SPONTANEOUS GENERATION
CAN LIVING THINGS BE SPONTANEOUSLY
GENERATED FROM INANIMATE OBJECTS?
Ancient peoples wondered where flies came
from, where algae came from, where mold came from, where frogs came from,
etc. Those who read the Bible found passages
such as these:
Gen 1
11 And he said: Let the earth bring forth the green herb,
and such as may seed, and the fruit tree yielding
fruit after its kind, which may have seed in itself upon the earth. And it was
so done.
12 And the earth brought forth the green herb, and such as yieldeth seed according to its kind, and the tree that beareth fruit having seed each one according to its kind.
And God saw that it was good.
11 And God said, Let
the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree
yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it
was so.
12 And the earth
brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his
kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind:
and God saw that it
was good.
20 God also said: Let the waters bring forth the creeping
creature having life, and the fowl that may fly over the earth under the
firmament of heaven.
21 And God created the great whales, and every living and moving
creature, which the waters brought forth, according to their kinds, and every
winged fowl according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature
that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of
heaven.
21 And God created
great whales, and every living creature that moveth,
which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged
fowl after his
kind: and God saw that it was good.
24 And God said: Let the earth bring forth the living
creature in its kind, cattle and creeping things, and beasts of the earth,
according to their kinds. And it was so done.
25 And God made the beasts of the earth according to their
kinds, and cattle, and every thing that creepeth on
the earth after its kind. And God saw that it was good.
24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his
kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it
was so.
25 And God made the
beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after
their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the
earth after his kind: and God saw that it
was good.
Gen 2
19 And
the Lord God having formed out of the ground all the beasts of the earth, and
all the fowls of the air, brought them to Adam to see what he would call them:
for whatsoever Adam called any living creature the same is its name.
19 And out of the
ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field,
and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call
them:
and whatsoever Adam called every living
creature, that was the name thereof.
Ex 7
10 So Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharao,
and did as the Lord had commanded. And Aaron took the rod before Pharao, and his servants, and it was turned into a serpent.
11 And Pharao called the wise men
and the magicians: and they also by Egyptian enchantments and certain secrets
did in like manner.
10 And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh,
and they did so as the LORD had commanded: and Aaron cast down his rod before
Pharaoh, and before his
servants, and it became a serpent.
11 Then Pharaoh also
called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of
Ex 8
6 And Aaron stretched forth his hand upon the waters of
7 And the magicians also by their enchantments did in like
manner, and the brought forth frogs upon all the
6 And Aaron
stretched out his hand over the waters of
7 And the magicians
did so with their enchantments, and brought up frogs upon the
Ex. 8
16 And the Lord said to Moses: Say to Aaron, Stretch forth
thy rod, and strike the dust of the earth: and may there be sciniphs
in all the
17 And they did so. And Aaron stretched forth his hand,
holding the rod: and he struck the dust of the earth, and there came sciniphs on men and on beasts: all the dust of the earth
was turned into sciniphs through all the
16 And the LORD said
unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch out thy rod, and
smite the dust of the land, that it may become lice throughout all the
17 And they did so;
for Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod, and smote the dust of the earth,
and it became lice in man, and in beast; all the dust of the land
became lice throughout all the
In these passages, plants are generated
from earth, birds and fish from water (although in Gen. 2 birds are generated
from earth, differing from the version in Gen. 1), beasts from earth, frogs
from the waters of the
As to another customary inquiry of the scrupulous about the
very minute creatures, not only such as mice and lizards, but also locusts,
beetles, flies, fleas, and so forth, whether there were not in the ark a larger
number of them was determined by God in His command, those persons who are
moved by this difficulty are to be reminded that the words “every creeping
thing of the earth” only indicate that it was not needful to preserve in the
ark the animals that can live in the water, whether fishes that live submerged
in it, or the sea birds that swim on its surface. Then, when it is said “male and female”, no
doubt reference is made to the repairing of the races and consequently there
was no need for those creatures being in the ark which are born without the
union of the sexes from inanimate things, or from their corruption; or if they
were in the ark, they might be there as they commonly are in houses, not in any
determinate numbers; or if it was necessary that there should be a definite
number of all those animals that cannot naturally live in the water, that
so the most sacred mystery which was
being enacted might be bodied forth and perfectly figured in actual realities,
still this was not the care of Noah or his sons, but of God. For Noah did not catch the animals and put
them into the ark, but gave them entrance when they came seeking it. For this is the force of the words “They
shall come unto thee”—not that is to say, by man’s effort, but by God’s will. But certainly we are not required to believe
that those which have no sex also came; for it is expressly and definitely said
“They shall be male and female.” For
there are some animals which are born
out of corruption, but yet afterwards they themselves copulate and have produce
offspring, as flies; but others, which have no sex, like bees….
