The Origin of Life  by David N. Menton, Ph.D.  Copyright © 1997
Missouri Association for Creation, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
One of the most fundamental axioms of biology is that all life
comes from pre-existing life. Still, until the later part of the
19th century, life was believed to arise from non-living matter
by a process called "spontaneous generation." Ancient Egyptians,
for example, thought mice arose from the mud of the Nile. In
1600, J. B. Helmont even reported "proof" for the spontaneous
generation of mice claiming that if wheat, cheese, and soiled
linen are placed together in a jar, mice will eventually appear!
This idea of the spontaneous generation of life from non-life
was so deeply ingrained in biological thought that it took
nearly 200 years of experimental evidence to completely disprove
it.  In 1650, Francesco Redi, an Italian physician, proved that
maggots come from living flies and not from lifeless meat as was
widely believed. This was a serious blow to spontaneous
generation, but when