Abstract
Explaining the origin of life has remained one of the most bothersome problems for those espousing the view that nature can only be understood within a naturalistic philosophy. For many years the major focus of attention has been on scenarios involving the evolution of proteins. Two historical factors contributed to the emphasis on proteins. One of these was that when scientific investigation of the origin of life was beginning, the role of nucleic acids in heredity had not been established. It was reasonable at that time to suppose that proteins might be responsible for heredity. The other factor was the production of amino acids in simulated prebiotic reactions (Miller 1953). This experimental result seemed to promise the possibility of success in explaining the origin of life, even though nucleic acids were known at the time to be important also in heredity.