Saint Augustine, City of God, Book XV.27
Saint
Augustine was at a loss to explain how the living things which had been saved
from the Noachian Flood could have traveled to distant lands. He felt that perhaps angels were needed for
transport (and, to use modern examples, this would explain how koalas reached
Australia, sloths reached South America, desert
tortoises reached the American Southwest, etc.). This daunting task was easier if many animals
could simply develop from the earth of various continents and islands.
There is a question raised about all those kinds of beasts
which are not domesticated, nor are produced like frogs from the earth, but are
propagated by male and female parents such as wolves and animals of that kind;
and it is asked how they could be found in the islands after the deluge, in
which all the animals not in the ark perished, unless the breed was restored
from those which were preserved in pairs in the ark. It might, indeed, be said that they crossed
to the islands by swimming, there are some so distant, that we fancy no animal
could swim to them. But if men caught
them and took them across with themselves, and thus propagated these breeds in
their new abodes, this would not imply an incredible fondness for the
chase. At the same time, it cannot be
denied that by the intervention of angels they might be transferred by God’s
order or permission. If, however, they
were produced out of the earth as at their first creation, when God said, “Let
the earth bring for the living creature”, this makes it more evident that all
kinds of animals were preserved in the ark, not so much for the sake of
renewing the stock, as of prefiguring the various nations which were to be
saved in the church; this I say, is more evident, if the earth brought forth
many animals in islands to which they could not cross over.
--
23. But whether, as I have said, we are to believe that
these little animals were also made in the creation of things during the six
days of the Scripture narrative, or afterwards at the decomposition of
corruptible bodies, that is the question. Surely it can be said that the
smallest of these animals that have their origin in the waters and the earth
were made at the first creation.
Among these it is not unreasonable to place those that come forth from
the creatures born with the budding earth. For these creatures preceded the
creation not only of the animals but
also of the luminaries of heaven, and, being rooted in the earth from which they came forth on the day on
which the dry land appeared,
obviously they are rather to be reckoned as an adjunct of the inhabitable earth than numbered
among its inhabitants. As for the
other small creatures that come forth from the bodies of animals, particularly
from corpses, it is absurd to say that
they were created when the animals themselves were created, except in the sense that there was present
from the beginning in all living
bodies a natural power, and, I might say, there were interwoven with these bodies the seminal
principles of animals later to appear
which would spring forth from the decomposing bodies, each according to its
kind and with its special properties, by the wonderful power of the immutable
Creator who moves all His creatures.
--
In so far as our powers of observation and our human
intelligence can understand nature, we have no evidence that any flesh with
life and sensation is born unless it is from one of four sources: either from
water and earth, which serve as material elements, or from the shoots or the
fruits of trees, or from the flesh of animals (as happens in the case of
countless kinds of worms and reptiles), or from the copulation of parents.
--
St. Thomas
Aquinas felt that “imperfect animals” can come to be through spontaneous
generation, especially through decomposing matter. Matter either has the power to generate life
due to an original power given to the elements or to the influence of the stars. For imperfect animals, the influence of
heavenly bodies alone suffices and it is through this power that angels and
demons can influence the production of living things.
St. Thomas Aquinas; Summa
Theologica, Book I
Q. 45
Obj. 3.
Further, in nature, like begets like.
But some things are found generated in nature by a thing unlike to them;
as is evident in animals generated through putrefaction. Therefore their form is not from nature, but
by creation..
Reply Obj. 3. For the generation of imperfect animals, a
universal agent suffices, and this is to be found in the celestial power to
which they are assimilated, not in species, but according to a kind of
analogy. Nor is it necessary to say that
their forms are created by a separate agent.
St. Thomas Aquinas; Summa
Theologica, Book I
5th day
Q. 71
Obj. 1.
It would seem that this work is not fittingly described. For the waters produce that which the power
of water suffices to produce. But the
power of water does not suffice for the production of every kind of fishes and
birds, since we find that many of them are generated from seed. Therefore the words, Let the waters bring forth the creeping creatures having life, and the
fowl that may fly over the earth, do not fittingly describe this work.
