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What is life ?

Here are my thoughts on the question :

Superstition and religious dogma aside, the most plausible explanation of the genesis of life appears to have been provided by the ancient Greek philosopher, Democritus (460 BC – 370 BC) who is reported to have observed that “Everything in the universe is the fruit of chance and necessity”.

Jacques Monod, the French biologist, a 1965 Nobel Prize winner, later accredited and developed that theory in his book “Le hasard et la nécessité” (Chance and Necessity) published in 1970. From this, it is deduced that “Life is a spontaneous, evolutive, sensitive and reproductive process triggered by the fortuitous encounter of complementary elements of matter and energy in a favourable environment”.

Chance in this context should be understood as meaning a “random variable” and necessity an “inevitable” event.

Free will is a functional advantage developed by nature. It is autonomy, the autonomy of the individual. Its acquisition and development are progressive. It is an evolutive mode of functioning. It has been evolving ever since the apparition of life on earth of which human beings are by far the most advanced form. We have long surpassed all other forms of life and all other animal species in terms of autonomy and continue to make progress, generation after generation.

Though there may be important differences in the rate of development of autonomy among individuals due to all the variables that contribute to its evolution, progress is nevertheless achieved during the lifetime of each individual. Beneficial mutations and experiences continue to accumulate over time, multiplying and diversifying choice patterns to an ever greater degree of complexity until the individual is no longer held to obey any particular predetermined course of behaviour, gaining in the autonomy we call free will.

In my view, we haven't yet come up with a better explanation of life than that proposed by Democratus 2,500 years ago.

But, who knows, perhaps somebody will think of something, one of these days – before we join the dinosaurs and become extinct !

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To Opinion,

Look at the link that Thinkabit posted. It has an interesting standpoint. That we've never encountered anything that could be considered "nothing". Including emply space ther's still something in it. So to test if something couldn't come from nothing is as of now an unconfirmed because we've never seen anything that can truely be identified as nothingness.

This point isn't the point I would use. Because God does some amazing stuff. But it is worth considering. If God is the only thing before everything else is made, then what is created is created out of what God has available. Himself. With God anything is possible. He can create anything. He can be the source of life, and life isn't created out of nothing, it came from God.

To Steele Redux.

I like that idea. It should be an easy and practice approach to place in our culture. The idea that we are in this together, and that we aren't alone. Thanks for that.

To Banjo Paterson

Do you have any examples or theories of an inevitable event? I think that is possibly the strongest point for life occurring without God, but I don't think it's looked into as much. Is there anything that we can determine is inevitable?

Human life is defined by imagination, ideas, initiative, desires, wisdom and understanding. All these are quantitative and can be defined: but do they exist in the physical, not really we only observe them in the outcomes. Does mathematical formulas exist in reality or are they ways humans understand reality.

Does water freeze at zero or 23 degrees? Is the sum of the internal angles of a square a rectangle and a circle 360 degrees? Not in reality; we have made it so to understand the world. Does the Earth have 360 degrees longitude and latitude? Can we prove such exists, not really. It is our way of understanding the world.

Can we prove there is a periodic table in chemistry, no not without a base understanding of maths. I had stay with me a young man from west Papua, in their native language they only had words for one two three. Though he had gained degrees in Indonesian university. While he was with me we worked on developing words for mathematical ideas based on those three words. For which he produced a teaching method for his tribal language.

Because the human mind has designed an understanding of order in the universe he has gained an understanding of the spiritual creation that is behind the Universe. Though there is also chaos, and hell; there is also order, beauty, design. The fact that the human mind can perceive and create using the design of things created, we recognise the Earth is not just chaos but designed. To have design there must be a designer greater than the human mind and spirit.

//and life isn't created out of nothing//

I don't think anybody has suggested that it was. Clearly, Earth-based lifeforms were - and continue to be - made from the available matter on Earth. We're all made from basically the same stuff, from bananas to polar bears. The main elements can be remembered with a simple mnemonic: CHONPS. That's carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorous and sulphur. Other elements play vital biological roles, eg. sodium, potassium, iron and calcium.

Genesis 1 in Hebrew attributes three things directly to God. 1. The creation of the universe of chemistry, matter, space and chronology. 2. The spark of life. 3. The human spirit. All other things emerged out of the existing chemistry. The English translates the text as, "let the Seas", or "let the Earth", or "let the air", things already in existence.

Everyone has missed the point I was trying to make about LIFE the entity.

My question is What is it? We know it is a cell or bunch of cells and it has a myriad of forms. If if evolves from water then that tells us that it likely to be found across the Universe because water fills the Universe. But what actually is it? What is its purpose?

I think it is a FEEDER.

All life whether microbes, plants, human, etc., seems to do is spend its time feeding. This seems to be the common denominator for all Life.

Does anybody know of anything other than feeding that could be classified as common denominator for Life?

Please, no more BS God stuff telling us a supernatural being runs around turning nothings into somethings. NOTHING = NOTHING. Stop looking for the easy way out! You will end up like OzSpen or Not_Now.Soon who wake up every morning telling themselves "Why I'm brilliant! I'll invent some story about some dude who pulls somethings out of a hat of nothings. And if anyone disagrees with me I will just hit them with a whole bunch of plagiarised Biblical quotes."