How did life begin? How did chemical reactions on the early Earth create complex, self-replicating structures that developed into living things as we know them? According to one school of thought, before the current era of DNA-based life, there was a...
it’s possible microbial life is common but complex life is rare
No doubt about that. This is basically different flavors of atheism lol.
The argument is did amino acids come first, or did the molecules that make up amino acids find an incredibly rare way to line up and form all the various different amino acids?
A theory about lightning hitting the pools of water and ammonia forming amino acids directly is what I believe to be the true cause of life.
The other theory (outlined in the article) is based on a much older chemical reaction that heavily relies on autocatalysis in which near perfect conditions are required.
But in whole, I don’t know, nobody knows. We will fade in to dust and never be sure why we really even existed to begin with.