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69 Others observe that life on Earth did not wait, but took advantage of pretty much the first opportunity offered. To astronomer David Koerner and neuroscientist Simon LeVay, this suggested that there is nothing improbable about the first spark that ignites life from nonlife. Evolutionist Stephen Jay Gould believed that life on the Earth evolved quickly and is as old as it could be. This is quite different from the long, slow, drawn-out scenario so deeply ingrained in the origin of life commu- nity since Darwin.* The oldest rocks known on Earth show that single-celled organisms probably have existed since our planet’s surface cooled enough for water to remain liquid; the oldest signs of terrestrial life yet found date back 3.75 billion years. Scientists have found evidence that photosynthetic organisms had evolved and were living in an ocean more than 3.4 billion years ago.' Microorganisms first appeared on our planet in nightmarish circum- stances; comets and rocky bodies were pounding the Earth. Living things may have arisen repeatedly only to be wiped out every time—except the last. If life did emerge independently several times, we would not be aware of most of these events; all life today would have descended from just one of them. If any of those earlier beginnings had survived, Grinspoon pointed out, the evolution of life on Earth would have produced very different results.* Rapid emergence may not always mean rapid development of more complex forms; long delays occurred in the evolution of living things from one stage to another. It took over 2 billion years for life on Earth to evolve the capacity for complex multicellular development. Oxygen levels in the Earth’s atmosphere may have remained very low for more than a billion years, postponing the emergence of animal life.° On the other hand, there can be rapid change. Although long periods of time were needed for the early evolution of microorganisms, much less was needed for the diversification of later multicellular life. When animals did emerge on the land, they seem to have adapted much more quickly than evolutionists once thought.’ Many researchers now believe that life may arise whenever a suitable energy source, a concentrated supply of organic material, and water occur together. Shapley had foreseen this in 1958, when he wrote that life will emerge and evolve wherever the chemistry, geology, and climatology are right. Mind-Stretcher. Scientists are planning to create living organisms from raw materials, challenging two older schools of thought about the origin of life: that it was created by a superior being or that it evolved blindly from chance encounters of simpler substances.’ We may find that life can be created by intelligent creatures like ourselves, not just by nature or by God. Miracle, Rare Accident, or Probable Event?