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Originally Posted by toothdust
Well considering that we don't KNOW that life spontaneously began here on Earth, all genesis theories should be given equal thought. The abiogenesis hypothesis is too speculative to call it "mainstream" in my opinion. We only assume life began in a soup pond here on Earth. Crick might have something to say about that.
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Directed panspermia might at first seem outlandish but I don't find it difficult imagining earthlings, not too far in the future, seeding other planets with earthly life. For me, nothing precludes the possibility of some advanced ETi having done so.
A few reasons I'm skeptical of abiogenesis on Earth: as best we can tell, as soon as early Earth was habitable it was inhabited, and those earliest forms of life were rather complex already; the 4 main elements which make up Life are found more in abundance off planet than on (this, I think, is actually a main reason scientists began looking to space); there is no accepted "standard model" for abiogenesis theories, no proof-of-principle.