The 'thermal vents' thing doensn't have conculsive evidence behind it. It's very likely, but not totally proven (which is difficult for somthing that ancient). There are still some scientists who think that the first life might have been extra-terrestrial in origin, possibly developing on Mars when Mars still had water (since it would cool faster than Earth, being smaller.) They point to the fact that mats of single celled organisms appeared very early in the history of earth (though multi-cellular organism don't appear till later strata, arguing against the notion that things were created in a literal week.)
Either way, there are fossil records which change gradually over strata, tracts of DNA found in related organisms, etc. all of which would have been predicted by evolution before they were actually discovered.
Evolution is by far the most predictive theory (or set of theories at this point.) And at the end of the day, science is all about predictive value. And theory that isn't, is simply armchair philosophy. We can roughly what genes a plant might have based on the phyllum it belongs to.
Some people believe in Creationism, but this theory is close to useless in terms of predictive value. It can explain things after the fact, but that's not the same thing as predictive value, and thus not scientific.
If you want to see a case of evolution in action, read "The Evolution of Infections Diseases." by Paul Ewald.
It's a little redundant at times since he's trying to make a case for his beliefs rather than simply throwing out some conclusions, but if you have the patience to wade through it you might find it worthwhile for just that reason.
Of course, I'm assuming that you're actually looking for truth and not just trying to justify what you already believe in.
grr... sorry for the typoes. Typing fast. Have to go. Later folks.
That's an understatement.
What about submarine vents as a source of prebiotic compounds?
Stanley Miller: "I have a very simple response to that . Submarine vents don't make organic compounds, they decompose them. Indeed, these vents are one of the limiting factors on what organic compounds you are going to have in the primitive oceans. At the present time, the entire ocean goes through those vents in 10 million years. So all of the organic compounds get zapped every ten million years. That places a constraint on how much organic material you can get. Furthermore, it gives you a time scale for the origin of life. If all the polymers and other goodies that you make get destroyed, it means life has to start early and rapidly. If you look at the process in detail, it seems that long periods of time are detrimental, rather than helpful."
Heaven forfend, psipsistar!
Darwinist theory doubtless does have predictive value. It seems Darwinist theory constitutes a good explanation of adaptations in living beings occasioned by "pulls" from the external environment. But there's more to living beings than environmental pulls. And there's nothing in Darwinism that can account for the emergence of life in the first place.
So, if one is interested in the problem, "What Is Life?," one finds that Darwinist theory is, at best, but a piece of the puzzle. There's more 'splainin' to do.
Thank you very much for writing, psipsistar!