Life Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! === Spontaneous generation === {{Main|Spontaneous generation}} Spontaneous generation was the belief that living organisms can form without descent from similar organisms. Typically, the idea was that certain forms such as fleas could arise from inanimate matter such as dust or the supposed seasonal generation of mice and insects from mud or garbage.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Origines Sacrae |last=Stillingfleet |first=Edward |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1697 }}</ref> The theory of spontaneous generation was proposed by [[Aristotle]],<ref>{{cite book |author=André Brack |editor=André Brack |title=The Molecular Origins of Life |access-date=7 January 2009 |year=1998 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-56475-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/molecularorigins0000brac/page/1 1] |chapter=Introduction |chapter-url=http://assets.cambridge.org/97805215/64755/excerpt/9780521564755_excerpt.pdf |url=https://archive.org/details/molecularorigins0000brac/page/1 }}</ref> who compiled and expanded the work of prior natural philosophers and the various ancient explanations of the appearance of organisms; it was considered the best explanation for two millennia. It was decisively dispelled by the experiments of [[Louis Pasteur]] in 1859, who expanded upon the investigations of predecessors such as [[Francesco Redi]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Levine |first1=Russell |last2=Evers |first2=Chris |title=The Slow Death of Spontaneous Generation (1668–1859) |url=http://www.ncsu.edu/project/bio183de/Black/cellintro/cellintro_reading/Spontaneous_Generation.html |website=North Carolina State University |publisher=National Health Museum |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151009044415/http://www.ncsu.edu/project/bio183de/Black/cellintro/cellintro_reading/Spontaneous_Generation.html |archive-date=9 October 2015 |access-date=6 February 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Fragments of Science |last=Tyndall |first=John |publisher=P.F. Collier |year=1905 |volume=2 |location=New York |pages=Chapters IV, XII, and XIII |no-pp=y }}</ref> Disproof of the traditional ideas of spontaneous generation is no longer controversial among biologists.<ref name="Bernal 1967">{{cite book |last=Bernal |first=J.D. |year=1967 |orig-year=Reprinted work by [[Alexander Oparin|A.I. Oparin]] originally published 1924; Moscow: [[Publishing houses in the Soviet Union|The Moscow Worker]] |title=The Origin of Life |url=https://archive.org/details/originoflife0000bern |url-access=registration |series=The Weidenfeld and Nicolson Natural History |others=Translation of Oparin by Ann Synge |location=London |publisher=[[Weidenfeld & Nicolson]] |lccn=67098482}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Origins of Life: On Earth and in the Cosmos |last=Zubay |first=Geoffrey |publisher=Academic Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-12-781910-5 |edition=2nd }}</ref><ref name= "Szathmary">{{cite book |author1=Smith, John Maynard |author2=Szathmary, Eors |title=The Major Transitions in Evolution |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford Oxfordshire |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-19-850294-4}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page