Scientific Identification of Life

Hi PastorD - thanks for posing the interesting question.
I myself would have to say that it's never gonna happen. They can play with it all they like but what they cannot do is breathe life...

I agree. 

Assuming that they can make all of the parts - they still don't know how to make it alive.  They have missed something important between working with their computer models and working with real things.  They can't even resurrect something that was alive a moment ago to live again - because they don't know what life is or its source.

Recently I read a post somewhere by someone who argued that if God can be eternal, then matter could also be eternal.  It struck me that this was irrelevant on several levels.

For one thing, no one has ever observed matter organizing itself into complex systems - everything tends toward entropy.

For another, even if matter independently developed into complex systems, no one has ever come close to isolating "life" as the animating force of living beings.  The life and the material being are not identical with each other.  When life is present the material being lives - when life is absent the material being ceases living.  But having a material being is not even close to being the same thing as being alive.

PastorD what is your take on cloning? They are at least doing that much. I think it's obvious to most by now that they're also messing around with gene mutations.

I think that cloning is another example of humanistic arrogance... humans thinking they can be God.  On the one hand I am not especially threatened by it - because the "life" of any being comes from God and the individuals are God's creatures even if they were conceived in odd ways.

On the other hand, when cloning is being done, many clones die before birth and others are killed for experimental purposes.  The scientists doing the cloning think of themselves as owners of what they have "created." 

If they start practicing the cloning of humans, will they still think of themselves as owners?  Will they think (as I suspect they will) that they have a right over the cloned humans, to give life and to kill?  Will they be owners or parents of the cloned children?  Will cloned children be a commodity to be sold to labs and used in testing drugs and treatments or as ingredients in medicines?

It gives me the creeps.

I guess I don't think we're going to be around long enough to find out. I could be wrong. It's that "froward brow" thing that keeps tugging at my shirt sleeve....... Need I say more?

Daniel 8: 23 "In the latter part of their reign, when rebels have become completely wicked, a stern-faced king, a master of intrigue, will arise. 24 He will become very strong, but not by his own power. He will cause astounding devastation and will succeed in whatever he does. He will destroy the mighty men and the holy people. 25 He will cause deceit to prosper, and he will consider himself superior. When they feel secure, he will destroy many and take his stand against the Prince of princes. Yet he will be destroyed, but not by human power.