Sounds like a disagreement over terms, something to be defined for the purposes of discussion. Not something to start throwing spears over. If someone has not studied evolution to the point that you have, certainly they are not going to have the same handle on the terminology. Either you have to explain it or adapt your language to fit the discussion, make sure that everyone is talking about the same thing.
Actually, your bringing up the point of Evolution vs. the Origin of Life is a discussion I might find interesting. But not if one of the professors is going to start calling me names and telling everyone else I am some sort of fanatic because I don't get it.
Do you see my point?
Perhaps you are not aware of the recent history of these threads. It is all about the creationists designing a sticker for the school board to put on textbooks that a judge threw out.
It was purposefully designed to say that evolution was a theory and not a fact (true but it distorts the arguement in that the students see it before the are taught what a theory is and are thus prejudiced as are the parents who will never be taught what a theory is).
Second, it links "the origin of life" to evolutionary theory. THEY are redifining science on purpose and everyone of the creationists on this thread knows what's going on. Now you know also and you know why we get testy.
Their goal is to totally discredit evolution and remove it from the classroom.
There is no disagreement in terms. Evolution specifically only deals with imperfect replicators (i.e., life). It could care less where that life comes from. In a similar manner, meteorology does not concern itself with the origins of the atmosphere.