Originally posted by dj2beckerChrist, what a stupid debate. Hey dj2becker, go look up the elan vital. There is nothing special about life, it is not some mystical force that infuses matter, you know. We call things 'alive' when they have certain properties, like a metabolism. There are no clear boundaries between the category of things we call 'alive' and the category of things we call 'non-lliving'. Once you get clear on the properties that normally attend our judgements concerning when something is living or non-living, you'll see that there is nothing metaphysically special about life; it is just a certain sort of physical constitution, a certain sort of complex order.
How would you define complex? Would a single simple cell be complex?
Originally posted by rwingettGod is neither non-living nor matter.
Genisis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Your own bible says that man was formed from non-living matter. The only thing in dispute is the mechanism by which it happened.
Originally posted by no1marauderViruses are not living.
How much difference do you think there is between the smallest "living" thing, viruses (which were only discovered in the 1890's) and other chemical interactions in nature? Perhaps you need to define life before you try to figure out how it got here.
Originally posted by bbarr
Christ, what a stupid debate. Hey dj2becker, go look up the elan vital. There is nothing special about life, it is not some mystical force that infuses matter, you know. We call things 'alive' when they have certain properties, like a metabolism. There are no clear boundaries between the category of things we call 'alive' and the category of thi ...[text shortened]... out life; it is just a certain sort of physical constitution, a certain sort of complex order.
Bbarr: "There is nothing special about life, ... "
You said it ....... I'll remember it.