The mere fact we haven't found them is attesting to the Biblical narrative. Clearly we are the only fallen world.
It is absurd to make the claim evolution follows a particular repeatable method and then turn around and cough up the nonesense that "oh but maybe they didn't evolve beyond non intelligent life". Really? You honestly believe such tripe?
What that really proves is that the entire evolutionary view is complete rubbish...it's a copout for those who can't bring themselves to believe in a creator God!
As soon as problems arise in the theory, the excuses given to explain the problem become so untenable they are an insult to the intelligence we have been given by our creator.
What is really insult to intelligence, is believing in less than 3000 year-old book (Genesis), where human - fully grown man - can magically come into existence from dust on the ground, just by breathing life into dust-made nostrils (2:7):
“Genesis 2:7” said:
7 then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
That’s the real insult. To believe in “God did it” superstition. To believe in the supernatural, like magic, where lifeless dust can transform into living cells.
Genesis is based on the Babylonian creation myth of the gods creating humans straight from the Earth (clay),
...either using water from the primeval ocean (called Abzu in Sumerian or Aspu in Old Babylonian), eg the 21st century BCE Sumerian
Enki and Ninmah,
Enlil and the Hoe,
...or from using the blood of sacrificed god (Geshtu-E, the god of intelligence), like 17th century BCE Old Babylonian narrative, eg
Epic of Atrahasis.
Like these older stories from Mesopotamia, Genesis relied on superstition and the belief in supernatural for creating human.
Whether from lifeless dust (eg silt soil) or from lifeless clay, neither of these can magically turn into living cells of any human being.
Today, we have understanding of cells, and cells are not made of dust or soil (eg silt, clay). Both silt and clay are made of weathered minerals from rocks, from different types of silicates, SiO (eg micas, feldspars, quartz).
If Genesis Adam was made from the dust of the Earth, meaning soil, then some trace evidence of these silicates should exist in our cells, today, but there are not even single silicate.
What exist in every cells of every known organisms on Earth, from unicellular organisms (microorganisms) of Bacteria and Archaea, or multicellular organisms of Fungi, Plantae and Animalia, are three important biological molecules or compounds:
- Proteins, which are made of amino acids
- Nucleic acids (eg RNA, DNA)
- Carbohydrates (eg energy sources, like sugars or starch, etc, or sugars of ribose in RNA and deoxyribose in DNA.
The fourth fundamental molecule in cell would be lipids (which are made from fatty acids or carboxylic acids.
We are made from these organic materials or chemical compounds (proteins, nucleic acids, carbohydrates and lipids) exist in every known types of cells, none of these cells contain any types of silicates that exist in soil.
And btw, AdamjEdgar, Evolution is only focused on the biodiversity of life, changes to the populations of organisms, the mechanisms of changes through Natural Selection, Genetic Drift or Mutations. So life would have to already to exist, to pass genetic traits from ancestors to descendants.
Evolution isn’t about the origin of first life. If you really wanted to talk about origin of life, then your post should have focused on Abiogenesis, not on Evolution.