Though a majority of scientists believe that the origin of life was due to a natural evolutionary process, a significant minority disagrees. By examining some important implications and limitations, prejudicial aspects of the materialistic position are made manifest with regard to some of the experimental work being conducted today in support of speculations on the origin of life. Attention is given to the impossibility of the existence of many present day reagents on a primitive earth, and to weaknesses of many comparisons of precellular models of actual cellular conditions, before a five point enumeration is offered of problems that must be solved by a naturalistic approach.