Does this mean you take it as a matter of faith that we one day will prove life arose naturally?
Isn't this very concept a matter of belief and not science?
This can only be answered if we are clear on what is and is not "faith". To me faith is something believed without any evidence.
Since we can look at history and see that one after another we have found good explanations for things it is not unreasonable to suppose that we might answer this question too. Since we already have clues and this historical perspective it is any trust that we may answer the orgin of life question is not really a matter of "faith".
Since there are still enormous gaps in our understanding of this to arrive at a conclusion with any firmness now would not be based on much of what I would call science. It would be more an "educated guess": neither science or faith.
I also doubt that we will every "prove" this. I think that we will have very reasonable and strongly supported scenarios but since the "proof" is almost certainly lost in the intervening 4 Gyrs to say we will prove it is too strong.
I do suspect that within a century we will see life arise, on it's own, in the lab, under conditions that are at least reasonable for the conditions on earth early in it's history. I am pretty darn sure that it will not be life like that which occupies the earth today. My wild assed guess is that can not form in a short period of time whatever the conditions.
™ Version 4.2