The Origin of Life: A Philosophical Hypothesis in Dialogue with Modern Biology

Abstract

Currently, abiogenetic theories enjoy wide support when it comes to explaining the origin of life. Although the advances are undeniable, these models face significant difficulties, which, in our view, stem from the challenge of explaining the emergence of a living being from inert agents. To fill this explanatory gap, interventionist models introduce the action of a higher cause—God—to explain the transition from the nonliving to the living. However, this idea does not fully respect the legitimate autonomy of secondary causes and is dangerously close to the “God of the gaps,” widely criticized over recent decades. Expanding on our previous work on biological evolution, we now propose a hypothesis that distances itself from both abiogenesis and interventionism. The resulting model, inspired by the philosophical proposals of Thomas Aquinas, harmonizes the action of God as the first and principal cause with the action of secondary and instrumental causes described by natural history in its own epistemological domain.