Once in my biology class, we had an experiment about differentiating living and non-living things. Our teacher that day instructed us to collect at least five objects of living and non-living things from the school ground. After the class gathered all their collections back in the lab, they individually classified the specimens either living or non-living things. Objects like leaves, butterflies, worms, dragonflies, flowers, roots, twigs, birds, bugs, fruits, dogs, squirrels were classified as living things. While, soda cans, plastic bottles, stones, candy sticks, paper bags, dirt, air, water were considered as non-living things. After entering our data and completing the lab sheets, our teacher immediately started the class by asking this very intriguing question: " What makes living things different from nonliving things?" From a very impressive lengthy discussion, two kinds of classifications came up on the board. The first one was according to how science defines life; and, the second was according to who created the objects.
The second classification was actually proposed by me. I told my teacher that air, water, and dirt must be in the list of living things since they are all created by nature, while the rest of the specimens are simply non-living things since they are made by man.
In an instant, my teacher responded to me by arguing that my observations were not enough to satisfy that air, water and dirt have life. She said that in order for objects to be considered alive or with life, they must have or had all the following signs or characteristics.
•Living things consume food in the form of energy.
•Living things are moving or in motion.
•Living things reproduce with an exact copy of itself.
•Living things react to their surrounding environment.
•Living things are made up of cells.
Aside from these criteria, animals and plants can talk, can walk, can see, can feel, can think, can swim and some can even fly. Objects with ALL the above characteristics are considered alive. Bioscientists name these living objects as organisms or species. I named these natural objects, including air, water, earth, and fire as Biophysies. Although water, air, soil, and flame may have some of the above characteristics, they are not considered alive because they do not have cellular materials. However, this last criterion is somewhat shaky in the sense that there are non-cellular micro-organisms that exist without cells but are alive. Moreover, there are living organisms that lack one or two of these characteristics but are still considered with life.
In contrast, medical scholars and legal experts defined death as:
•Total failure of the heart to function.
•Total failure of the lungs to function.
•Total failure of the brain stem to function.
Yet, nowadays, clinically dead persons can be revived to life by replacing dead hearts with artificial ventricular mechanical pumps or dead lungs with artificial rubber membranes as long as their brain stems are still intact. Thus, a functional brain stem is a key indicator that determines if a person is dead or alive.
As we have seen, science experts and medical scholars have contradicting views about life and death. Science provides a general description of life while medicine provides specific descriptions of death. Because of these opposing views, some concrete descriptions or general standards must be established that must be universally embraced by all-natural objects.
If life is characterized based on how medical experts define death, then an object is considered alive if it has a functional heart, lungs, and brain. But obviously, the definition is not applicable to all living things like for example plants. Trees and flowers do not have a heart, lungs, or even brain; yet, they are considered alive or with life. The Moner is an organism without organs too. This simplest form of animal life can walk without feet, eat without a mouth, digest without a stomach, and reproduce to new same species without reproductive organs. Octopuses, cuttlefish, nautiluses, and squids have three hearts that pump blue blood and could change their skin colors faster than a chameleon.
On the other hand, if death is characterized based on how science experts define life, then an object is considered dead when it is no longer moving, consuming energy, reproducing, and reacting with its environment.
The latter definition seems satisfactory since each trait can be applied to both living things and natural non-living things. However, if the criteria of characterizing life are arranged based on their levels of importance and reduced through the process of elimination, then energy will be the only criterion that will be left as a viable candidate.
Natural objects, either living or non-living, cannot be in motion without energy, reproduce cells without energy, or react to its surroundings without consuming energy. Energy, viegenetically called force-energy or energyforce, is the key indicator that determines when a natural object is dead or alive. This may seem argumentative since objects that are "dead" can still be alive! (see the book on Evolution of Creation for complete explanations).
Energy moves along constantly from one system to another new system, from one family to another new family, from the physical world to the abstract world, and flows continuously forever with time. This is the Law of Spontaneous Infinity. Energy provides the push or switching effect that turns on all-natural things. This boundless energy, like the electrical energy that lights up a bulb, is the energy that gives life to all living and natural non-living things. Force-energy animates life. (Lawsin 1988). Conversely, death is not energy. Like birth, it is a conditional state of the physical body. It does not have the ability to flow from one system to another. It does not have the capacity to do work. It is not a force-energy. Death is the telltale sign that a system has stopped.
In human terms, death is the rejection of life, the ending of creation, and the beginning of being in a new system. On the other hand, birth is the acceptance of life, the beginning of creation, and the ending of a previous life system. Death, not Life, is the alterpair of Birth.
So, what is the alterpair of life? In viegenesis view, the process of creation and the product of evolution is manifested by the dualpairing of the abstract systemic instruction and physical vitalic material. They are something and nothing that "breaths and carries life". The vitalic materials, which are the "chemical" elements, and the systemic instructions, which are the sets of rules, are the ingredients that both shape or form our natural life. Instruction is the giver of life while Material is the receiver of life. Instructions and Materials are the two-in-one ingredients that created Life. (Lawsin 2000)
So far up to this point, we found out that even inanimate natural objects possess the same measures of life as well. Non-living things like fire consume energy from the air in the form of oxygen. Non-living things like air are always in motion and when there is motion energy is consumed. Non-living things like water, air, and rocks reproduce. There are various kinds of stones, hence rocks are reproducing too. Air is a mixture of oxygen, nitrogen, and other gases. Air evolves from simple elements. Water when mixed with other liquids will produce new families of fluids. The mere fact that all-natural non-living things also react with each other and possess the basic criteria of life provide us some evidence that they are all conscious as well.
Natural objects, living and non-living, have consciousness. They have the basic properties of the "mental" consciousness of energy. Living things possess a complex system that creates the illusion of life. Rocks, air, water, and fire possess too small amount of consciousness. But when they work together as a complex system, they all become one as a living organism we call Earth. The brain without activity is dead. But when neurons fire, synapses connect and all things interact, the brain becomes alive and the light of consciousness once again shines. Consciousness is a complex system that forms the condition we call LIFE.
However, there are non-living things such as robots and space probes that possess the same criteria as a complex system. These man-made objects can talk, walk, see, feel, think, eat, and even die. They even exhibit mechanical "emotions" and "consciousness". They act and interact with the environment. They consume energy, in motion, and programmed to reproduce. They have mechanical organs like the brain and heart. Hence, if these mechanical objects possess the same criteria of living things, then where do we draw now the line if something is alive or with life?
Excerpt from the book: The Evolution of Creation by Joey Lawsin.
"LIFE is a natural Right that should not be taken away by anyone
no matter what, who, where, why, or how!" ~ Joey Lawsin
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Copyright (c) 2000. All rights reserved. This article is part of a book entitled Evolution of Creation. Copies are welcome to be shared or distributed publicly as long proper citations are observed. Please cite as follows: A Journal of a Creative Mind, Joey Lawsin, 1988, USA.
