Abiogenesis; or, The Beginning of Something New

Abiogenesis bugs me.

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, abiogenesis is “the idea that life arose from nonlife”. Sure, okay. Life started here on earth, right? We know this, we’re the living proof. But let’s, for a minute, just break down the word abiogenesis.

The prefix a- means “without” or “not”. It indicates the absence of whatever it is prefacing. ANd then there's “bio” originating from Greek and meaning “relating to life”. And finally, there's genesis, which means a beginning of something.

absence + life + beginning

Roughly, we’re talking about the absence of life beginning life.

I like the word, really I do. I think it’s a great word that indicates its meaning really, really well.

What I don’t like is having no idea or explanation for abiogenesis. At some point in earth’s past, there was not life. And then, there was. Why? What happened? There aren’t even really any theories to explain it. Even if we don’t know for sure (which, to be clear, we rarely do) I want an idea that I can throw my weight behind and say (You know? That sounds right enough? I’ll believe it and my narrative will make sense with it.”

That’s what I want. I want a story.

The thing is, the rocks I collected as a kid aren’t suddenly going to become alive in the box where they sit under my bed. That’s not in the nature of the things. Things that aren’t in motion don’t start moving without causes. That’s just not how it works.

So, I’m starting a new blog. This might be the beginning of a new life. And it might seem to be coming from nowhere to the outside observer. But I can tell you, there are a myriad of things behind the scenes that are causing this. So maybe that’s the point of abiogenesis? A lot of little things added up over a really long time until at some point, inorganic compounds were moved to life.

Oh well, it’ll do for now.