The Origin of Life

Ceptual version of 'origination'

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Once upon a time .. there were imaginings and suppositions, guesses and explorations, facts and possibilities, reasons and propositions of purpose.  The Origin of Life is a mystery that begs resolution.  The Origin of Life is a question for science and theology alike, and is not to be shirked by either.    The Ceptual Philosophy's impression of Life's origins embraces spiritual imperatives - it doesn't deny them - but Ceptual concepts are expressions of 'technique' .. the workings of how Life a, more than pensive considerations of the Eternal per se.   

In my brief span of breath and consciousness, the plan and purpose of why there even is a universe seethes through my being every moment I live.  Sometimes, I catch glimpses of eternal truths.  And I keep them in my heart.   And every so often, one idea or another simply begs to be given a voice.    The 'origin of life' is one such notion for me.   I am an artist and a passion and a spirit and a mind.  And I see the universe contrived to enact life.  Not necessarily 'human form' .. but Life .. always and absolutely.   I take no religious stance, but never deny God.  And, I have to say, that that is my preference. Yet, it's possible to understand and accept the performances of dimensions, time and space .. and live an irreligious perception of life.  That's a 'life's prerogative, though it doesn't happen to be mine.

So the commentary presented here - and spoken of elsewhere in my writings - reflect only the Ceptual view of the architecture of existence, not any rationale for the purpose of existing ... which I can't repeat often enough .. resides within each heart and which must be respected by every other.   The excellent thing is, that when each life respects and values all other lives, then no sentience will waste or harm another - from either maliciousness or uncaring.

It is only "insensitivity" - reactive or by choice - that holds any life back from enjoying the freedoms and possibilities of Being.

On May 13, 1999 the following item was published by New York University and distributed to the media, including the Internet:

   Source:     New York University ( http://www.nyu.edu/ )            Date:   Posted 5/13/99

                "NYU Chemist Supports New Theory For Origin Of Life

                 New York University chemistry professor Robert Shapiro has published a
                 new book and paper that challenge existing assumptions about life on Earth
                 and elsewhere in the Universe. In Planetary Dreams, Shapiro raises the issue
                 of whether that laws of nature might favor the generation of life throughout the
                 Universe. Furthermore, Shapiro suggests that the hypothesis that life is unique
                 to Earth could prove to be just as implausible as theories of Divine Creation.

                 These arguments are presented in Shapiro's article, "Prebiotic cytosine
                 synthesis: A critical analysis and implications for the origin of life,"which
                 appeared in the April 13th Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
                 (Vol. 96, Issue 8, 4396-4401). Shapiro also lays out his argument in a new
                 book entitled PLANETARY DREAMS, which was published by John Wiley
                 & Sons in April.

                 In the book and paper, Shapiro argues that standard origin-of-life theories are
                 badly flawed. Such theories are dependent on a miraculous event: the
                 once-in-a-universe spontaneous generation of RNA, DNA or some related
                 gene from lifeless matter.

                 Shapiro marshals an array of data to argue that the simplest kind of cellular life
                 may arise as a predictable result of organic chemistry and the physics of
                 self-organizing systems whenever planets exist with the right constituents and
                 conditions: a liquid or dense gas medium (not necessarily water), a suitable
                 energy source, and a system of matter capable of using the energy to organize
                 itself. He calls this hypothesis the Life Principle. Furthermore, he argues that
                 no predictable directions exist for life's later development from these basic
                 beginnings.

                 In addition, Shapiro argues that humankind's search for life beyond Earth
                 should continue to focus on those nearby worlds -- Mars, Jupiter's Europa
                 and Saturn's Titan -- where the conditions appear to support the development
                 of life.

                 He writes, "The debate over extraterrestrial life has been carried out with a
                 great deal of passion, but with little progress, for centuries. Only in the last
                 decades have we gained the ability to move it forward by collecting data at
                 close range. We can send robots to inspect likely worlds such as Mars,
                 Europa and Titan, and return photographs, information and samples, or, if we
                 choose, we can go there ourselves and look around. We may find existing life,
                 remnants of extinct life, or chemical systems evolving in the direction of life.
                 Alternatively, we may encounter monotonous wastelands, lacking any sign that
                 a process relevant to life has taken place there. The results will help decide
                 which of two very different views of the Universe is more nearly correct."

