Creationists!!! Where does life begin and end when looking at organisms or simple molecules?

Question

Are viruses actually alive?

Are prions actually living?
(Prions are the mutant proteins that cause Mad Cow Disease)

Where exactly is that border between living or dead stuff?

twice Kim has asked questions as answers to questions but there is no way to answer her.

The reason it relates is that people argue about the creation of living from inanimate matter but it is not even possible to decide if matter is living or not.
Even at the level of virus it is undecided, yet believers want to argue about abiogenesis.
That is where it relates to religion and creationism.

Answer 1

I'm not a creationist. But viruses don't qualify as life. Although, bacteria, archaea, plants and animals do qualify.

Answer 2

well, I consider myself part creationist, part evolutionist, so I will attempt to reply. I think that the Earth, although made of inert matter, is actually a living being of some sort. So slowly alive that we can't really see her properly. A body we can't quite make out because we can't see the entire HER. And that's about my stance on that.

Clear as mud I suppose.

I would be curious as to how we can qualify life, since I've heard that viruses actually do not exhibit certain criteria most of us take for life.

breathing
procreating
eating,

That sort of thing. I think viruses don't breathe.

Answer 3

That is actually a rather brilliant question... It would seem under that viewpoint, viruses, at very least, are alive, because they can't fit into any other group of creations other than the beasts of the earth... (prions on the other hand are obviously directly created by cows, which were apparently one of above beasts, so probably don't count)...

If they answer as I expect, the follow-up question would be: "At which point in translation or folding does a virus become alive?"

Answer 4

I would consider these things as living creatures.......But maybe you can answer me this, I have always wondered...evolutionists teach that life began billions of years ago with the 'creation' of a single one celled life that became all that we know.

How did all this diversity come from that one creature?

That seem to take more faith than I have by believing in Creation

Answer 5

Dear,

Firstly let me tell you what is "LIFE"

Life is the period between birth and death.
a series of experiences.
manner of living.
liveliness
living things
the story of life
adj: lasting for life, of life.

Secondly;

God created life and health
God created death.

Mankind are created from Clay.
Our forefather Adam are created from Clay.
Our fore mother Ave created from Adam's left bone.
There no border. We mankind are transit to this earth. The real life are in the eternity. We'll re alive. The Judgment will be there to decide to Heaven or Hell. All be young just like reborn. Men at age of 40 years for ever permanently.

Answer 6

Is this a religious question? It sounds biological to me. I'm trying to figure out your thought process in regards to creation that brought you to this question, but I'm lost.
Anyway, I don't know anything about viruses or prions, so I guess I'm useless, sorry.

Answer 7

Ooooh, good one. Not even scientists have a clear, absolute defintion that could draw a perfect dividing line between living and non-living. Hence why it's considered a spectrum scenario.

Answer 8

Viruses aren't technologically alive.

Answer 9

What qualifies as living isn't a religious debate. Science has been wondering about that as well.

So, I am turning this around and asking you.

Answer 10

you're saying this as if science can explain consciousness. This question has nothing to do with creationism anyways.

No, No.
The science definition, because it's useful for scientists.

Answer 11

What's the difference between pre-life and death?