The Origin Of Life?

[Napoléon]

Hey people. I've always had a big question I want to find the answer to, but seen as no scientist has yet found it I guess all I can do is come up with a theory/theories.
The question is: How did life begin?

I'm curious first of all as to what any of you guys seem to think is the most logical theory on this. I know we can synthetically create life for ourselves, but I've never understood how life could suddenly just come about naturally? I understand that we in our solar system are perfectly positioned for the best chances of life forming, but why and indeed how could life just form? BTW I'm really not interested in hearing any bible basher's opinions on this, I don't want this thread to develop into a debate about creationism.

I'm sure the guy who's gonna answer this question will probably be a nobel prize winner, so I'm not getting my hopes up it will be definitively answered here (I'm sure you're all intelligent guys/gals but lets face it, nobel prize winners? Nahh! )

So what I'd like to discuss in this thread is any theories on how life came about. Any links or articles would also be appreciated.

Mostly I just want to hear some of my fellow atheists' opinions on this.

Thanks for reading and feel free to share your thoughts.

[HeyItsZeus]

God farted while his room mate held up a match...thus...the big bang.

[Napoléon]

God farted while his room mate held up a match...thus...the big bang.

As I've specified, I'm not interested in the big bang or creationism. I'm interested in how life got kick-started on earth

[Ace Otana]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abiogenesis

[Napoléon]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abiogenesis

It's a great wiki article but just look at the amount of different theories there are. I want to know what ones people seem to think are the most likely and also why, if they care to answer.

[Ace Otana]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abiogenesis

It's a great wiki article but just look at the amount of different theories there are. I want to know what ones people seem to think are the most likely and also why, if they care to answer.

Can't answer that I'm afraid. I don't know.
They're still working on it. I guess you could just go for the one that seems most plausible.

[Anomalocaris]

God farted while his room mate held up a match...thus...the big bang.

As I've specified, I'm not interested in the big bang or creationism. I'm interested in how life got kick-started on earth

According to a currently favored theory, the process of water leaching from rocks under geothermal heating concentrated the chemical raw material and gathered the heat energy required to support the chemical processes that created the building blocks of life. The ejection of this hot, chemical laden water into the cold ocean water above caused some of the dissolved chemicals to precipitate out into tufa like towers around the vents called "white smokers". The cellular mineral matrix structure of white smoker is thought to provide the environment that enable prototype of metabolism to naturally occur with the building blocks of life, and also provide the mold with which the first enclosed cell can form.

Note this theory postule that the formation of life on earth is almost pure driven by internal geothermal energy of the earth, and is largely independent of the conditions on the surface of the earth. All that is required is a hot core, which according to current planet formation theory any planet would acquire just by heat of accretion to say nothing of decay of long lived isotops, and some substantial body of relatively cool water beneath the surface to replenish a geothermal drive hydro-cycle.

By extension, this theory also predicts that life may be very common inside planets whose surface condition might appear hostile to life.

[Napoléon]

According to a currently favored theory, the process of water leaching from rocks under geothermal heating concentrated the chemical raw material and geathered the heat energy required to support the chemical processes that created the building blocks of life. The ejection of this hot, chemical laden water into the cold ocean water above caused some of the dissolved chemicals to precipitate out into tufa like towers around the vents called "white smokers". The cellular mineral matrix structure of white smoker is thought to provide the environment that enable prototype of metabolism to naturally occur with the building blocks of life, and also provide the mold with which the first enclosed cell can form.

Note this theory postule that the formation of life on earth is almost pure driven by internal geothermal energy of the earth, and is largely independent of the conditions on the surface of the earth. All that is required is a hot core, which according to current planet formation theory any planet would acquire just by heat of accretion to say nothing of decay of long lived isotops, and some substantial body of relatively cool water beneath the surface to replenish a geothermal drive hydro-cycle.

By extension, this theory also predicts that life may be very common inside planets whose surface condition might appear hostile to life.

Is there an official name for this theory?

It would seem that with this theory life would be common across the galaxy (or have the potential to be anyway)? Perhaps more so than what we are led to believe?

I've always thought that the 'suitable conditions for life' may be different for different planets. There are organisms on earth living in incredibly harsh environments deep in the oceans. I think that life would certainly be capable of forming in such conditions as you've mentioned.

[Anomalocaris]

Is there an official name for this theory?

It would seem that with this theory life would be common across the galaxy (or have the potential to be anyway)? Perhaps more so than what we are led to believe?

I've always thought that the 'suitable conditions for life' may be different for different planets. There are organisms on earth living in incredibly harsh environments deep in the oceans. I think that life would certainly be capable of forming in such conditions as you've mentioned.

It's often called the "Iron-Sulfur world theory". It was worked out by Günter Wächtershäuser, William Martin, Michael Russell and others. This theory would indeed hypothesize that even life broadly biochemcially similar to our own can be much more ubiquitous than hitherto imagined because it is origin and existence can be totally divorced from what previously been called goldie-locks zone. Life not very far different biochemcially from ours could even arise on a isolated rougue planet without any star to give its surface warmth.

As to suitable conditions for life, there are organisms on earth that live 9 miles deep in the ground and metabolize rock for energy. Such life would be so hard to eradicate that nothing we can imagine that is far short of the total destruction of the earth would kill it.

[HeyItsZeus]

God farted while his room mate held up a match...thus...the big bang.

As I've specified, I'm not interested in the big bang or creationism. I'm interested in how life got kick-started on earth

I didn't even read your post...this is a dead end discussion...so I decided to make a family guy reference instead.