Philosophical Naturalism and the Origin of Life

Upon considering the origin of man, a purely naturalistic philosophy that refuses to acknowledge a supernatural and transcendental cause is unable to provide a full account of anthropogenesis. One could examine this inability from two perspectives: in answering the question as to how life or “being” came into existence, and in answering the question as to why life or “being” came into existence and continues. Both of these questions give rise to, and/or arise from, the observance of contingency.
Contingent beings are those which cannot provide their own existence, and whose existence is not necessary. Contingent beings receive their existence from another being or beings. Upon examining those beings in the world which have life, one can be assured that at one point these beings did not have life, and at some later point these beings will cease having life. There is no observable being which is the provider of its own existence; rather, all beings in the natural world are receivers of existence. This creates a chain of “being” in which a being received its existence from a prior bei...