A Rational Cosmology: How Life Follows the Laws of Physics

Essay LXXV

This is Essay LXXV of Mr. Stolyarov's series, "A Rational Cosmology," which seeks to present objective, absolute, rationally grounded views of terms such as universe, matter, volume, space, time, motion, sound, light, forces, fields, and even the higher-order concepts of life, consciousness, and volition. See the index of all the essays in "A Rational Cosmology" here.

Mr. Reginald Firehammer, in his essay, "Life," presents further arguments against the physical nature of life. But these arguments do not demonstrate his intended point. This essay shall give responses to Mr. Firehammer's claims and demonstrate how it is possible for life to follow the laws of physics.

Mr. Firehammer writes:

"It is not a "system" that is alive. You may think of an organism is a "system," but if it is only the physical system, it is not alive itself. What is self-sustained is the process which uses the physical aspects of the "system" (organism) to sustain itself and the organism as an organism. It requires those physical aspects because a process must be a process of something. In that sense, it also maintains the organism as a living entity. As soon as the process ceases, the physical entity is no longer an organism."

A "process of physical entities" is a relationship among those physical entities whereby, in their spatial, motional, or other interactions, the entities affect each other's qualities. That is all any process is; it is the sum of the entities that partake in it and the attributes and natures that those entities exhibit.

To say that life requires physical entities to be "a process of something" is to concede that the only things life is a process of are physical things, and that life is therefore wholly physical, since a process cannot be defined outside the things it is a process of.

Mr. Firehammer further tries to exclude life from the laws of physical causality: