>> My argument was that the fact an intelligent entity did the experiment does not mean intelligence is part of the process. <<
Yeah, actually it kinda does. The way the article is written makes it sound as if they’ve demonstarted some great breakthrough in the spontaneous generation of life, while in fact, all they’ve done is shown that little pieces of living matter retain some of the characteristics of life outside their natural context. Ya know goldfish hearts keep beating after the goldfish is dead?
I hate to be pedantic but there is no logical connection between absence of information and a positive result of any kind.
The way the article is written makes it sound as if they’ve demonstarted some great breakthrough in the spontaneous generation of life, while in fact, all they’ve done is shown that little pieces of living matter retain some of the characteristics of life outside their natural context.
It is another wall that lets us see the next hill. It is an important breakthrough but it does not purport to say anything other than what is reported -- that it is giving us more information on what may have happened. To backtrack several billion years is pretty significant, scientifically.