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[[Image:Intelligent design.jpg|alt= Intelligent design|thumbnail|300px|right|[[Intelligent design]] theorists contend that the core feature of life consists of information processing systems that cannot be fully explained as being the result of unintelligent causes alone. When [[evolution]]ist [[Richard Dawkins]] was young, he recognized that the complexity of life indicates a designer.]]
There have been a number of proposals regarding the '''origin of life''' on earth. However, the various proposals fall into two general schools of thought: one, held by [[Creationism|creationists]], is that life originated divinely/[[supernatural]]ly and the other school of thought is that non-life became life solely by means of natural processes.<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/science/life/Production-of-polymers Hypotheses of origins] Encyclopedia Britannica</ref> This The latter category is commonly referred to as ''abiogenesis'' and or "chemical [[evolution]]".<ref name="creationresearch.org">http://www.creationresearch.org/crsq/articles/36/36_4/abiogenesis.html</ref><ref>http://www.creationbc.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=86&Itemid=85</ref> High-profile evolutionists [[PZ Myers]] and Nick Matzke, agree that the origin of life is part of the evolutionary [[paradigm]], as does [[Richard Dawkins]].<ref name="Origin of life">[https://creation.com/origin-of-life Origin of life]</ref> Abiogenesis is only a hypothesis, as acknowledged by the National Academies of Sciences in 2023, not a developed or accepted scientific theory.<ref>Origins, Worlds, and Life: A Decadal Strategy for Planetary Science and Astrobiology 2023-2032. Washington, DC: National Academies Press. 2023. ISBN 0309475783. "Studies of the chemical origins of life start with the hypothesis that mixtures of simple small [[molecule]]s under the influence of various energy sources and early Earth environments created the building blocks of life and that interactions among these molecules eventually lead to life itself (Figure 12-2)."</ref><ref name="Luisi"/>
The first organisms are thought to have emerged around 4.1 to 3.8 billion years ago (earth being 4.6 billion years old) which means that he earliest life emerged very early on in the history of the earth with a very small window of opportunity (500-600 million years).<ref>[https://www.science.org/content/article/scientists-may-have-found-earliest-evidence-life-earth Scientists may have found the earliest evidence of life on Earth]. Julia Rosen. Science. 2015. doi: 10.1126/science.aad4732</ref> Molecules like RNA and peptides degrade within hours to days, limiting any potential for any chemical synthesis in real life.<ref>Tour, James M., et al. "Thermodynamic Limitations on the Natural Emergence of Long Chain Molecules: Implications for Origin of Life" BioCosmos: New perspectives on the origin and evolution of life, vol. 5, no. 1, Sciendo, 2025, pp. 64-71. https://doi.org/10.2478/biocosmos-2025-0010</ref> What complicates the origin of life research is that all fossils ever found have been DNA-based life forms, indicating that there is a Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA) which implies that it is possible that life only formed and survived once since no other genetic variants of life, other than DNA, has ever been found.<ref>[https://theconversation.com/did-life-evolve-more-than-once-researchers-are-closing-in-on-an-answer-205678 Did life evolve more than once? Researchers are closing in on an answer]. The Conversation. Jordi Paps. May 2023.</ref>
