[KeepRight]

I thought it interesting how the article begins presuming that "3.5 billion years" ago, "nature transformed non-living matter into living things, populating Earth with a cornucopia of animals and plants." I was under the impression that those were theories concerning the origin of life, not quite scientific fact!

And what are they doing feeding jet fuel to bacteria or whatever? That's why gas prices are skyrocketing. Oh well, I suppose we'll just go exchange some more blood for oil, again. (sarcasm.)

[Long Cut]

Actually, no theory explains, or concerns itself with, the ORIGIN of life. The theory of evolution, on the other hand, best explains the diversity of life we observe, given the available evidence.

In that sense, it's not a "theory" in the sense of a "guess", but more accurately a hypothesis using the available data. In that, it's similar to Einstein's Theory of relativity or Newton's theories.

That is, more of an explanation with a LOT of backup evidence, enough to be considered scientifically reliable, falsifiable, and predictable.

As for explaining life's diversity and development into species, nothing else has ever come close to satisfying the same standards of proof.

The article makes the mistake of attributing life's ORIGINS to the wrong theory. There are SUPPOSITIONS about the way life first formed, but nothing has satisfactorially explained it yet.

This experiment might help in that regard.

[AnnaZ]

I'm with ya...

 

    More than 3.5 billion years after nature transformed non-living matter into living things, populating Earth with a cornucopia of animals and plants...

 

(Insert eye-rolling smiley here.)

 

It's stated as fact, and yet it is so fantastical. (((sigh!))) If it makes them happy...

 

 

(Also, note that humans are not distinguished from animals [or plants for that matter]... Mozart? Michelangelo? Claudia Schiffer? Apes, I tell you!)

[Junior]

I was under the impression that those were theories concerning the origin of life, not quite scientific fact!

More like hypotheses. Theories, in science, are consistent with the available evidence, and capable of being used to make predictions (which is one way to test a theory). Theories such as Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, Evolution, Light, etc., fall into this category (which is why they are called "theories").