# God and Life **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 26, 2018, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192 "2018-04-26T22:27:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/101 "2018-04-28T14:45:04Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > Okay, here’s an immediate problem that I can see: If you redefine “God” as “Life”, any potential issues with respect to a woman’t right to abortion? Perhaps not for you, but for those who take this concept of “God is Life” a little too seriously. I don’t know that interchanging the words God and Life works for every case, but I’m certainly one who believes that life begins at conception, if not earlier. And sometimes it is necessary to end that life. Anybody who’s had a miscarriage (one in five pregnancies) can probably relate to this. I don’t think ending a life means ending God either. Like matter and energy, life just changes forms. It’s a work in progress theory of the universe, but I think it has much merit. ---
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/102 "2018-04-28T14:46:16Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Your thinking is rather wide, but under no circumstances would I call it “deep”. To each their own. ---
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/103 "2018-04-28T14:48:48Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > There are plenty of things in the Universe that don’t depend on life, including some that are very beautiful and complex. And indeed, so far as we know, for most of the Universe’s history, there was no life at all. I guess that depends on how you define life. If you’re by molecular or subatomic activity, then life is much more plentiful than we usually give credit for. I’ve always liked to consider the active volcanoes on Jupiter’s moon Io as “alive.” ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/104 "2018-04-28T14:51:29Z")
> [@Biffster](#): > > It’s a work in progress theory of the universe, but I think it has much merit. Without evidence it isn’t a theory, and unless all you have is a reinterpretation of two words(“If your redefine “Round” and “Square” to mean the same thing, you _can_ fit a square peg in a round hole!”) then I don’t see any progress. ---
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/105 "2018-04-28T14:52:09Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > Does it ever bother you at all that religious/theistic thought hasn’t had an original idea in centuries (if not millenia), yet is completely shameless in plagiarizing & co-opting scientific concepts and discoveries without doing the hard work required to show why all of a sudden, ‘God=Life=Love=Pie’? Maybe Pi as opposed to Pie. Infinitesimals have always made me ponder the mysteries of life. God. Love. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/106 "2018-04-28T14:53:41Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Without evidence it isn’t a theory, and unless all you have is a reinterpretation of two words(“If your redefine “Round” and “Square” to mean the same thing, you _can_ fit a square peg in a round hole!”) then I don’t see any progress. Tell me: how do you define Life, Czarcasm? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/107 "2018-04-28T14:53:54Z")
> [@Biffster](#): > > I guess that depends on how you define life. If you’re by molecular or subatomic activity, then life is much more plentiful than we usually give credit for. I’ve always liked to consider the active volcanoes on Jupiter’s moon Io as “alive.” They’re not, no matter how hard you wish for it to be true. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/108 "2018-04-28T14:55:25Z")
> [@Biffster](#): > > If you think about what life does, what its purpose is, there is much more to contemplate. What might “its purpose” be? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/109 "2018-04-28T14:55:42Z")
> [@Biffster](#): > > Tell me: how do you define Life, Czarcasm? Since you are the one who claims not to use any dictionary definition, it is still upon _you_ to give us _your_ definition. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/110 "2018-04-28T14:56:43Z")
> [@Biffster](#): > > Like matter and energy, life just changes forms. It’s a work in progress theory of the universe, but I think it has much merit. This is in fact the working scientific theory of the universe. And there is no ‘God=Life’ equation required or implied. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/111 "2018-04-28T14:56:43Z")
> [@Biffster](#): > > Maybe Pi as opposed to Pie. Infinitesimals have always made me ponder the mysteries of life. God. Love. Such wide thinking. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/112 "2018-04-28T15:03:16Z")
> [@Biffster](#): > > Maybe Pi as opposed to Pie. Infinitesimals have always made me ponder the mysteries of life. God. Love. I just love Pie. 😉 You’re not the first nor the last to look for the God particle. Nobody has found one yet but it does appear to be shrinking at the rate just beyond the grasp of scientific discovery. Coincidence? ---
