OK, I think I agree with all 5 of those propositions, especially as I formulated at least two of them myself. - In future I'm going to have to limit myself to certain threads, and this will be one. There have been just too many posts to follow lately, and they often veer wildly off topic. I'm certainy not getting into the climate change denial thread! - dhw wrote: "Self-replicating molecules would not have been able to undergo subsequent variation (by mutation, combination or environmental influence) if there had not been some mechanism in place that allowed for reproducible change." - I don't see why any special "mechanism" is necessary. Variation will occur quite naturally, sometimes it will be reproducible sometimes not.