[Ichneumon]

Why only once? Why not twice? Why not 1,000X? Why not a trillion times?

Because any budding attempts to repeat the process would be eaten by the evolved results of the *first* success.

This "only once" rule sounds suspiciously like a darwinist version of a "god of the gaps."

Only if you don't bother to think it through.

Inded, it goes against all rationality to suggest that it did not happen often.

"Often"? Only if it were "easy" to occur. The best understanding at this point, however, is that we're probably pretty lucky it happened at all.

[Dimensio]

Why only once? Why not twice? Why not 1,000X? Why not a trillion times?

Because any budding attempts to repeat the process would be eaten by the evolved results of the *first* success.

Actually, there's nothing in the abiogenesis hypothesis that prevents it from happening more than once, and I've not seen any strong arguments for it happening exactly and only once.

[cookcounty]

"Posted by Ichneumon to cookcounty On News/Activism 05/03/2003 10:52 PM PDT #415 of 584 Why only once? Why not twice? Why not 1,000X? Why not a trillion times? Because any budding attempts to repeat the process would be eaten by the evolved results of the *first* success. Often"? Only if it were "easy" to occur.

How have you determined with such precision how "easy" (or difficult ) it was to occur?