> NB I'd expect none of these very simple machines to survive to present day - in fact, I'd imagine there to be several generations of early life, each obliterating/consuming/sublimating the ones before.
That's another really interesting axis of this topic -- why was early Earth special?
There may be no environments on Earth today that are like early Earth, but we could probably recreate them. Wouldn't we then be able to witness abiogenesis?
Or, early Earth wasn't special and abiogenesis happens today. If so, where do we look?
It may happen quite infrequently, and only because it happened in a large, lifeless (but 'nutrient' rich bath) did it have a chance to amplify. What's interesting to me is that it only has to happen once.
Yes, Earth's specialness is interesting, too, and counts for what I believe are the best reasons to believe in God. Earth has so many amazing qualities: it is a cozy distance from the Sun (temp), tilted quite a bit (seasons), with a molten core (cosmic ray protection) and a huge moon (tides, nocturnal light). All of these may be necessary conditions for life to arise, and they are all, as far as we know, quite rare individually, and astronomically unlikely in combination.
That's another really interesting axis of this topic -- why was early Earth special?
There may be no environments on Earth today that are like early Earth, but we could probably recreate them. Wouldn't we then be able to witness abiogenesis?
Or, early Earth wasn't special and abiogenesis happens today. If so, where do we look?