What makes life vital (Introduction)

by Balance_Maintained , U.S.A., Monday, March 02, 2015, 03:39 (3554 days ago) @ David Turell

David: As Talbott points out, we do not have the descriptive terms in our language to really define a living being. Of course we are not machines but we are machine-like, with cogs and pulleys and whatever to function properly. But our bodies are at a much higher level with the emergence of life. That is his real point. The terms you like to seize on are analogies, because the concept of how life works biochemically is so hard to describe. How do we know how complex cellular function is? The research biochemists carefully delineate each single step of these complex molecular interactions, controlled by information in the genome. There must be underlying carefully planned controls. Life cannot be a free for all disco dance.-I think I might start with the word "alive" "living" and "conscious". The problem is not the language that we possess, but rather our insistence on treating living creatures as machines. Sprocket A turns cog B and we get thigamajigger D to do a little dance causing bobble C to wobble precariously and create cancer. Presto!-This goes hand in hand with our understanding of biology, genetics, and virtually all of life. Ever since the rise of naturalism and reductionism our outlook has been that of looking at everything mechanically. The problem is not our language, it is our worldview.

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What is the purpose of living? How about, 'to reduce needless suffering. It seems to me to be a worthy purpose.