system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
What is the latest and greatest theory of the origins of life on Earth?

I have heard that the 'Primordial Soup' model most of us were taught in grade school is largely regarded as discredited.  What is the current thinking?
gpt
Some version of the primordial soup is right; there were lots of free organic molecules floating around, some how they got into the right configuration to start self replicattion. Most of the current work has been focused on what order the core aspects of life arose in and where.

Key things you need for life are 1. metabolism 2. heretibility and 3. structure that contains the other pieces.

So we have two main schools of thought; metabolism first theory, and RNA first theory. Both propose that specific component showed up, and the others came later. 

Key evidence for the RNA first is that there are RNA molecules that are self-replicating. There are also reasonable precursors to RNA that could fulfill the roll that have more favorable energy characteristics. 

The container problem seems to be reasonably easy; phospholipids self organize into spheres and wave energy mixing things up would eventually get the right molecules within the right sphere.

Where it happens; people have proposed life originating in deep space, or chemosynthetically at deep ocean vents as well as the warm little pond. A recent paper supported the warm pond style hypothesis by examining the proteins that all known life has in common, and concluding based on something (not sure what!) that Earth's surface temperature/pressure was optimal in some way.

Hope this helps!