The Abiogenesis or Spontaneous Generation Theory admitted that living beings were originated from lifeless raw matter.
Advocates of abiogenesis claimed that there was a "vital force" in some types of organic matter, responsible for giving rise to living beings.
The idea of abiogenesis is the first explanation for the emergence of living beings. Aristotle, an important and recognized Greek philosopher, was a great advocate of abiogenesis.
Abiogenesis was for a long time widely accepted as the theory that explained the origin of living things.
According to abiogenesis, living beings could emerge in a variety of ways from lifeless matter. See some examples of the explanation of the spontaneous origin of living beings:
- Swans emerged from the leaves of trees that fell into lakes;
- Dirty, sweaty shirts could breed rats;
- Toads emerged from the mud present in aquatic environments;
- Worms spontaneously originate in the intestines.
You main advocates of abiogenesis were: Aristotle, Jean Baptiste Van Helmot, Willian Harvey, René Descartes, Isaac Newton and John Needhan.
Learn more about Origin of life.
Abiogenesis and Biogenesis: Differences
While abiogenesis argued that living beings arose spontaneously, biogenesis claims the opposite.
The theory of biogenesis admits that all living beings originate from other preexisting living beings. Currently, it is the accepted theory to explain the origin of living beings.
Louis Pasteur was responsible for definitively overturning the theory of abiogenesis. He performed an experiment demonstrating that boiling nutritious broths did not destroy "vital force" and that microorganisms appeared whenever the broth came into contact with air.
Thus, the microorganisms present in the air were responsible for originating others, proving that living beings only originate from other preexisting ones.
Know more about:
- Abiogenesis and Biogenesis
- Biogenesis
- Origin of Life Exercises
