This question does not make sense. Perhaps your choice of the word 'vacuum' is the problem. Taking a guess at what you intend to ask, I think you're suggesting that these events take place without a cause.
I'll try an analogy (or parable
):
The old- "If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a noise?"
This philosophical question suggests that unless an event is directly observed, it cannot be
known to have happened. Applying this to biological sciences has a similar result. A believer in "God" would possibly suggest that he created the stuff that made life. That he organized it or influenced events to allow it to happen. The tree must have either made a noise or not- it must be known even if only known to God.
An atheist would take the scientific position which is this: If no one hears the tree fall, it cannot be
known that it made a noise, but is the most probable logical conclusion that it did follow the well known properties of vibration and make a noise. This conclusion is similar to knowing, just that it is knowing to 99.99% of certainty instead of knowing fully.
Taking on the origin of life--- Emergence.
Emergence is the principle that materials and conditions will follow their properties even if that requires delaying entropy.
An example of this is a snowflake. Hydrogen[sub]2[/sub]-oxygen molecules will stack up, rather than condense when cooled. Entropy wins in the end, when the ice melts, but it was delayed by emergence.
Another example is a diamond. This hard little sucker will delay entropy for a long time, or at least until a gem cutter gets really frustrated with it. But like ice, the carbon stacks up in a structured form- no intelligence needed. It does it every single time.
On life, emergence is when chemical/environmental conditions result in reactions (On Earth) that created complex molecules. That this will happen is like a snowflake- pretty much inevitable. Yes, that's right - It makes life in the Universe other than our own seem quite likely when you understand that the chemical and environmental factors involved don't just suggest it may happen, but rather it must (99.99%) happen the same way a tree falling makes a noise or a snowflake forms when a tiny droplet is frozen, etc.
Once these amino acids click together chemically, they will react with other molecules based on these chemical properties. A chemical that has no reactive value will just bang into it and float on by whereas an attractive chemical reaction will cause anther molecule to bond to it.
Still we see no intelligence, nor do we see a vacuum. We see billiard balls. Think that analogy through.
Once enough time has passed, enough collisions with eachother and other molecules will result in complex molecules that replicate. This form of replication is very simple. It's basic. But... just give it some time... These replications are, again, the cause of those basic chemical reactions of bonding, repelling or banging into something inert.
Eventually the chances that molecules have banged into enough material to have greater complexity is again- the following of chemical properties and observable in the lab. These replicating molecules bump into primitive protein molecules... and give it some more time...
A simple and primitive cell, surrounded by a very basic semi-organic protein shell with a short bundle of replicating molecules contained within- DeoxyriboNucleic Acid. These armored tanks of a primitive cellular world had a great advantage. Give it some more time and they would gather more material which bonds, reacts, repels...
One of the most fascinating things about our modern cell is the Mitochondria. This little hitchhiker was actually a separate cell. Today, it acts as the power house for a cell, but at one time, they existed outside of cells. When primitive cells came across them, they ended up becoming friends, sticking closely together. Eventually, the mitochondria ancestor worked its way into the cell and replicated itself from within, splitting with cells as they divide, having DNA of their own, independent of the cells DNA.
Still no vacuum and still no intelligence. The many millions of years to go from a very, very primitive molecule to a complex operating cell defy the hand of divine intervention. Random encounters, bumping into other molecules explains that amount of time, but a designer does not. One can safely make a conclusion- 99.99% accurate.
Eventually, entropy catches up to these cells. They die and in time, too many disruptions in that DNA leads to systematic failures. We die.
Still, no "Nothing" as an origin. Not only not nothing, but chemicals that repeatedly lead to the same reactions and the same conclusions.