                 Robert Shapiro is a professor of chemistry at New York University. He is the
                 author of the critically acclaimed books Life Beyond Earth, Origins, and The
                 Human Blueprint. A specialist in the chemistry of DNA and RNA, Shapiro
                 has published over 90 articles in research journals.  

                 Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by New York University
                        for journalists and other members of the public. If you wish to quote from any part of
                        this story, please credit New York University as the original source. You may also wish
                        to include the following link in any citation:
                                http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1999/05/990513070141.htm "

And now .. the Ceptual perspective ... 

The nature of the universe is that it is true to itself .. in its entirety.   Odd little sentence.   Sort of a 'given', I suppose.    A thing is what it is.   Nothing really special or profound in that.  

Except, it really is profound and special, and means something very particular in regard to Dr. Shapiro's notions and to concerns about the 'origin of life' in general.

It means that in the long enactment of existence, every place and every time has the potential to do or be what every other place and time is capable of doing or being.  If similar conditions arise because the universe unfolds its potential in similar ways then similar things will happen.  Stars formed everywhere, galaxies too.  Not because something was unique or exclusive or exclusionary when it happened once ... somewhere, someplace ... but because the universe is made and capable of enacting the same thing in many places at different times.

The situation in relation to whether life spontaneously 'originated' on earth, of earth, and by earth related processes, making Earth and its creatures independent, unique and/or special .. is really an absurd question to think about.  Oh, it's possible that it did happen.  But the greater likelihood is that the creative generation of Life's component structures are part of the innate structure and dynamics of existence everywhere.  It makes no difference if molecules organized and formed in mid-space - or - because of how chemicals present in a comet were able to re-form when energized by passing close to a star - or - occurred when similar chemicals formed when the oceans of this planet cooled sufficiently so that they didn't decompose by being boiled beyond their breaking point.

It makes no difference if the 'seeds' of Life that blossomed so phenomenally on this planet came from stars in galaxies halfway across the known visible universe and billions of years in the past or formed close at home.         It makes no difference.  It makes the lives of this planet no less special or important.  It does not make us 'strangers' or alien tenants - squatters, intruders - to a planet which had some territorial sovereignty to retain.  And it doesn't make us orphans of existence, with no 'true' place to call home.

Oh, it's nice to have a place that is haven and home.  I wrote as much in 1992, expressing that the universe in its total fullness is that place.  But. I didn't stop there.  I take the Ceptual perspective that Life is not a resident of the universe.   Neither of it nor in it.

Rather, Life is an aspect of the universe.   It is a quality the universe itself acts out.   It is a form that the universe is capable of Being.  We aren't residents or visitors to this place, these times ... we are this place, these times.  We are an extraordinary aspect of the universe, a universe which exists and examines/knows itself and its aspects. "We" are "it" ... "we" are the universe engaged in realizing and understanding itself.

That the creation and enactment of "life" happened here, there, or anywhere, is no phenomenon open to dispute.  I claim that it is hollow to be so judgmental, or to lay claim to some territorial imperative, or to feel adrift or unattached to this world simply because we are more a part of the whole than of any local part ... land, or country, or planet, or star system, or galaxy.

There will be life on other worlds.  There has been and will be again.  It will feel comfortable and at ease in surroundings of familiarity, in environments of nurture and possibility ... no matter the chemistry or metabolics or conditions to be coped.

I agree that humanity and Earth-life should explore its whole extensive environment.   I am hopeful that creative evolution will continue, against the flow of its seeming current retractments, diminishments.   I dream that Solarian worlds will become like continental isolates once were, which fostered newnesses and creativity of unimaginable wonderment.

But it ought to be done not just to confirm or specify our heritage and ancestry, but instead, to hallmark our matured recognition of who we are .. as a species, one among many .. continuing to change and transform and actualize the possibilities of the universe.  During Life, by way of it, and around it.

/ CI Commentary /
May 27, 2000 

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