A Rational Cosmology: The Consistency of Life's Continuity with Its Physical Nature

Some opponents of the physicalist view of life claim that because life is a continuous process, but the physical parts of the living organism change on a regular basis, it follows that life itself cannot be physical.

Yet, as we shall examine here, life's continuity is in fact entirely consistent with its physical nature, because a living organism is a physical system in which multiple fungible parts can perform the same function -- being successively replaced without disrupting the system's functionality.

In his essay, "Life," Mr. Reginald Firehammer further tries to bring up "evidence" as to the non-physical nature of life, volition, and consciousness:

"Continuity-whether it is life or consciousness, an organism has the same one moment to moment, day to day, and year to year. It is the same life and the same consciousness from the moment it becomes conscious until it dies. It is because consciousness and life are not physical this is true. Notice, the physical characteristics of an organism can change. Hypothetically, all of the physical parts could be changed, but it would still be the same organism, because it would still be the same life process and the same consciousness. It is the life process that is the independent existence that identifies the organism as a particular organism, not the physical components, and consciousness is an attribute of life."

This is true because what is alive, conscious, and volitional is the system and not any one component. So long as one entity in the system is replaced by another fungible entity (i.e., one capable of performing the same functions and exhibiting the fundamentally same nature as the entity it replaces), the same system continues to function.

But this is very much in line with a physicalist interpretation. Similarly, one can replace a gear in a clock and still have it remain the same clock; one can, over time, replace each single original part of the clock, yet still retain the same process functioning in the clock, i.e., the capacity to tell time using a certain mechanism.

Living organisms are much more complex than clocks and are capable of replacing most of their worn-out or damaged components without significant impairments to their functionality. Thus, they indeed have a greater degree of continuity than less complex systems, but this is a difference of degree only and not indicative of any claim that life is not a physical process.

Read other parts of "A Rational Cosmology" by clicking here.