Bill, you've been reading up on origin of life issues lately. Always interesting. What

led to your research in this? Well, as you know, Kevin, I am writing a systematic

philosophical theology. And I've reached the section on the doctrine of creation, one

of the most important loci or themes of systematic theology. And my vision of systematic theology

is that it should be integrative with what we learn from secular disciplines about the

world. And so I want a doctrine of creation that is scientifically informed and compatible

with what we learn through the study of the natural world, through the sciences. And

so this naturally raises the question of the origin of life on this planet. Where did

life come from? And what was God's role in the origin of life? So that is what has plunged

me into this very unfamiliar and different realm of research that I'm presently engaged

in.

Well, as I understand, the study of life's origins involves a study of a biogenesis, correct

on that? And how would we define that? Yes. A biogenesis can be differently defined.

Basically, it's the idea that life is not eternal in the past, but that at some point

in the past there were no living organisms, no living things. And then later there arose

living things so that life came from and after non-life. Now, the key element is whether

or not a biogenesis by definition means the natural origin of life from non-life or does

it simply mean the origin of life from non-life? And the reason that's important is that

even the creationist who believes that at some point in the past on a lifeless earth,

God created the first life in a neutral sense that is a biogenesis life comes after

and from non-life. But it doesn't do so naturally. It comes through a creative miracle

of God. And I don't think there's any right or wrong way to define a biogenesis. We

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