Important scientific argument that the world and everything in it is alive

UPDATE below

Science Daily reports on a new theory by Erik D. Andrulis that if true demonstrates the earth is alive. The peer reviewed journal Life has just published Theory of the Origin, Evolution, and Nature of Life, which argues the earth is alive .

Andrulis writes:

“In the theory proposed herein, I use the heterodox yet simple gyre —a spiral, vortex, whorl, or similar circular pattern—as a core model for understanding life. . . . The central idea of this theory is that all physical reality, stretching from the so-called inanimate into the animate realm and from micro- to meso- to macrocosmic scales, can be interpreted and modeled as manifestations of a single geometric entity, thegyre. This entity is attractive because it has life-like characteristics, undergoes morphogenesis, and is responsive to environmental conditions. The gyromodel depicts the spatio temporal behavior and properties of elementary particles, celestial bodies, atoms, chemicals, molecules, and systems as quantized packets of information, energy, and/or matter that oscillate between excited and ground states around a singularity. The singularity, in turn, modulates these states by alternating attractive and repulsive forces. The singularity itself is modeled as a gyre, thus evincing a thermodynamic, fractal,and nested organization of the gyromodel. In fitting the scientific evidence from quantum gravity to cell division, this theory arrives at an understanding of life that questions traditional beliefs and definitions.”

If this holds up it means James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis’s “Gaia Hypothesis” is true in a literal sense and that while evolution takes place, life did not evolve out of non-life. Insights by pantheists and panentheists would be shown more accurate than those of simple reductive materialists.

According to Science Daily, Andrulis has already used the theory to “identify a hidden signature of RNA biogenesis in his laboratory at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. ”

The original paper is technical and parts are well beyond my ability to understand, but in case some of you are better equipped, the paper may be downloaded here.

Publication does not mean proven, but it does mean competent readers well versed in the subject found it worthwhile. Stay tuned.

P. Z. Meyers , my favorite pushy atheist, has a strong denunciation of the paper. On the one hand this is to be expected because it crosses so directly against his thinking. On the other hand, most papers making big claims are shot down because they should be. Time will tell. (Thanks Makarios, who for some reason Beliefnet would not let post here.)

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