In hmolscience, Nickolas Dorfman (1941-) is a Russian-born American biologist, specializing in tumor immunology, noted for his 2008 Was Mona Lisa Created by Physicochemical Reactions Alone?, wherein he attempts to argue the the human mind cannot arise from energy and molecules alone; the following is his abstract: [1]

“Mainstream science is going to deep into physics and chemistry limiting science to only molecules and energy and dismissing any spiritual ideas. A simple logic can clearly indicate that inanimate molecules and energy just cannot be so smart to create numerous masterpieces of human civilization.”

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Primordial soup fairytale
The following is Dorfman’s take, his bolding (four times), on what he calls the origin of life "fairy tale", which originally he said he could accept, being educated in atheistic materialism, with some reservations:

“Once upon a time, one molecule, scudding in a primordial ocean, suddenly and absolutely accidentally met another cute molecule. They decided to bind to each other and scud together, and found that they acquired a new property, which gave them a better chance to survive in that rough and unfriendly primordial ocean. During the next billions of years, these molecules met many other attractive molecules (of course, absolutely accidentally) and combined with many of them, creating a big conglomerate of molecules. This conglomerate again absolutely accidentally discovered that it can create similar little baby conglomerates by simple division and that is how a primordial organic complex or protein or nucleic acid was created. They then absolutely accidentally found each other in the primordial ocean, combined and created a small syndicate that acquired many new and very useful properties for survival and we now call it a ‘cell’.”

Here, in this molecules having a better chance to survive or struggle to exist, we see the issues of the so-called "Darwin (evolution theory) meets Democritus (atomic theory) paradox, i.e. that atoms and molecules don't struggle to survive, as pointed out by Robert Pirsig.

Dorfman goes to state that the following is his objection to this argument:

“Accidental and random combinations of molecules can neither create a car nor a human being or even a simple one-celled organism with a certain ‘directing power’ that can transform originally inanimate matter into numerous forms of life.”

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Russian artist Ekaterina Shulzhenko’s sketch of Dorfman’s premise that something beyond mere matter and energy created Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. [1]

Was Mona Lisa Created by Physicochemical Reactions Alone (2008)

Russian artist Ekaterina Shulzhenko’s sketch of Dorfman’s premise that something beyond mere matter and energy created Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. [1]

Education
Dorfman competed his PhD in biology at Moscow State University in 1965 and then worked there for 11 years in the field of tumor immunology. In 1976, he immigrated to United States and continued his tumor immunology research at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.

Religion
Dorfman states that he was raised in a strictly atheist environment, like all kids in Russia, taught a materialist view, and ingrained with the belief that there is no god and that religion is the “enemy of the people” and “poison for people’s mind.” Dorfman states that he turned to spirituality after he found a dead end with the following puzzle:

“While working in the field of science, which is mostly a materialistic environment, I was trying to analyze the human mind form the viewpoint of evolution and molecules, or in other words, rejecting everything that is beyond matter and energy. This brought me to a dead end with no exit.”

He states that, after learning about the abilities of blind musicians, and savant syndrome minds like Kim Peek and Daniel Tammet, that he conceded that there might be some type of intelligence in the universe “beyond matter and energy”.

Quotes
The following are noted quotes:

“Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.”
— Voltaire (c.1780), front matter quote

References
1. Dorfman, Nikolas. (2008). Was Mona Lisa Created by Physicochemical Reactions Alone? Open Your Mind and Use Your Logic. iUniverse.