creatures and creation

 Abiogenesis is the natural process by which life arises from non-living matter, such as simple organic compounds. The prevailing scientific hypothesis is that the transition from non-living to living entities on Earth was not a single event, but a process of increasing complexity involving the formation of a habitable planet, the prebiotic synthesis of organic molecules, molecular self-replication, self-assembly, autocatalysis, and the emergence of cell membranes. The transition from non-life to life has never been observed experimentally, but many proposals have been made for different stages of the process.

According to Thomas Aquinas, the difference between Creator and creature is that in the case of creatures, existence, and essence are distinct, whereas they are not in God. Essence is, of course, what something is; existence, in Thomas' here innovative use, is the fact that something is.

In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid substance with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form. The geological definition of mineral normally excludes compounds that occur only in living organisms.