DAVID: Your points are well taken, but it is still obvious that life appeared quickly and easily on Earth, a point that should startle you. Was it a natural event? I doubt it. Do you?

dhw: Neither you nor I have the slightest idea how quickly and easily it began, or what the criteria are for speed and ease. Of course life is a startling and wondrous event. Was it natural (Reblak’s hypothesis) or designed by a God (your hypothesis)? You and I have spent nearly ten years discussing the question, and we still don’t know the answer, though you think you do.

The fact that life appeared at 3.8 billion years ago, only 200 million years after the bombardment stopped speaks to quickly and easily. And it grows in every hostile environment we study, again easily!