Table of Contents

Preface

1. Scientific Theories and Laws

2. The First Decade (1936-1946)

3. Relativity

4. The Second Decade (1946-1956)

5. Quantum Mechanics

6. The Third Decade (1956-1966)

7. The Big Bang

8. The Fourth Decade (1966-1976)

9. The Non-Bang

10. The Fifth Decade (1976-1986)

11. The Never-Bang

12. The Sixth Decade (1986-1996)

13. Evolution

14. The Seventh Decade (1996-2006)

15. The Theory of More than Everything

16. The Eighth Decade (2006-2016)

17. Now What?

18. The Ninth Decade (2016-2026)

Appendix A Paintings

Appendix B TTOMTE and a Steady State Universe

Appendix C Musical Compositions

Bibliography

If you know your chemistry and aren't satisfied with the superficial presentation here, get de Duve's book. He will do a much better job of convincing you that non-life to life is an automatic process. He also explains why he chose a particular direction in spots where he might get an argument. However, don't be afraid that we will take away the mystery of life. We can only describe how life came about and why it works. How we can experience such a marvelous thing as life will still be a mystery.

Life can start up all by itself through evolution.

EVOLUTION TOWARDS LIFE

1. Debris clumps together forming the Earth about 4,500,000,000 years ago. We already went over how this may have happened.
2. Starting about four billion years ago, the number of incoming meteorites drops, but snowballs from outer space keep hitting. The Earth cools enough for water to collect, and continents rise out of the water with volcanoes everywhere. We find no life on land, in the sea, or in the air, and does this place smell! The air has no free oxygen, and the sulfur with hydrogen puts rotten eggs to shame. In addition, carbon dioxide or methane fills the air causing a greenhouse effect. The water boils, and it's full of iron¹⁹.
3. The comets, other falling objects, the atmosphere, and the Earth itself pass around all kinds of chemical elements²⁰. These elements shuffle into certain types of molecules²¹, the building blocks of life. With all the earthquakes, volcanoes, lightning, and explosions, it's a happening time. These particular molecules automatically build up in labs today, even when the chemist doesn't want them to because they fog up his test tubes.

Sections

WHAT IS A SPECIES

IS THERE EVOLUTION EVIDENCE

EVIDENCE FOR EVOLUTION

WHY DOES ANYTHING EVOLVE

WHAT IS PURE CHANCE

WHAT TWO STEPS IN EVOLUTION

WHERE DID LIFE COME FROM

EVOLUTION TOWARDS LIFE

EVOLUTION OF LIFE

EVOLUTION OF PLANT LIFE

EVOLUTION OF ANIMAL LIFE

EVOLUTION OF US

FINAL THOUGHTS

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