Obj. 3.
Further, fishes move in the waters and birds in the air. If then, fishes are produced from the waters, birds ought to be produced from the air, not from
the waters.
Reply Obj. 1. It was laid down by Avicenna that animals of
all kinds can be generated by various minglings of
the elements and, even naturally, without any kind of seed. This however, seems repugnant to the fact
that nature produces its effects by determinate means; and consequently, those
things that are naturally generated from seed cannot be generated naturally in
any other way. It ought, then, rather to
be said that in the natural generation of all animals that are generated from
seed, the active principle lies in the
formative power of the seed, but that in the case of animals generated from
putrefaction, the formative power is the influence of the heavenly bodies…Not
as though water or earth has in itself the power of producing all animals, as
Avicenna held, rather it is from the power originally placed in the elements
that they are able to produce animals either from elemental matter by the power
of seed or the influence of the stars.
Reply Obj. 3. …But birds move in the lower part of the
air, and so are said to fly beneath the firmament, even if the firmament be
taken to mean the region of the clouds.
Hence the production of birds is ascribed to the water.
St. Thomas Aquinas; Summa
Theologica, Book I
Q. 91, 2nd Art
Reply Obj. 2. Perfect animals, prodcued
by seed, cannot be made by the sole power of a heavenly body, as Avicenna imagined,
although the power of a heavenly body may assist by co-operation in the work of
natural generation, for as the Philosopher says, man and the sun beget man from
matter. For this reason, a place of
moderate temperature is required for the production of man and other perfect
animals. But the power of the heavenly
bodies suffices for the production of some imperfect animals from properly
disposed matter; for it is clear that more conditions are required to produce a
perfect than an imperfect thing.
St. Thomas Aquinas; Summa
Theologica, Book I
Q 105, 2nd Art.
Reply Obj. 1: Thus animals,
produced by putrefaction, and plants and minerals are like the sun and stars,
by whose power they are produced.
Hence angels and demons act on visible matter, not by imprinting
forms in matter, but by making use of corporeal seminal principles.
Luther felt
that mice could spontaneously arise from decaying matter.
Here questions are raised also about the mice and door mice,
whence they originate and how. Indeed,
we have learned from experience that not even ships which are continually
floating on the sea are safe from mice.
Likewise, no house can be so thoroughly cleaned that no mice are
produced in it. We can also inquire
about the manner in which flies come into existence. Likewise, where the birds go in the
fall….Thus mice belong to the kind produced by their unlike, because mice
originate not from mice alone but also from decay, which is used up gradually
and gradually turns into a mouse….The sun warms; but it would bring nothing
into being unless God said by His divine power:
“Let a mouse come out of the decay.”
Therefore the mouse too, is a divine creature, and, in my judgement, of a watery nature and, as it were, a land bird; otherwise it would
have the form of a monster, and its kind would not be preserved.
But for its kind it has a very beautiful form—such pretty feet and such
delicate hair plain in view. Therefore
here, too, we admire God’s creation and workmanship. The same thing may be said about flies.
About birds I
surely have no knowledge. It is not
likely that they go to regions lying more toward the south, inasmuch as from
experience it has been learned that the swallows lie dead in the waters
throughout the winger and return to life at springtime. This is truly a weighty proof of our
resurrection. Therefore I think that
birds are preserved either in trees or in waters. These works of the Divine Majesty are plainly
miraculous. So we see them, and yet we
do not understand them.
Martin Luther, Commentaries on Genesis, Vol. 1, p. 52
Calvin
argued that fish are still produced from water as simply a continuation of the
miracle which occurred at the creation of the world.
21 When he says that "the waters brought forth,"
he proceeds to commend the efficacy of the word, which the waters hear so
promptly, that, though lifeless in themselves, they suddenly teem with a living
offspring, yet the language of Moses expresses more; namely, that fishes
innumerable are daily produced from the waters, because that word of God, by
which he once commanded it, is continually in force.
--Calvin, Commentary on Genesis, Ch. 1. 21
St. Basil
included mice, eels, frogs, and insects with those animals which arise through
spontaneous generation. St. Isidore and Abraham Milius held
similar beliefs about insects, fish, and birds.
For, if there are
creatures which are successively produced by their predecessors, there are
others that even to-day we see born from the earth itself. In wet weather she
brings forth grasshoppers and an immense number of insects which fly in the air
and have no names because they are so small; she also produces mice and frogs.
