Are atoms alive?

Question

I know this question has been done before, but bear with me...

If atoms aren't alive then why is everything else?

I've read some of the previous answers and some said that it boils down to the way that atoms organize themselves and eventually become part of a living thing.

So if all it is is the way atoms are arranged, and if atoms have no perceived sense of life or direction, then why don't living things just spontaneously arise through mere chance everyday, or at least every once in a while?

I guess what I'm trying to say is what's stopping atoms from "creating" more living matter?

I hope I made sense!

:-/

Answer 1

Only living things are alive.  We are mostly made of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. Water is made of entirely hydrogen and oxygen. Coal and oil is made of mostly carbon and hydrogen. The lard you cook with is made of carbon and hydrogen. Although not primarily carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, most rocks contain these elements. Of the things I listed, rocks and water never have been alive or will they ever be. Oil, coal, cooking fat/oil are composed from things that were once alive but now are not. This should be a good illustration that we are alive because of the way the atoms bond with each other to form molecules, and then how these molecules interact with each other. Atoms alone are lifeless. Atoms arranged into molecules that do not promote life are lifeless (rocks, water). Honestly, DNA is the evolutionary accident that allowed life. If there is no DNA or RNA, there is no life. DNA again is just a conglomeration of atoms bonded into functioning molecules that form useful proteins, etc. There is much we don't understand about our origins, but we are positive that atoms don't fit the characterists of life. The only time, ever, that something came from nothing was during the big bang. It explains where all the matter in the universe originated, but not where that super-massive initial unit originated. Great minds like Hawking are working on that. Read "A Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawking.

Answer 2

because "alive" is a word and a state that we created. all it means is a complex system of biological, electric, and chemical reactions. think of a plant. it is "alive" in a very different sense than we are. it has no free will. it is governed ENTIRELY by photoelectric, chemical, and biological processes. it resembles a contained reaction more than a living organism in the way we think of it.

in my opinion, even free will is an illusion, just a series of electrical reactions. an outside source triggers a specific neurological reaction, which triggers the person to reciprocate the action that caused the neurological reaction in a specific way (that depends on what the reaction was), which acts as an outside source for another neurological reaction in another person.

Answer 3

Shhh, be quiet.  The atoms might be listening!

Answer 4

There is no physical difference between "living" matter and "nonliving" matter. They all obey the exact same laws of nature. "Living" is simply a label we give to certain arrangements of matter.

Living things do spontaneously arise, not through chance, but via the laws of nature. How do you think you got here?

Right now on Earth, living matter (as we know it) generally can no longer be generated spontaneously because of the very high concentrations of an exceedingly noxious and chemically aggressive compound: oxygen, which immediately breaks down complex arrangements of organic molecules. Life currently on the planet has universally had to evolve mechanisms to prevent this from happening. Secondly, any new living matter that did get created would likely be consumed immediately by the life already existing on Earth, which would be far, far more adapted to its environment.

Answer 5

No ,they do not reproduce