Introduction

Nice click-bait title, yes? Life doesn't exist? C'mon! After all, don't we see life all around us? Myriad forms skulk, slither, slide and stroll across the surface of this planet, down beneath the soil and under the sea. There are creatures that thrive under extremes of heat, cold and pressure. There's even a microscopic little guy called a tardigrade, or water bear, that can exist in the vacuum of space! Look out your window. You'd be hard pressed to find a single square inch out there that isn't teaming with microorganisms, and the same holds true inside a volcano as well as beneath the Arctic ice.

But what, exactly, is this thing we call life? In times past life was believed to be some kind of vital spark inhabiting a biological container, an animated essence temporarily wedded to flora or fauna and yet fundamentally distinct from whatever organism it happened to be living in. Soul, spirit, ghost, pneuma, creative force- these are some of the terms people have used to describe that invisible, intangible 'stuff' which supposedly exists at the core of our being, and which differentiates living things from the stars, the moon and the sky. Oh, and rocks, too. Truth be told, this is still the way most people see things, even after science came along and poked holes in the methodology by which such ideas about the facts of nature are ascertained. Old ideas die hard, it seems.

On the other hand, and lest we fall into the trap of believing that only superstitious yokels and fools fall for such supposed malarkey, there is a sense in which all of us believe and communicate according to the feeling that there is something above and beyond material existence. That we are more than the sum of our parts. It will be the purpose of this blog to explore these notions and their ramifications, and if nothing else bring a little clarity to the issue. Join in the conversation, won't you? Feel free to disagree, and let's keep things civil, shall we?

UPDATE: Kudos to Libb Thims, who I understand is the coiner of the term 'abioism'. I haven't read any of his work yet and so cannot comment on it, but the term rocks! ;)