But i still have doubts (unless they borrow a little bacteria... or caviar... or something with an inner "life" force) that scientists will be able to develop any 'creatures'. I.e., using only jars of elements and energy transference, etc.
So basically, you ARE saying that there is a magical, mystical essence to life, something that goes beyond the physical laws of the universe.
Why do you believe that?
Originally Posted By: Hal Itosis
And -- unless i'm mistaken -- Einstein made many a reference to God as well.
Indeed he did. But Einstein did not believe in any personally involved god the way most religious people do; he did not believe in a god who involves himself in the lives of humans, nor one who suspends the physical laws of the universe for the convenience of humans.
And even Einstein's limited view of god still blinded him from some physical truths of the physical world; he refused to accept quantum physics on religious grounds--and those principles and models he refused to believe have been tested and found to be accurate.
Einstein spent the last fifteen years of his life as a living monument to himself, contributing nothing to physics, because his religion caused him to refuse to accept the reality of how the universe works.
This is one of the greatest problems of faith-based belief systems.
Originally Posted By: Hal Itosis
Also, he didn't seek to cook up artificial 'organisms' (synthetic bacteria?) with the [alleged] attitude that "there's nothing magical about life."
One of the things I find most fascinating about religious faith is the notion that there is no awe and majesty in the universe without magic.
There is nothing magical about life; life exists by, and follows, physical law. But that does not mean that it is not awe-inspiring. You do not need leprechauns, fairy dust, or invisible men with magic powers who live in the sky in order to be awestruck by the magnificence and incredible wonder of the physical world.
In fact, I think that relying on magic detracts from the awe and wonder of the world, because it says "all this is here because someone waved a magic wand and made it be here"--far less awe-inspiring, in my book, than "of the trillions and trillions of ways this universe could have turned out, the way it did turn out is with such beauty and majesty as to beggar human comprehension, and we are here to witness it."
We are the universe's way of understanding itself. That, to me, is far more awe-inspiring than we are the corrupt creations of a magical man in the sky.
Originally Posted By: Hal Itosis
Again, "reality" (and i suppose you mean *physical* reality?) is phenomena perceived by our 5 senses. Explain (if you will) dreams. [i.e., the dimensions therein are *not* limited by the physical world we live in day-to-day.
They're not dimensions; they're the result of activity in your brain, nothing more. If I stop the activity in your brain--for example, with an anaesthetic drug--I stop those dreams.
