The beginning of life

Abstract

The first of all geological puzzles is how life began. We have no real idea of the answer. Any living organism, even the simplest, is an enormously complex array of chemicals. To make life accidentally would need an extraordinary and unlikely series of events. The biologist, Francis Crick, in his book Life itself, pointed out that the chance of life beginning on Earth is so remote that one must demand a miracle, whether it be the deliberate seeding of the planet by some distant life form (Crick’s preference), or the more conventional appeal to an extraordinarily improbable event. Theologically and rationally there is no reason against the latter explanation being true: life may well be the result of an extremely unlikely event. Was there divine intervention? The psychologist, Carl Jung believed in the Latin saying: ‘Called or not called, God will be present’. Other scientists feel that natural processes will inevitably produce life on a habitable planet. The discussion remains metaphysical, not in the domain of natural science.