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Dr. James Tour recently uploaded a video titled Dr. James Tour vs Dave Farina | Are we clueless about the origin of life? #abiogenesis.

The description in the video says:

Join us for an exciting debate between Dr James Tour and Dave Farina on The Science of Abiogenesis. [.......]

See more at tourvsfarina.com

This in-person debate was arranged in an attempt to settle an online discussion that has already been going on for a while between the two, through a series of video publications in which they supposedly rebut, expose and debunk one another.

For example, on his YouTube channel Professor Dave Explains, Dave has posted videos such as:

Likewise, James has uploaded content such as:

As an outside observer and without any expertise in these topics, my impression and summary of the debate is the following:

  • Dave cited an overwhelming amount of research papers and claimed that these papers are evidence that we are "NOT clueless", and that progress is clearly being made in origin of life (OOL) research.
  • James claimed that all these papers have titles that are hyped, and that if you read them and dig into the details and actual data being presented, they all come up short and lacking, and therefore OOL research is "still clueless".

Given this context:

What are examples of major obstacles that the OOL field still has to overcome in order to come to a full understanding of how life could have arisen from non-living materials?

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    $\begingroup$ I've voted to close this as it about a matter of opinion, not science. "Clueless" is not a scientific concept. $\endgroup$
    – mgkrebbs
    Commented May 21, 2023 at 18:30
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    $\begingroup$ Questions here should be about a biological problem that is presented in the question. This question requires one to view an external video and is clearly inadmissible on that basis. $\endgroup$
    – David
    Commented May 21, 2023 at 19:02
  • $\begingroup$ Comments have been moved to chat; please do not continue the discussion here. Before posting a comment below this one, please review the purposes of comments. Comments that do not request clarification or suggest improvements usually belong as an answer, on Biology Meta, or in Biology Chat. Comments continuing discussion may be removed. $\endgroup$
    – Bryan Krause ♦
    Commented May 22, 2023 at 4:52
  • $\begingroup$ @BryanKrause Any suggestions to make the question more focused? I really wanted to have a scientific counterpart to this question. $\endgroup$
    – user75603
    Commented May 22, 2023 at 11:25
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    $\begingroup$ The Help center asks that questions not be asked when you want to participate in discussion, and to ask specific, answerable questions. This may be a simple enough question on Christianity where people can answer based on beliefs of various faiths, but on Biology it becomes "explain all of the research on life origins" rather than a focused question. $\endgroup$
    – Bryan Krause ♦
    Commented May 22, 2023 at 13:21

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