[Jeff Gordon]

The title does not quite match the content; however, this is still remarkable step.

Those who are put their God in the gaps are finding their God growing smaller.

[Southack]

Pretty intelligent feat.

[utherdoul]

Can they clone me a girlfriend yet?

[84rules]

Great! Now, all we need for them to do is create a pathogenic bacteria for which we have no natural immunity and for which there is no vaccine! That will be a fun day!

[Victor]

Cue Baron Victor Frankenstein and his *creation*.

[vpintheak]

The singularity comes to mind.

[ctdonath2]

“Get your own dirt.”

[Muleteam1]

It’s my understanding that two of the team members are a Dr. Random and a Dr. Selection?

[COBOL2Java]

The research has been carried out at the laboratories of the controversial celebrity US scientist Craig Venter, who has hailed artificial life forms as a potential remedy to illness and global warming.

Dr. Venter's assistant was not available for comment...

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

Then it will be a simulation of life, but not life.

[lunarville]

Are they taking orders yet???

[r9etb]

The title does not quite match the content; however, this is still remarkable step.

It is ... but realize, it's still just the equivalent of inventing a language that nobody can speak yet. It's a long way from there, to having it express any physical meaning.

[r9etb]

Those who are put their God in the gaps are finding their God growing smaller.

How so? Seems to me that this technological achievement suggests the sort of "programming" that God might well engage in.... It would be more likely to move Him out of the gaps and into the main body of the code.

[ssaftler]

Looks like this is "old news"!

[Mat_Helm]

When they begin to mess with DNA in a way that nature could never accomplish or mutate on its own than they just might accidently create THE BLOB

[keat]

The chromosome ... should "take control," effectively becoming a new life form.

The new bacteria will therefore be largely artificial, though not entirely, because it is composed of building blocks from already existing organisms.

Oh, so the headline should read:

US scientists not close to creating artificial life

[philetus]

Have they created their own dirt out of nothing yet?

[RussP]

“Those who are put their God in the gaps are finding their God growing smaller.”

I’m sorry, but this is just an incredibly ignorant statement — as is the entire notion of “God of the Gaps.”

Albert Einstein said, “We still do not know one-thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us.”

Calling our ignorance of nature “gaps” in our knowledge is like calling the outdoors “gaps” between our buildings.

Do you realize that we do not even have a basic understanding of how our brains add 5 + 7? Yes, we can view brain “activity,” on a machine but that is a far cry from understanding in any kind of detail how our brains actually work. So how far do you suppose we are from understanding how our brains do higher math or philosophy? Or “science,” for crying out loud.

The other obvious point here is that constructing DNA is far, far from constructing an actual living cell. DNA contains the “instructions” for life, but it is not life itself any more than the plans for an airplane are the airplane itself. As far as I know, DNA cannot reproduce unless it is embedded within a cell.

[Kevmo]

The law of unintended consequences will soon rear its ugly head.

[RichInOC]

Real life. Accept no substitutes.

[TypeZoNegative]

This doesn’t disprove god, to the contrary. This actually gives good evidence that god exists.