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Originally Posted by Bobslob
Well, as they've said-- they haven't created life from scratch, not yet at least. They have created DNA. They're still a bit away from creating life. (They'll get there eventually, though.)
Does it shine more light on abiogensis? Undoubtedly. Something that can be done makes abiogenesis far more plausible. But realize the subtle turn this is going to make. You know those irritating "Intelligent Design," people? Well, this is an experiment with "intelligent design." (Not in the sense of that theory, though, thankfully.) We have human beings testing and assembling (if not literally directly assembling, then making it so it can assemble) the building blocks of life. All it shows is that life can be built by an intelligence-- and I suspect that is exactly where the argument would shift to.
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true, they may do that. but I don't any atheists deny that IF god exists, he is fully capable of creating life. we just don't believe there's a god to make it. but still, it would get rid of that really annoying argument of theirs.
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The problem will always remain with showing that life spontaneously occured, forming itself from nature. Since we don't exactly have historical records, I can't see that being proven, even if it is 100% right (which, it may very well be).
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it can never be proven, but it can be proven possible. if all the building blocks can form spontaneously (which they can) and can assemble spontaneously too, then there's no reason why it's not possible.
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As a side note, we all interpret God from our own cultural perspective. The idea that God reached his hand down from heaven and literally formed life (like we might take clay and shape it into an urn) is very much anthropomorphizing God. As far as I know, orthodox Christianity doesn't even hold that God has a body, so it's not as if God literally shaped life with physical hands. From the perspective of a Christian, it's hard not to imagine God creating as a human, but indeed, the main mode of God's creation is by his Word. Eventually, I think we just have to realize that if God wanted he could have made himself totally undetectable to human beings (although I don't hold that he did) and that he can create life in whatever way he wants. I think a lack of realization of this point is what makes some people knee-jerk anti-evolution.
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that's true. for the short period of time in which I believed in god, I believed god created the universe with the intention of life forming.
Mrs. G, I'll get to you soon, but I have to go.