To: bluejay
...this addresses the probability of organic matter spontaneously generating from inorganic matter. First, you need to define "life." I'm not being coy. The simpler you get, organism-wise, the more difficult it becomes to separate life from non-life. If life is defined as "consumption, growth, replication" (which is one definition I've seen) then you get into the problems with self-replicating molecules. Hell, technically, a glacier would be considered "live" by that definition.
481 posted on
08/17/2004 5:12:12 PM PDT by
Junior
(FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC)
To: Junior
... technically, a glacier would be considered "live" by that definition. I dated a glacier once. But only once.
482 posted on
08/17/2004 5:16:06 PM PDT by
PatrickHenry
(If I never respond to you, maybe it's because I think you're an idiot.)
To: Junior
First, you need to define "life." I'm not being coy. The simpler you get, organism-wise, the more difficult it becomes to separate life from non-life. If life is defined as "consumption, growth, replication" (which is one definition I've seen) then you get into the problems with self-replicating molecules. Hell, technically, a glacier would be considered "live" by that definition.
Definition of life is fairly straightforward. The only definition issues that come up deal with viruses, and these issues are finessed by the fact that viruses require another organism to replicate.
485 posted on
08/17/2004 5:21:14 PM PDT by
bluejay
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