 

When I speak on intelligent design, I often show a cartoon of an Albert Einstein looking scientist who proclaims: “If I can just synthesize life [in the laboratory], then I will have proven no intelligence was necessary to form life in the beginning.” My audience usually gets the joke.

The fact that scientists have been working decades to eventually create even such a primitive cell provides proof that random chemicals in a prebiotic soup did not produce life. Rather it provides compelling evidence for design and a Designer.