>How do you define life ?
Obviously, life is birth and death separated by activities concerned with
converting matter into cellular fuel and or procreating.
Beyond these basics however, lies a powerful question.
If life were simply those items above then one or more of them must be the
very purpose of life. I don't believe life or existence exists simply
because it is. That's as empty as saying "I think therefore I am". Nice
words but void of meaning.
I personally prefer to believe that there's a greater purpose than the
basics. Religions and Philosophies have attempted to determine the purpose
of life long before Mendel made his mark and, I believe, without significant
success. Accordingly, I'm still trying to figure out what the meaning of
'is' is -- from an existence point of view.
You can start with the big bang or before and work your way through organic
atomic attractions and such but you're still left with the question of why
existence (whatever that means) is better than non-existence or why the
existence of anything is necessary (or real) in the first place. 'Life' and
its definitions are simply a part of this bigger question. If you don't
have an answer to the bigger question, how can you solve the 'life' question
or any other question pertaining to a subset of all existance.
Hopefully, somebody smarter than I can shed some light on the primary
purpose of all life -- animal, vegetable and, yes, mineral. Then, perhaps
we can better understand the answer to this particular question.
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