"Generating Life on Earth: Five Looming Questions," in Schultz [i.e. Schults], F. LeRon, ed., The Evolution of Rationality: Interdisciplinary Essays in Honor of J. Wentzel van Huyssteen, 197-225. Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2006.

Online at: http://hdl.handle.net/10217/37323

Generating life on Earth requires creating information, the serendipitous opening up of novel possibility space, driving escalating biodiversity and biocomplexity. Biologists puzzle whether such natural history is contingent, random, probable or inevitable. Humans, uniquely on Earth, achieve highly developed cultures, with great promise and peril. We live on a wonderland Earth and are the apex of these wonders. This opens up possibility space for faith in God.

A previous abbreviated version, which actually appeared in print later, is: "Originating Life: Six Big Questions." With questions and commentary. Pages 13-21 in Constance M. Bertka, Nancy Roth, and Matthew Shindell, eds., Workshop Report: Philosophical, Ethical, and Theological Implications of Astrobiology. Washington, DC: American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2007. Report of a symposium held February 21-23, 2003 at American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington, DC.