synthetic life

scorpius

scorpius

a realist
Valued Senior Member
A common argument used by theists to support their belief in God, is that life is so complicated that it could have only been made by God. Often this is accompanied with the assertion that there is a "vital force" that separates inanimate objects from living things, and that God is the source of this "vital force". This philosophy, called "vitalism", has now been totally discredited. The following research report in the highly respected peer-reviewed journal Science details the de novo creation of a complete functional virus from synthetic chemicals
http://www.evilbible.com/Synthetic_Life.htm
 
Yes, but that doesnt explain how the astronomically huge jump can be made from amino acids to something that can be called 'life'...by the random accidents of evolution.

By 'life' I mean an organism with a genetic code that can replicate itself.
 
Carcano said:
Yes, but that doesnt explain how the astronomically huge jump can be made from amino acids to something that can be called 'life'...by the random accidents of evolution.

By 'life' I mean an organism with a genetic code that can replicate itself.
Click to expand...

But here's the real crux of the matter for me: a virus CAN reproduce itself BUT ONLY when inside an already living cell. In other words, the stuff STILL requires an actual source of life in order to carry on. Without that, it's just another complex group of chemicals that are inert and can do nothing at all.

Would anyone be so bold to say a computer was alive if it provided instructions to people (true living things) to reproduce itself by assembling specific components? Someone who declared that would quickly be labeled a foolish idiot.
 
Read-Only said:
But here's the real crux of the matter for me: a virus CAN reproduce itself BUT ONLY when inside an already living cell. In other words, the stuff STILL requires an actual source of life in order to carry on. Without that, it's just another complex group of chemicals that are inert and can do nothing at all.

Would anyone be so bold to say a computer was alive if it provided instructions to people (true living things) to reproduce itself by assembling specific components? Someone who declared that would quickly be labeled a foolish idiot.
Click to expand...
So you are saying that a virus is not alive?
 
Read-only is very correct. The virus (with a few exceptions like a mimivirus) is not classified as having all the attributes necessary to be considered 'alive'.

Now, if humans are ever able to synthesize an artificial bacterium then some theists like LG self admittedly will no longer hold onto their delusion. Of course there are some theists whom will ignore all fossil evidence and reject the idea of evolution until they can see the entire process of going from a virus to a human... which of course they never will because the process takes milions / billions of years and they only live for a small fraction of that time.
 
There are indeed some researchers who are working on creating completely synthetic life with chemistry wildly different from ordinary biochemistry. A few weeks ago I attended a talk by a guy who heads a research team that works on just such a project.

They created a molecular system that's able to process molecules in the environment into amphiphiles (lipid-like molecules) that spontaneously form vesicles similar to cell membranes. The processor-molecules then incorporate themselves into the membranes, and when the vesicles reach a critical size they divide into two separate vesicles. So it's basically able to "eat" and turn the raw materials into new materials that are useful for making the vesicles. The energy is provided by light, but the photochemistry is totally different from the photosynthesis that living things use. Obviously they have a long way to go before they actually have something similar to a living cell, but I think it’s fair to call it a protocell. I think it's especially impressive because they're using totally man-made chemistry and designing from scratch, rather than simply copying the way biological systems work.
 
scorpius said:
A common argument used by theists to support their belief in God, is that life is so complicated that it could have only been made by God. Often this is accompanied with the assertion that there is a "vital force" that separates inanimate objects from living things, and that God is the source of this "vital force". This philosophy, called "vitalism", has now been totally discredited. The following research report in the highly respected peer-reviewed journal Science details the de novo creation of a complete functional virus from synthetic chemicals
http://www.evilbible.com/Synthetic_Life.htm
Click to expand...



Science can not recreate the climate of Jupiter either, but we can safely say that just like life, it is a natural phenomena.
 
scorpius said:
A common argument used by theists to support their belief in God, is that life is so complicated that it could have only been made by God. Often this is accompanied with the assertion that there is a "vital force" that separates inanimate objects from living things, and that God is the source of this "vital force". This philosophy, called "vitalism", has now been totally discredited. The following research report in the highly respected peer-reviewed journal Science details the de novo creation of a complete functional virus from synthetic chemicals
http://www.evilbible.com/Synthetic_Life.htm
Click to expand...
it appears that neither you nor the author of the web site knows what they are talking about - big difference between life and the chemicals that life utilizes - the article is not advancing anything since the synthesis of urea
:shrug:
 
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