1. Life is a magnificent expression of the Divine Principle that undergirds the Cosmos, the physical embodiment of the abstract and subtle Spirit. Human life with thinking mind and feeling heart, with values and meanings, love and laughter, poetry and philosophy, music and mathematics and associated consciousness is the the ultimate pinnacle of Life. It provides incontrovertible evidence that there is more to the world that mute matter and entropic energy. Indeed, Life is the tangible reflection of the Unfathomable Mystery that gave rise to the Cosmos with all its space and splendor.
2. Life is the complex process resulting from the accidental emergence of self-replicating molecules that have resulted in self-sustaining open systems, interconnected in the web of biosphere. Individual life forms survive as separate entities for a finite period of time by maintaining a dynamic equilibrium with the environment. They propagate by reproduction and are capable of evolving into even more complex structures with the passage of time and changes in the environment. Life becomes possible in planets with appropriate physical conditions that include water, carbon, radiation, and other factors. Thus, Life is not unique to earth, and can arise (arises ) in myriad forms in planetary niches all over the universe as and when external conditions are conducive to its emergence and sustenance.
Debates concerning Life arise and indeed are inevitable when people subscribing to these two opposing views insist on the correctness of their respective perspectives when all that can be said is that:
(1) Gives us a loftier vision that paints finite and fleeing existence on an infinite cosmic canvas in the larger framework of philosophy and religion.
(2) Provides us with an observationally tenable and epistemically more coherent framework in the study of life as a natural phenomenon.
It is fair to say (or so it seems to me) that when it comes to providing definitive answers to questions relating to ultimate origins and purposes, be they of languages or good, cultures or the wheel, or of the universe itself, we are today as much in the dark and in the arena of free speculation as our distant reflecting ancestors were. The acceptance or rejection of an answer to fundamental questions depends most often on whether it is soothing rather than on whether it is logically consistent.
Spurts of Thought 