Biogenesis

While in school I learned about Pasteur's experiments on spontaneous generation, so you can hardly claim it's being kept out of schools.Life doesn't have any magical qualities though - it's essentially just self replicating chemicals. There's nothing in science that says it can't come about naturally. Spontaneous generation (what you are thinking of) is referring to people who used to think that fully developed life could generate from nowhere, such as flies being born from rotting meat, etc.It has nothing to do with the formation of self-replicating chemicals.

Attaching an insult to an otherwise sound argument doesn't make it an ad hominem. When the insult is a premise of an argument, it is.For example:You are a stupid closed minded religious nut. therefore, you are wrong.That's an ad hominem.This isn't:You're wrong for reasons A, B, and C, you stupid closed minded religious nut.(although it is being unnecessarily rude)For the record, all of Taz is saying is correct. I was taught about Pasteur's experiments in 7th grade science class. It has been in every one of my biology textbooks.Did you miss biology class?

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For all of you who keep referring to Pasteur's experiments, I have not made a claim about Pasteur's experiments. This is strawman argument. My claim was about the law of biogenesis being taught in schools.

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Pasteur's experiments is the basis of the "law of biogenesis" you are referring to. It's true, yes - fully developed organisms cannot spring from non life.

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Again, another strawman argument. I certainly said nothing about magic. If you are referring to God, or the supernatural, I personally don't think there is anything "magical" about God. In fact He condemns magic. Magic is about illusions not reality.

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I was being a bit silly - what I meant is that there is nothing inherently different from a molecule that is part of a living organism and a molecule that is not. There's nothing special. What? The defining quality of life is self-replication. I still haven't seen the existence of this law except from your assertion. All experiments and observations made have been "fully developed life doesn't just pop out of nowhere" - IE spontaenous generation - never "organic matertial cannot form from non organic material". Can you find an up to date, relevant source that says that biogenesis is indeed a scientific law?. The "law of biogenesis" that you keep on bringing up is referring to spontaenous generation.There is no law in science that says that organic matter can't form from inorganic matter.

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Don't you hate when college kids first learn one or two logical fallacies and then feel the need to whip them out to every argument regardless of whether it applies or not?that's a strawman!that's ad hominem!I was going to write something more substantial, but I don't think I can do a better job than Rahvin's last post. Have at you!

I doubt that you "know debate logic very well" if you can't even grasp what an ad hominem is, one of the simplest of fallacies to understand and point out.

That would be all well and good if there were black and white easily defined categories of "life" and "not life" to put things into.Problem is, that's not the case.

AlphaOmega,Can you please provide a modern day reliable scientific resource that shows that "The Law of Biogenesis" is what you say it is?Quoting Huxley doesn't count. I want a statement from modern day biologists.Since when was "agent of death" included in the definition of life? Does that mean all predators aren't actually living?You know that viruses reproduce, can evolve, and have DNA/RNA, right?