The proposal of an heterotrophic origin of life is strongly supported by a number of rather successful prebiotic simulation experiments, as well as by the characterization of organic molecules of biochemical significance in meteorites and other extraterrestrial minor bodies rich in organic material. These results lend strong credence to the hypothesis that the emergence of life was the outcome of a long, but not necessarily slow, evolutionary processes. This conclusion is not at odds with the theoretical models of highly complex functionally organized systems that some favour, but as of today none of these have provided manageable descriptions of the origin of life. Mainstream evolutionary biologists and prebiotic chemists tend to be wary of explanations that assume that the emergence of life was the outcome of timeless mathematical or physical principles in which replication, selection, and adaptation play no role. What is known of biology suggest that the essential traits of living systems could have not emerged in the absence of genetic material able to store, express and, upon replication, transmit to its progeny information capable of undergoing evolutionary change. How such genetic polymer first evolved is one of the most basic questions in origin-of-life studies. For most life scientists, research on the origin of life should be addressed conjecturally, in an attempt to construct a coherent, non-teleological historical narrative with and inquiring and explanatory character. How the current information on the distribution of abiotically synthesized organic compounds both in extraterrestrial environments and under simulated laboratory conditions can be combined with the idea of an RNA world will be discussed.