Catholic Dictionary

Find accurate definitions of over 5,000 Catholic terms and phrases (including abbreviations). Based on Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

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ABIOGENESIS

Spontaneous generation. Held by many of the ancients, its basic presupposition was that life does not precisely come from nonlife. Rather a superior power, ultimately divine, enters under certain circumstances to change inanimate matter into living organisms. In conflict with Catholic philosophy that excludes, except in miracles, divine intervention in natural causes. (Etym. Greek a, not + bios, life + genesis, origin.)