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The point about equations is that it does not matter which way round you write them. If A = B then B = A Most of the laws of Physics are of this form so if Time is involved it does not matter whether time goes forward or backwards, the equations still hold. There is one major law of Physics called the second law of thermodynamics which doe not have the form of an equality (or equation), it is an inequality so If A < B then going the other way B is greater than A. Since the second law involves time it cannot be reversed and hold the same form like an equation.

But how is this any different from us not being to observe directly geological processes, say, or the formation of stars? There are many aspects of science that depend on inference of a process from observations, without being able to observe the process directly. Do you think the origin of life is unique in this respect, for some reason? If so, what?

Do you really think this is a sensible question ? We do not have a recipe book for life of any description. So let us say I show you a large opaque black bottle and say this black bottle has grains of sand in it. How many grains doe it contain ? You may not examine the bottle or know how big the sand grains are. That is a far far easier task.

The classification depends upon where, and in which country, you look as well as the date of the classification scheme. All very confused. I think the sulphur comes from pyrites. https://www.nicholaswylde.com/content/lapis-lazuli/ This discussion below is interesting. https://www.mindat.org/mesg-326838.html Meanwhile here is some scanned material that I promised. First, Wells Then here is some well presented wider information from Latimer and Hildebrand Reference Book of Inorganic Chemistry

You have answered your own question.

To be fair, that was an old 'Dave Allan at Large' joke. He did a lot of Religion jokes.