During my senior year of high school, I developed the habit of saving my coin change. When I went out for food with my friends, they always tried to pay separately. On the unfortunate occasions that they didn’t, the waiter would leave the table with a large handful of assorted coins, and a very annoyed expression.
Although I may be violating some social norms, I am following the same principle every organism on Earth has followed since the dawn of life.
To understand the origin of life in a comprehensive way, you must begin my understanding the basic law driving the universe: all forms of matter attempt to reach their most stable state.
We don’t like to balance on the tips of our toes while waiting in a long line. Most people would much rather stand, sit or, better yet, lay down until the wait ends. The same rules apply for all matter in the universe. In fact, as Richard Dawkins put it in his novel The Selfish Gene, Darwin’s idea of survival of the fittest is just a narrower interpretation of the universal law called the survival of the stable.