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/113 "2018-04-28T15:03:27Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > They’re not, no matter how hard you wish for it to be true. True, from a life is plane or animal state as contrasted with the dead state. But all that activity sure looks like life from a different perspective. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/114 "2018-04-28T15:03:41Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > Does it ever bother you at all that religious/theistic thought hasn’t had an original idea in centuries (if not millenia), yet is completely shameless in plagiarizing & co-opting scientific concepts and discoveries without doing the hard work required to show why all of a sudden, ‘God=Life=Love=Pie’? Religious thought tries to, among other things, define universal concepts, in Buddhism it’s called Dharma, so i would expect a convergence of old concepts, which I do see. Different faiths are to me glimpses of this, not the total. Science is our understanding of our material world, which is useful to see more aspects of the dharma. As such science is scripture, it is common for religions to quote scriptures. I don’t necessarily subscribe to God = Life, but I can entertain the concept, and without being demeaning or closed minded. I can add anything I have found on this to further the debate and perhaps the support of this thought experiment, and happy to see where it leads. If done in good faith, it should as I see it, converge to the dharma, every faith to me does. Even such ones that have started out as intentionally phony, such as the Flying Spaghetti Monster, Jedi religion, & Scientology. Even extinct ones like the Greek gods. ---
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/115 "2018-04-28T15:08:07Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Since you are the one who claims not to use any dictionary definition, it is still upon _you_ to give us _your_ definition. Well, it’s not that I don’t use dictionary definitions; it’s just that I think this one needs to be expanded. Personal opinion. This definition is the first one that Google provides, and I think gives us a good starting point for life: the condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity, and continual change preceding death. This definition negates my fanciful thinking, of course, but that’s kind of the point. I imagine there’s more to life than what this definition proclaims. I’d say there’s more to God as well. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/116 "2018-04-28T15:09:17Z")
Of course life doesn’t begin at conception. Life begins billions of years ago. And human life doesn’t begin at conception, either: It begins a million or so years ago, depending on precisely how you define “human”. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/117 "2018-04-28T15:09:39Z")
> [@Biffster](#): > > True, from a life is plane or animal state as contrasted with the dead state. But all that activity sure looks like life from a different perspective. It’s life because, if you look at it in just the right way, it sorta looks like life? There is no way to debate stuff this shallow-You guys have fun. ---
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/118 "2018-04-28T15:11:27Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > Religious thought tries to, among other things, define universal concepts, in Buddhism it’s called Dharma, so i would expect a convergence of old concepts, which I do see. Different faiths are to me glimpses of this, not the total. > > Science is our understanding of our material world, which is useful to see more aspects of the dharma. As such science is scripture, it is common for religions to quote scriptures. > > I don’t necessarily subscribe to God = Life, but I can entertain the concept, and without being demeaning or closed minded. I can add anything I have found on this to further the debate and perhaps the support of this thought experiment, and happy to see where it leads. > > If done in good faith, it should as I see it, converge to the dharma, every faith to me does. Even such ones that have started out as intentionally phony, such as the Flying Spaghetti Monster, Jedi religion, & Scientology. Even extinct ones like the Greek gods. Thanks for your open-mindedness. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/119 "2018-04-28T15:12:26Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > Religious thought tries to, among other things, define universal concepts, in Buddhism it’s called Dharma, so i would expect a convergence of old concepts, which I do see. Different faiths are to me glimpses of this, not the total. Demonstrably wrong to date. Every religion has attempted, at one time or another, to stifle the competing religion. This is still going on and there does not appear to be an end of it in our lifetime. > [@kanicbird](#): > > Science is our understanding of our material world, which is useful to see more aspects of the dharma. As such science is scripture, it is common for religions to quote scriptures. Demonstrably wrong. You do not understand science or it’s methods. Science discards ideas that are found to be incorrect. Religion seeks ways to redefine terms in order to support wrong conclusions in a new way. > [@kanicbird](#): > > I don’t necessarily subscribe to God = Life, but I can entertain the concept, and without being demeaning or closed minded. I can add anything I have found on this to further the debate and perhaps the support of this thought experiment, and happy to see where it leads. > > If done in good faith, it should as I see it, converge to the dharma, every faith to me does. Even such ones that have started out as intentionally phony, such as the Flying Spaghetti Monster, Jedi religion, & Scientology. Even extinct ones like the Greek gods. I confess to not being able to parse the above in order to respond to it. ---
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/120 "2018-04-28T15:14:34Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > Demonstrably wrong to date. Every religion has attempted, at one time or another, to stifle the competing religion. This is still going on and there does not appear to be an end of it in our lifetime. > > Demonstrably wrong. You do not understand science or it’s methods. Science discards ideas that are found to be incorrect. Religion seeks ways to redefine terms in order to support wrong conclusions in a new way. > > I confess to not being able to parse the above in order to respond to it. Hmmm. “Confess” is a pretty loaded (and religious sounding) term… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192.md?page=7)