14 DAY TRIAL // Over the years, and especially starting with the late 18th century and early 19th century, theories of how life came to be moved outside the church's sphere of influence, and into the realm of science. Although this should have brought forth a new age in knowledge, based on facts and not on fantasy, that was hardly what happened in reality. Some scientists began to look for the origins of life, trying to determine if and how it sprang from inanimate objects such as rocks and rotten flesh. But they did that in a very religious way, and used their results to support the church's claims, whereas others sought to resort to real science.
We all know that moss grows on stones, but are also aware of the fact that the spores that seed this plant are carried to the moist environment on the surface of the rock via the wind. However, two centuries ago people were not so aware of these facts. Thus, in the early 1860s, chemist Louis Pasteur published a theory saying that life could not possibly spring up from objects that had no vitality to begin with. He was a supporter of the creation theory, saying that only divine intervention could have given the initial spark needed for the onset of life on Earth.
In 1859, British naturalist Charles Darwin published his own work, “On The Origin of Species,” having reached a totally different result than Pasteur. He was a strong advocate of the evolution theory, saying that the initial cells that took shape in the primordial soup formed entirely out of inanimate matter and that, if needed, the process could take place again. He also argued that the right conditions could even at the time turn the right mixture into basic compounds of life.
Later, at the beginning of the 20th century, as scientists were learning about the complexity of cells, their chemistry and their genes, the confusion about life's origins grew even stronger. And this naturally prompted more and more people to say that it was the creation of a god, and that there was no way all the right conditions could have been met by accident.
Furthermore, that was a reaction to be expected from people who still had no idea about how the human body had been made, before new and exciting fossils were discovered that would bring about a new wave of knowledge on the matter.
Others proposed a theory according to which the spores of life traveled the Universe, and only germinated when they met the appropriate conditions. They cited as proof the fact that microorganisms could be found in the Earth's atmosphere. This hypothesis also resulted from the fact that knowledge on the Universe was limited, and that no one knew for sure how we had been arranged, planet-wise, in the grand scheme of things.
Even now, there are those who still claim that life was the creation of a higher being, despite all the scientific pieces of evidence pointing to the contrary. People are afraid of things they don't know, and most find it a lot easier to credit something to a higher being, instead of taking the long way around, and start searching for the answers themselves.