In Yahoo news: "Around the world, a handful of scientists are trying to create life from scratch" You thoughts

Question

The note said 3 to 10 years tops. Does that make us gods?
Where would that leave the YHWH and all his other names?

Answer 1

I find it especially interesting that one of the leading researchers in this area has designs for a 12 codon base (Instead of the four codon base that makes our DNA).
With that kind of an increase in encoding density, you could include things like checksums and redundancy checks that the blind watchmaker of evolution and natural selection never stumbled on.

Matthew P - he "did it" in a day according to the story, but had an entire frickin eternity to learn and prepare, the procrastinator. That makes the 3-10 years we are looking at nothing more than a blink.

Valerie - since some of the plans include a completely new encoding base (see above), that precludes using ANY material from currently living things.

Answer 2

Actually scientists still have a long way to go when it comes to creating any life, although the media likes to portray it otherwise. All they are doing now is take what's there and experiment with it. The process is analogous to a child dismantling a sophisticated piece of machinery such as a computer and boasting to his father, "Hey, dad, I found a fan inside, it actually blows air!" But I have a feeling this is not the kind of answer some here would like to hear.

Answer 3

3-10 years!? Horsefeathers! I heard that same line 30 years ago. We don't understand what 1% of the genetic code does. It's taken us 30 years to get the understanding of genetics we have now, since mapping the genome.

How can any amount of knowledge make us gods? Even if we did (someday) manage to create life - which I think is flatly impossible from a scientific community that can't even define it - why would that do anything to affect YHWH's position?

Answer 4

Firstly, unless they create life in a vacuum with absolutely nothing else available, they haven't created life from scratch.

If by some miracle they do accomplish this task (and I wish them all the luck in the world) all they have done is show that life cannot be created from scratch without outside intervention from an intelligent being.

So they will show us what those of us with faith already know - Life does not create itself out of nothing, without intervention from outside.

I have no problem with science, I agree that the big bang and evolution are valid theories. However Science teaches us that nothing is in motion unless something else first puts it in motion. Which means the Universe and life have to have a point of origin that exists eternally, outside of time - not explainable by the laws of science which govern this universe. That of course is the creator - God.

Answer 5

We are not gods. The only thing human scientists will accomplish will be to recreate the freaks of nature of the past the God Yahweh created and allowed to become extinct because they could not live along side mankind. We will end up regretting what ever monsters our scientist's create.

Answer 6

If it can be pulled off, it will simply be a demonstration of the existing view that no sort of divine intervention is necessary. But the odds that it would actually re-create how life was actually first formed on this orb are infinitesimal. As for myself, I very much doubt that it can be done in ten years -- or that it will take longer than a hundred.

Answer 7

What a joke. All these brilliant scientists hoping to put all their knowledge together so that maybe someday they'll create a tiny bit of matter that has some properties that may allow them to technically call it "life." It would impress the hell out of me if they could come up with something as complex as a cockroach, which they won't. Creating something on par with a human is a pipe dream fueled by immense amounts of arrogance.

Answer 8

Yes it's a good idea but incredibly difficult.

A consensus of scientists say they believe life has occurred only one time here on Earth. But, what do we know? New life could be emerging continuously all around us. How would we know?

Gods ---- I don't guess that scientists will be gods if their experiments work out.

Answer 9

I think it's great in the aspect of science, but they're not really making life from scratch. They're using materials from other living life forms to create something new. Anyway, I wouldn't be bothered by it. If they did create life, it was created by an intelligent being (us in that case). It's not like it's going to happen upon coincidence or anything.

Answer 10

Hmmmmmmm Man may be able to make a form of life but only God can give it a soul, and the breath of life. No man can. Man has been on a quest since the beginning of time to try and be "god" they thought by building the tower of babel they would reach God, But God shattered that. And to this day there is still allot of babbling going on.