Abstract
The formation of living systems on this planet has been discussed at length from both creationist and evolutionary perspectives. To the creationist, God is plainly and simply the source of life. To the evolutionist who excludes the supernatural from his world view, the explanation of the origin of life in all its complexity must be described in terms of natural forces at work today. Early in this century A. I. Oparin performed experiments in which two or more polymers (proteins, lipids or carbohydrates) were shaken in water. When the resulting solution was examined under the microscope, small spherical droplets called coacervates were seen. When viewed more closely, these droplets seemed to have a membrane structure similar to that found in living cells. Oparin proposed that coacervates could have been the beginning structures of early life forms.