From Mark Buchanan at Nature Physics:
The origin of life is among the deepest unexplained mysteries. How did the first self-replicating entities emerge, providing the material on which the selective mechanism of evolution could then operate? The most primitive known self-replicating forms of life are far too complex to have sprung from the pre-evolutionary environment through… More.
You’d have to pay to read more. Not recommended. If they had any workable naturalist idea, the world would deafen at the sound. If they thought it required intelligence, their careers would be ruined.
See also: What we know and don’t know about the origin of life