Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

To: betty boop
Through the replication of previous molecular organization. Where the original organization came from? Like all things, it came from God. Yet that is not to imply that God had to use any supernatural means when he called for the land and the oceans to “bring forth life”, any more than God creating our Sun had to involve anything more than gravity and nuclear fusion.

The definition of something now has account for its origins?

I thought you wanted a definition of what life IS, now you seem to want an explanation of where life came from. Entirely different question.

976 posted on 06/26/2009 9:23:19 AM PDT by allmendream ("Wealth is EARNED not distributed, so how could it be redistributed?")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 975 | View Replies ]


To: allmendream
The definition of something now has account for its origins?

Well that would be nice, but not necessary if all one is asking for is a description of the principles involved in biological organization. The "how" question, not the "why" question.

977 posted on 06/26/2009 10:27:37 AM PDT by betty boop (Tyranny is always whimsical. — Mark Steyn)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 976 | View Replies ]

To: betty boop; allmendream
I only have a few moments due to company, but I wanted to remark again that allmendream's "definition" is actually a description, it doesn't say what life "is" but rather what it looks like:

An organization of molecules that consumes energy in order to maintain and replicate its molecular organization.

Moreover, the description presupposes three purposeful components: organization, maintenance and replication.

Again, I aver a better definition is successful communication (Shannon) in nature.

Where there is successful communication in nature, there is life. When it ceases, there is death. And where it never happened, there is non-life.

"Purpose" in that definition is a matter of the message itself, whether to maintain, replicate, metabolize, organize, etc.

It is also mathematics, universal and holds up to intense scrutiny. And as a bonus it offends neither side of the ones who refuse to look any further: "nature did it" v "God did it."

979 posted on 06/26/2009 12:02:02 PM PDT by Alamo-Girl
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 976 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson