And thus the hypothesis that living matter always arises by the agency of pre-existing living matter, took definite shape;[…] It will be necessary for me to refer to this hypothesis so frequently, that, to save circumlocution, I shall call it the hypothesis ofBiogenesis; and I shall term the contrary doctrine—that living matter may be produced by not living matter—the hypothesis ofAbiogenesis.
The assertion of[Louis] Pasteur is justified, that theonus probandi [burden of proof] lies with abiogenesists, since there is no experience of any living form more than1⁄1000 of an inch in diameter springing to life out of inorganic matter; it is therefore vastly improbable (needing most cogent evidence to prove), that any form less than1⁄1000 of an inch in size can be made to spring into life from inorganic matter. Whileabiogenesis is unproved, we hold to the conclusion that vital force is not the mere outcome or resultant of any or all of the other cosmic forces.
Lifebegan. There was oneabiogenesis when something happened to turn inanimate matter into animate cells. And it happened only once. There are noabiogeneses today. Human life is continuous. Human persons are discontinuous and individual.
1997,Eric Voegelin, “Race as Biological Unit”, in Ruth Hein, transl., edited byKlaus Vondung,Race and State: Translated from the German (The Collected Works of Eric Voegelin; 2), Baton Rouge, La.; London:Louisiana State University Press,→ISBN, part I (The Systematic Content of Race Theory),page45:
According to[Carl] Nägeli, the highest forms have evolved from the oldest cells produced throughabiogenesis, and the lower forms are, depending on their position in the hierarchy, the descendants of respectively more recentabiogenesis.
2014, G. Bradley Schaefer; James N. Thompson, Jr., “Genetics: Unity and Diversity”, inMedical Genetics: An Integrated Approach, New York, N.Y.:McGraw-Hill Education,→ISBN,page 3:
Althoughabiogenesis, the spontaneous creation of a living system under appropriate conditions, must have occurred at the end of the prebiotic world, spontaneous generation of life no longer occurs.
abiogenesis on Wikipedia.Wikipedia