In the environs of Thebes in Egypt, after abundant rain in hot weather, the
country is covered with field mice. We
see mud alone produce eels; they do not proceed from an egg, nor in any other
manner; it is the earth alone which gives them
birth. Let the earth produce a living
creature."
--Saint Basil Homily IX.2
St. Isidore “bees are generated
from decomposed veal, beetles from horseflesh, grasshoppers from mules,
scorpions from crabs”
--White, p. 55
Many felt
that animals might be generated through witchcraft.
There is war and deathless hatred between the wicked Demon
and Nature; for whereas every effort of Nature is directed upon procreation and
production, the Demon always strives to spoil and destroy her works. And as if he were not content with hail and
snow and other destructive phenomena of the weather, in which he is popularly
believed to bear a hand, he ceases not to use many other astonishing means to
compass his purpose. Alexia Violaea bore witness that, after running here and there
with he companions, she used to scatter in the air a fine powder given to her
by the Demon for that purpose; and that from this were generated caterpillars, bruchuses, locusts, and such pests of the crops in such
numbers that the fields on all sides were at once covered with them. Ervette Hoselette said that by a similar method they had more than once raised
a great army of mice which at once burrowed into the ground and gnawed at the
roots fo the growing crops. Jeanne Porelle
confessed that if she bore a grudge against anyone she used to send the breeze
upon his cattle so that they died a slow and miserable death through its
continual stinging…I suspect also that, when showers of frogs fall with the
rain during a thunderstorm, it is by the Demon’s art that they have first been
raised into the air…
Remy, 1595, p. 67
The idea of
spontaneous generation continued for centuries.
1667
Abraham Milius “the earth and the waters, and especially the heat
of the sun of the genial sky, together with that slimy and putrid quality which
seems to be inherent in the soil, may furnish the origin for fishes,
terrestrial animals, and birds.”
--White, p. 46
But what our eyes have seene; and
hands touched we shall declare. There is
a small Island in Lancashire…whereon is found a certain spume of froth that in
time breedith unto certain shells, in shape like
those of the Muskle, but sharper pointed, and of
whitish colour, one end whereof is fastened unto the
inside of the shell, even as the fish of Oisters and Muskels are; the other end is made fast unto the belly of a
rude masse or lumpe which in time commeth
to the shape of a Bird; when it is perfectly formed the whell
gapeth open, and the first thing that appeareth is the foreseaid lace
or string; next it openeth the shell by degrees, til at length it is all come forth and hangeth
onely by the bill:
in short space after it cometh forth to full maturitie
and falleth unto the sea, where it gathereth feathers, and groweth
to a fowle bigger than a Mallard…They spawn as it
were in March and April; the geese are formed in May and June, and come to fulnesse of feathers the month after. And thus having through God’s assistance…we
conclude and end our present Volume with this Wonder of England. For the which God’s
Name be ever honoured and praised.
Gerrards’ Herbal 1594,
from Hogben, 1930, p.
134-5
Concerning the generation of frogs we shall briefly deliver
that account which observation hathe taught us. By frogs I understand not such, as arising
from putrefaction are bred without copulation and because they subsist not long
are called temporariae…
mid-17th century Thomas Browne, from Hogben, 1930, p.
135
So may one doubt whether in cheese and timber worms are
generated; or if beetles and wasps in cow’s dung; or if butterflies, locusts,
grasshoppers, shell fish, snails, eels, and such like be procreated of
putrefied matter which is apt to receive the form of that creature to which it
is by formative powers disposed. To
question this is to question reason, sense, and experience. If he doubt of this
let him go to
Alexander Ross, from Hogben, 1930,
p. 136
…the theory of spontaneous generation was held by many,
perhaps by all the Fathers of the Church and that St. Thomas Aquinas himself
when rebuking Avicenna for teaching spontaneous generation did so because
Avicenna held the thesis that it was by the power of matter alone that life
arose, whereas, as St. Thomas says, if matter does produce life it is because
the Creator has given it the power to do so.
Windle, 1908, p. 84
Harvey was by no means opposed to spontaneous generation;
which on the contrary he adopted for worms, insects, etc.
Driesh, 1914, p. 26
Further considerations concerning spontaneous generation of infusoria and worms from decomposed elements…lead
Tiedemann—not very logically—to postulate the existence of a “vital matter”…
Driesh, 1914, p. 108
Cotton Mather, rather than use the Bible to support the idea of
spontaneous generation, referred to observations of the natural world to refute
it.
