Heathen by Derek Cantrell
A burning fire is a chemical process. All life is a chemical process. The definition of a living thing, has varied throughout history. It was once thought that DNA was necessary to qualify an organism as living, but we now consider RNA to be a trait of a living organism. We also consider such things as PNA World Theory, which posits a different chemical makeup for origins of life. Fire uses gases such as sulfur and oxygen in its chemical processes. It also produces energy and waste. Though no DNA is passed on, fire reproduces, in that as flames consume resources, the heat from those flames form combustion that produces identical new flames. Fire lies beneath the ocean floor in the Earth’s mantle. The molten mantle is always mixing numerous chemicals, with fire and heat energy. In countless places along the ocean floor, we can find hydrothermal vents. These vents are the link between the mantle’s fiery existence and the cold density of the ocean floor. The heat travels from the mantle as lava, but is immediately solidified and instantly cooled by the ocean. The result is a hollow tube. Out of the tube flows superheated water. We also find archaea, which are the microscopic predecessors to all life. If fire is a chemical process that breathes gases, consumes resources, emits waste and in a rudimentary sense, reproduces; it seems the only lacking characteristic is its production of DNA, RNA, PNA, or some other, yet to be discovered, amino acid combination. There is one other characteristic shared by all living things and that is evolution. While there is no proof that fire, or the heat energy from it, merged with chemicals to breathe, consume resources and emit waste, in the cold density of the ocean floor; we can hypothesize that such an evolution would have characteristics, or even be identical to, the archaea that science identifies as the oldest, known origin of life. If the evolutionary jump between molten fire and archaea seems a bit far, consider this; rust is an oxidation process, just as fire. Rust also thrives on heat energy, like the heat energy emitted from the Earth’s molten mantle, through the thermal vents on the ocean floor. Archaea eats rust, so in the chemical food chain, it seems that rust would provide a missing link, between what is currently defined as a chemical process and what is defined as the origins of life.