If not by creation, how did life come to be?

Here's one hypothesis (starts at 3:45):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6QYDdgP9eg

EDIT: "bacteria don't count; they require a host"

Uh, WTF are you talking about? I think you're confusing bacteria with viruses. Bacteria do NOT require hosts. You need to read a biology textbook.

Im gonna rush to your defense here. Most of these people are trying to patronize you because of the virus / bacteria thing, yet they still do not answer the question of the beginning nor do they list any qualifications of their own as scientists (which I am). What about the very first single life form? Where did it come from and how did it happen? And as far as the cosmological part of your argument, the universe is extremely hostile to life making our existence even that much more improbable. Furthermore you are the only thing in the universe to ask the question you just asked!! Only a created thing sees the evidence and wonders where is my creator and where did I come from? It is far more scientific to observe a creation with mind and purpose and investigate that premise than it is to blindly believev in a fantastic scheme in which things sprung from chemical chaos created themselves and exist through random genetic competition.

To the best of my slight knowledge of this, there is no hypothesis of abiogenesis that predicts a single celled organism anything like we see today.

As far as I can make out, one hypothesis suggests a self replicating assembly of molecules that were not within a cell wall. This is supported by the fact that some short strings of RNA are capable of self catalysis and self assembly. At least a dozen of these are known. These are called ribozymes and were discovered some 22 or so years ago by Thomas Cech, then at Boulder, Colorado.

In stark contrast to the complex structures of single celled organisms, these ribozymes are quite simple. If all this is true, then single celled organisms are the product of much evolution from these assemblies.

The answer is too large for a Yahoo! answer box. Look up abiogenesis; in particular look up Oparin-Haldane theory and the Miller-Urey experiment. This was the earliest proposal, I think, that was complete, and the one usually offered as the explanation by overenthusiastic science writers. The Wikipedia article on abiogenesis lists many other current theories under study, without giving very full explanations of any of them.

Your statement 'bacteria don't count; they require a host' is not accurate. You are probably thinking of viruses.

"If not by creation, how did life come to be?"

I only know that it didn't start with MAGIC...

AronRa: Gods and magic are the most simplistic excuses ignorant primitives have ever imagined to explain anything.

"how does the first single celled organism form"

On an earth-like planet at a favorable distance from a suitable star and with a proper mix of basic elements and favourable conditions.

You're smarter than you thought... well done...

~

See...making up that answer only delays the question a step, because now you are left with how did the god you invented come to be. You add a step, have zero evidence for that step, and didn't actually answer anything. See Occam's Razor

The chemistry is all there. We don't know the exact details, but we have it damn close and it doesn't require magic.

The first life was much, much simpler than a cell.

I don't think anyone on R&S knows, it is a question that requires lengthy expensive detailed research. YA! people are not doing that research. It is possible the the cause of 'life' was destroyed and we may never find out how it happened.

How life originated isn't known, but what is known is that the creation account in Genesis can't be literally true.

QUOTE: "(bacteria don't count; they require a host)."

I think you might be confusing a bacterium with a virus. Even bacteria are susceptible to viral infection.

Best theory yet is panspermia... The idea that frozen water from comets and asteroids fell to earth and started the whole process.

Currently, there are no famous Nobel Laureates on Yahoo answers that can answer your question.