Agobot,
At the atomic and molecular level, atoms and molecules in a living organism or component of a living organism i.e. a cell may or may not be ARRANGED in different ways than that of a non living thing i.e. a rock.
It is the arrangement and composition of these atoms that differentiates between life and nonlife. That is certain arrangements and composition of individual atoms into organic molecules and those organic molecules into a collective living organism that inhibits certain characteristics i.e. transformation of energy from one type into another, self-replication, etc that distinguishes living organisms from non-living things. However, the individual atoms themselves of living organisms i.e. a human are indistinguishable from those of individual atoms in a nonliving object i.e. a rock. The arrangement (i.e. organic molecules) and composition (i.e. 65% hydrogen/25% oxygen/10% carbon) of these atoms may be different but if scientists took one oxygen atom from a human and one from a rock and looked at them through an atomic force micrscope (which really can see individual atoms), they would see no difference between the two.
For example, take DNA. DNA (will disregard the protiens that help curl and compact DNA for simplicity) is comprised of nucleaic acid, phosphates, sugar, and protien molecules. Broken down even further these molecules are comprised of Carbon, Nitrogen, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Phospherus atoms.
So here are a couple of questions for you, Agobot:
1. Can organic molecules i.e. nucleic acids, phosophate, sugar, and protiens be found in non-living things?
2. If so do the individual atoms of these organic molecules look or behave any differently in "living" organisms i.e. amino acids in a cell than in "nonliving" objects i.e. amino acids synthesized in a lab?
3. At the atomic level what is the difference between life and nonlife?
Furthermore, at the quantum level (below the atomic level) the behavior of "particles" and forces i.e. quarks, gluons, electrons, etc. are indistinguishable in a living organism and a non-living object. Would you not agree? Would an up quark behave any different in a proton of a rock than in a proton of a red blood cell?
If you can prove this is not so, I will relinquish to say this is rubbish and nonsense. Otherwise I would say your are full of shit.
Edited by DevilsAdvocate, : No reason given.
Edited by DevilsAdvocate, : No reason given.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.Dr. Carl Sagan
™ Version 4.2
