Re: Have they ever been able to form DNA from a primordial soup?

This isn't a loaded question, is it? 8-)

As far as I know, DNA has not been spontaneously created in an experiment 
such as you mention. Here's a good interview with Stanley Miller that 
gives his current opinion of the state of play:
 http://www.accessexcellence.org/WN/NM/miller.html

That DNA has not been made in such a way does not stand in the way of 
claiming that life arose from chemistry without some sort of divine 
intervention. Absence of proof is, as everyone should appreciate, not 
proof of absence. In this case, there is good reason to believe that the 
processes took place over millions of years, and were not guaranteed to 
produce biochemistry as we know it anyway (a totally different 
biochemistry could have arisen, with different 'frozen accidents' built 
in: e.g. why not have biochemistry based on D-amino acids, not L-amino 
acids? No reason.).

So, OK, nobody has shown that DNA can arise from prebiotic conditions, but 
then again, nobody has shown that it can't. There are two options: 
chemistry did it, or God. Both suggestions are valid, but chemistry is the 
simpler and likelier reason, IMHO.

Besides, what about this for a scenario:
Claimant: Because DNA can't be made from primordial soup, God exists
Researcher: New discovery! DNA made from primordial soup!
Claimant: Err, so God doesn't exist then?

It's not wise to attribute the unknown to the divine, because you never 
know when knowledge will catch up with the unknown; and where will 
divinity be then?

Ewen McLaughlin