[PatrickHenry]

Berlinski seemed to be doing OK up to that point in the narrative in at least describing the history ...

Yes. I'm finding this article to be amazingly well-written. One sentence leaped out at me from early in the article:

Before the era of biological evolution, they conjectured, there must have been an era of chemical evolution taking place in something like a pre-biotic soup.

This seems like a very good way to deal with the ever-popular question that creationists are always asking -- how did life begin? The quick (and truthful) answer is that the question asks about chemical evolution, and Darwin dealt only with biological evolution.

I'm pinging Ichneumon to get his opinion on the article, before I allow myself to get even more enthusiastic than I already am.

[VadeRetro]

This seems like a very good way to deal with the ever-popular question that creationists are always asking -- how did life begin? The quick (and truthful) answer is that the question asks about chemical evolution, and Darwin dealt only with biological evolution.

Even Jack Chick knows that. ;)