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Sharon @
newjaninev2 Without abiogenesis in place, there is no starting point for evolution to occur.
Evolutionary theory does encompass ideas and evidence regarding life’s origins (e.g., whether or not it happened near a deep-sea vent, which organic molecules came first, etc.), but this is not the central focus of evolutionary theory.
https://evolution.berkeley.edu/teach-evolution/misconceptions-about-evolution/
Darwin's monumental thesis, with natural selection at its core, was just the beginning of a long process of refinement and elaboration, which has continued unabated to the present day.
Precisely the same process will need to operate with respect to the Origin of Life problem.
Just as Darwin, in the very simplest of terms, pointed out how natural selection enabled simple life to evolve into complex life, so the recently proposed general theory of evolution [1,7] points out in simplest terms how simple, but fragile, replicating systems could have complexified into the intricate chemical systems of life.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3718341/
Evolutionary geologist and astrobiologist, Robert Hazen, assumes abiogenesis occurred. In his lecture series, Origins of Life, he says, “In this lecture series I make a basic assumption that life emerged by some kind of natural process. I propose that life arose by a sequence of events that are completely consistent with natural laws of chemistry and physics” (2005, emp. added). Evolution is an attempt to explain life through natural means, and abiogenesis must go hand-in-hand with such a theory.
Hazen further stated that in his assumption of abiogenesis, he is “like most other scientists” (2005).
