Irony of the evolutionary belief

[Subduction Zone]

In the old USSR you'd be right. It was politically trying to argue that God didn't exist; and it tried to claim Science had a place in disproving theology. The people thought that religion was dividing humanity, so they tried to eliminate it through arguments and political pressures. That was incorrect and was a corruption of the discipline of science. It was sloppy, too and tended to accept any convenient result which supported its political aims. We are not in the USSR.

The alleged circular reasoning that you refer to is a challenge leveled in churches, but evolution is pretty obviously a process that is continuing all the time. Its not about theology at all, not today except in communist countries. They are kind of backwards about that. Evolution is known to happen since it is a process that can be observed, so scientists should not be blamed for noticing it.

Abiogenesis is not part of evolution. Its a hypothesis that perhaps the first cells came from chemical processes, but evolution is testable independent of how the first cells appear. Abiogenesis is an explanation for how things might have started. That is why it is not a theory but a hypothesis.

One interesting point about the theory of evolution and the Soviet Union. It was rejected under Stalin because evolution depends upon competition and that was seen as contrary to the goals of Marxism. That was they they instituted Lysenkoism in farming. The plants were supposed to know somehow that they were supporting a good Marxist cause and produce more grain etc. as a result. So what occurred due to this? It was the cause of the great famines of Russia.