Samuel;Question:  I have a friend who works with NMR and he would like to do research to analyze some samples of soils by NMR and IR analyzes and compare with some analyzes of human issue. He would like to prove that man "comes from earth". Do you know if there is some material published about this?  How could he make a bibliographic research before he starts? What do you think about the idea in general?

Answer:

To be honest, I am quite skeptical that we can use the chemical content in human beings to “prove” that man “comes from the earth.”  Such a proof will only be convincing to the non-scientist believer.   Obviously, the same elements which make up the “earth” are the ones which compose the human body.   If you want to use the elemental composition of the human body to prove that the creation of man “from dust” in Genesis is true, this will not be good logic and I would suggest not using such an argument.   We cannot go back and recreate the creation moment and we certainly cannot perform an experiment today which will model what was clearly a supernatural phenomenon in any case.   I believe that God is not using a scientific argument when he says man was made “from dust.” Now, please forgive my very skeptical approach.  I will be happy to look at the argument your friend is using.  Perhaps he/she has some model being used which can change my mind, but you asked my opinion, and until I can see something specific, that is my opinion. John Oakes