I used Dr. Tour’s video because he mentioned some key aspects. Most of your comments are bashing his ideas. I did emphasize that I don’t agree with all of his views. I just wanted to show the views of other scientists who agree that scientists are nowhere close to making a cell in a laboratory. He is a reputable scientist.
Just bashing his ideas? I feel like you read my post but didn’t actually think about the points that I made. The guy is clearly lying and distorting scientific information. My issue is not with you showing a view different from other scientists but claiming that James Tour “proves” that Abiogenesis is wrong. He may be a reputable scientist in the realm of Chemistry but what reputation does he have in the context of Origin of Life research, which is an interdisciplinary field? When someone is manipulative enough to claim that “Nothing has happened in Origin of Life research since Miller – Urey experiment”, they have lost all credibility from the scientists that study this stuff.
How exactly did I misrepresent the scientific work done up to now? Science has not been able to make a living cell, and they are nowhere close to that.
And again, I feel like you didn’t carefully read my post above. I never said you are misrepresenting the scientific work for simply claiming that scientists have not been able to artificially make a living cell. My issue is with the erroneous implication that if it can’t be done in a human lab, it couldn’t have happened due to natural process. We don’t have the technology to compress something down to its schwarzschild radius either, does that mean black holes can’t come into existence due to natural process?
Even if they can create a cell, creating a “conscious life” is an impossibility. How can inert matter give rise to feelings of joy or sadness, perceptions, etc.?
This one may be right. Many intriguing research done by scientists in UVA, Division of Perceptual Studies and in other institutions have raised compelling questions about the nature of the conscious experience. If scientific tools gets advanced enough to demonstrate that mind isn’t produced by the brain, it will cause an implication to the origin of life research where the mind will be central. This is fully consistent with Buddha dhamma, but will take a paradigm change in the mainstream Science perspective. I feel like one of the reasons why many Scientists have been stubborn with their materialistic views is because religious people say a lot of unsubstantiated things about the world, and acknowledging that consciousness isn’t created by the brain could come off as validating those claims that don’t have basis in fact. Just when you are done with the issue of materialism, you will encounter the issue of creationism. What a messed up world this is, lmao