"One has only to wait: TIME itself performs the miracles " ...The important point is that since the origin of life belongs in the category of at least once phenomena, time is on its side. However improbable we regard this event, or any of the steps which it involves, given enough time it will almost certainly happen at-least-once. And for life as we know it, with its capacity for growth and reproduction, once may be enough.
Time is in fact the hero of the plot. The time with which we have to deal is of the order of two billion years. What we regard as impossible on the basis of human experience is meaningless here. Given so much time, the "impossible" becomes possible, the possible probable, and the probable virtually certain.
"One has only to wait: time itself performs the miracles "
~George Wald (1906 - 1997) Professor of Biology at Harvard University & Nobel Prize in
Physiology / Medicine 1967
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1967/wald-bio.html
* Should be noted that in 1954 when Prof Wald wrote this they were only estimating the age of the Earth @ 2.5Bil yrs or so ...he was voted one of the top 6 professors in the US at the time and active in civil rights & anti war . And oh , the fundies just can't handle it they'd rather believe in magic breath theory & sitting on their hands pontificating , again .
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