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What is Life and where does it come from An attempt to find scientific, philosophical and theological answer to this question
Josip Balabanić
orcid.org/0000-0002-5056-4715
Sažetak
The article endeavours to analyze the term life and the origin of life’s characteristics from a biological, philosophical and theological stand. In searching for the answer to the question of what life is, the first part of the article emphasizes that biology does not try to define life as such, but that biology as a natural science researches and describes the characteristics of live creatures and that it finds the key to understanding biological structures and functions in evolution. Furthermore, it shows how the philosophy of today does not rely on any live forces as special essences and that the answer to the question of what life is varies according to different metaphysics of quality (reductive and non-reductive physicalism, philosophical or materialistic naturalism). The second part of the article focuses on the question of where life comes from, it highlights that there is a long tradition in philosophy which sees in an intellective life (conscientiousness, creativity, teleology) the highest form of revealing life’s characteristics and also some possibilities which in light of evolution biology and such philosophy, open up to the modern theology of creation. The highest form of intellective life and Life itself is seen in God and is revealed to man in the self-revelation of God through the embodied Logos/Christ. Therefore, the Crucified and resuscitated Logos/Christ, as God and as man becomes the place in which God Himself has taken all the physical and moral evils of the world in becoming upon himself, and enables those who accept his way of life to live the new and eternal life. This is followed by the general conclusion that life is God himself and that every form of life that is spirited by His Spirit the Creator and Life Giver of a different degree, comes from him.
Ključne riječi
life; autopoiesis; immanence; transcendence; emergence; Logos; Spiritus Creator
Hrčak ID:
53637
URI
Datum izdavanja:
30.4.2010.
Posjeta: 3.290 *