Dr. Gorden adds to the assurances
which all the inquisitive before him have given us, that no insects are bred of
corruption, but all ex ovo. [from eggs]
Cotton Mather, The Christian Philosopher, 1721, p. 144
Concerning frogs generated in the clouds, there has been a
mighty noise; the thunder scarce makes a greater! But Mr. Ray says well, it seems no more
likely than Spanish gennets begotten by their
wind. He adds, “He that can swallow the
raining of frogs, hath made a fair step towards believing that it may rain
calves also; for we read that one fell out of the clouds in Avicen’s
time.” Fromondus’
opinion, that the frogs which appear in great multitudes after a shower, are
not indeed generated in the clouds, by are coagulated of dust, commixed and
fermented with rain-water, is all over as impertinent. It is very certain that frogs are of two
different sexes…and the eggs lie in the midst of a copious jelly…
Cotton Mather, The Christian Philosopher, 1721, p. 146
Some who believed in spontaneous generation
reconciled this belief by interpreting the Genesis account of the creation of
life to include a life-giving force in matter.
Thus, all life which would later develop from that latter had a
preexistence which could be dated back to creation.
Preexistence theories
first appeared as an attempt to explain so-called spontaneous
generation, and only after the appearance of ovist
and spermist preformationist
ideas did it become the explanation of all generation. Bothe Daniel Sennert and Pierre Gassendi held
to such preexistent theories in their dealings with spontaneous
generation. The former held to
preexistent souls. The latter to preexisting germs. On the one hand, Sennert,
an early anatomist, believed the atoms alone were incapable of rearranging
themselves to form a living being; they must be animated by a soul. Since a soul cannot be produced from matter,
only from God, and since God had ceased to create, there must be an uninterrupted
chain of souls running back to the first creation of each species. Thus spontaneous generation can only occur in
matter endowed with a soul, that is, in living matter or matter that was once
alive.
Farley, p. 12
Before the life
cycle of parasitic worms was understood, it was believed that they generated
spontaneously in human intestines. This
belief was reconciled with the Genesis account of creation by stating that Adam
not only had the seeds of all future humanity in him, but also the seeds of all
future worms.
The problem of wastage that accrues if the worm seeds enter
with food and water—or even through the skin as Andry
believed—could however, be solved from another point of entry. The worm seeds could be assumed to pass
directly from host to offspring during copulation, lactation, or across the
placental barrier. “Why might not one
say, that in case the seed of the worm did not enter the patient’s body along
with the vituals, perhaps it might have accompanied
the blood of his father from the time of his conception…May we not rather
conceive that these very same seeds were created in the seed of man, along with
man himself.”
…This theory, in which poor Adam not only contained all of
mankind-to-be but also all his worms-to-be…
…Vallisneri attempted to extricate
the theory from this dilemma by assuming that the worms did good works before
the Fall.
Adam could support and feed those insects which had a mind
to live together quietly and friendly, as we may say; and if anything
superfluous remained, that they might eat…and not transgress their bounds or
eat holes through the sides of the guts…But this happiness of Adam was but of
short continuance, for disobeying God…all things were suddenly changed…
(quotes from early 1700s) from Farley, p. 20-1
The idea of
spontaneous generation continued to receive support from some religious
individuals in
When Charles Darwin was writing The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, the
possibility of “spontaneous generation” was still a very controversial
question….Many observers were convinced not only by what they saw, but also by
the fact that God had commanded, “Let the waters bring forth living creatures,”
a command which they considered had never been rescinded.
--Hearn, Walter from Mixter, p. 53
Louis Pasteur rendered a great service to biology and
medicine in his experiments showing that spontaneous generation is a concept
without foundation in fact—a serious setback for mechanism as well as for those
hyper-viatlists who believed God creates maggots in
rotting meat and tadpoles in water.
-- Key, Thomas from Mixter, p. 14
Modern
creationists argue that the idea that life could have arisen in the early earth
over millions of years of chemical reactions in oceans filled with organic
molecules is not only false, but an argument which opposes the Bible. It is interesting to note therefore, that
throughout most of the history of Christianity, Christians have believed that
spontaneous generation was not only possible but common. The believers of spontaneous generation
include many of the great theologians of the past and Bible passages were
sometimes employed to support these views.