Is Evolution a science or a faith?

[Mister Agenda]

Yes, but none of that means that evolution is based on the spontaneous appearance of life.

That's a little like saying gravity is not based on the earth going around the sun. No, but gravity does explain and predict the milieu of phenomenons which includes earth going around the sun, even had earth going around the sun not been the specific phenomenon that originally prompted the formulation of the theory of gravity.

The earth going around the sun is part of the information we used to formulate the theory of gravity. Abiogenesis is not part of the information we used to forumulate the theory of evolution. Those of us aware of the basics of evolution (pretty much everyone here but Harris) get that the most likely abiogenesis scenario involves evolution of self-replicating molecules. The details of abiogenesis are not the point, trying to get through Harris's thick skull that scientific abiogenesis does not have to be true for evolution to be true is.

Spontaneous appearance of life, in the sense of raw materials of life gradually being assembled stage by stage by trial and error until some of the resulting assemblage crossed that artificial threshold we call life, is part of the milieu of biological phenomenon a which can be explained, even predicted, by the mechanics of evolution by natural selection, even if evolution was not initially formulated specifically to explain or predict the spontaneous appearance of life.

Well, if we ever run out of creationists to complain over dragging abiogenesis into an evolution conversation, we'll still have you.