Eh? What exactly is this thread about? The title referred to the origins of the Earth, the posts all talk about the origins of the universe and life (and religion, might I add). And what on earth is this doing in THE MIGHTY GOOGLE SEARCH! forum?

Anyway, I am convinced that the earth was "born" when the sun was still a protostar; protoplanets and particles in its accretion disk clumped together to form the planets we know today. The outer planets retained an atmosphere of light gases while those were drive off the inner, rock planets, blown by solar winds.

I think the oceans were created by volcanic activity. The heated earth back then "exhaled" steam into the atmosphere, which fell down as rain when the surface began to cool.

Life? Some say that the primordial elements were there: oxygen and hydrogen from the ocean, carbon from carbon dioxide in the attmosphere, nitrogen from lightning and other elements expelled by volcanoes. A book I once read hypothesized that "a chance flash of lightning created a molecule that can replicate itself."

And yes, bacteria are considered life-forms.

The bible is true unless you want to belive that there was a big bang and we all got here by mistake or that you came from a monkey.