[Dimensio]

If the vast array of species of plant, animal and insect here today were to have come into being by blind chance through a precess of evolution, you either have to start at some point with no life at all, or explain the origin of the proto-life.

This is incorrect. The process of biological evolution starts at the point where the first imperfect replicators start replicating for the first time. How those first imperfect replicators came to exist is not addressed by the process of evolution.

[William Terrell]

The process of biological evolution starts at the point where the first imperfect replicators start replicating for the first time. How those first imperfect replicators came to exist is not addressed by the process of evolution.

Basic to the theory is the lack of an intelligence behind the life we see here, now. Hence the Great Debate among evolutionists, creationists and intelligent designers. Where the proto-organism came from would be central to the issue, don't you think?