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Borderless: The existence of life as manifested in physical reality is very mysterious to us observers in that it must literally put itself together bit by bit. In the past it has been assumed that these bits come from "nonliving" matter. In other words, it was thought that "life" came from "nonlife." The line thought to separate "nonlife" matter from "living" things cannot be found. Even at the atomic and molecular level of matter we observe the dynamics of self-organization. The so-called gap between life and nonlife erases itself all the way down to the processes of self-creation exhibited in very simple chemical levels. Actually, self-creation happens at all size levels, from the microcosm of subatomic particles to the macrocosm of the Cosmos.
Drive: Darwinism is an attempt to fit life and life's evolution into nonliving mechanistic models that involve randomness as part of the mechanism. Evolution tells us something about survival but practically nothing about what really drives creation. Evolution is merely one of many aspects of living processes. We must go beyond trying to explain life using long accepted models of "nonliving" physics and chemistry. The self-creative life force does not miraculously appear out of the chemistry of a "nonliving" universe.
The force: We need something much more powerful to explain life. Life is too intelligent to have evolved by accident. We must include intelligence and consciousness in our explanation. Our observations show us active inter-species negotiations within a process for working out mutual consistencies. Self-creation as the definition of life fits not only single-celled creatures, fungi, plants and animals, but also the earth as a whole. There is some life force inhabiting the whole matter itself.
THE LIVING EARTH
Giant ball: Biologists have been working under the assumption that the planet Earth is a nonliving geological ball upon the surface of which life somehow sprang from nonlife. Actually, the Earth is a giant ball of activity consisting of a great crustal recycling system, including a recycling system for water, soil, and atmosphere. Taken together these cycles are sources of endless creativity that supply the materials ultimately incorporated into microbes, plants, and animals. The planet Earth is the living seed that gives birth to more complex animated forms of life.
Giant cell: The Earth is as a giant cell within whose boundary other smaller cells multiply, die, and are recycled into a myriad of active forms. Life is activity and Earth is unending activity. Earth is a living being creating other living beings with only star energy for nourishment. The Earth as a living organism exhibits metabolic self-regulation through the interaction of its environment with its self-animated organisms. The Earth can function as a living entity only because of the ceaseless planet wide flow and interchange of its energy and of its materials.
Self-regulating: The giant molecules from which the first living self-animated creatures of Earth formed themselves were catalyzed by powerful solar and lightning energy and by energy from the Earth's hot core. Photo synthesizing bacteria evolved into existence by learning to perpetuate and maintain themselves by using solar energy directly thus eventually producing a oxygen-rich atmosphere in the process. The activity of living things has always kept the atmosphere in just the right balance for life on Earth to continue. While the Sun has been growing steadily larger and hotter since the Earth was formed, the Earth as a whole, like a warm-blooded creature, has kept a rather steady temperature.
Self-balancing: The appropriate balance of Earth's temperature and balance of chemicals and acid in the seas and soil and all other conditions necessary for the life of Earth are regulated by Earth itself. Earth's living active processes are similar to balances maintained in the self-regulated bodies of humans. The human body knows itself as a whole, it is self-referential, which enables it to carry out its functions. This is also the case for Earth as well.
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