cofty, thank you for guiding my thoughts on this.
"progress in the area of life from non-living chemicals. ":
the research I have read about involves very sophisticated setups, done by the best minds in the field. There is of course a super-abundance of near-life chemicals on earth already, if you care to jump-start the experiments.
Lets assume that Life will ignite in one of these latter-day alchemy experiments*. what would that prove? It would prove, to me, with high probability the existence of a creator, since it took the best minds with well designed equipment that is planned knowing the laws of nature to do it. Life creation has never been observed to happen by chance in the rich broth of organic detrius that we live in.
so, while evolution teachings provide compelling evidence of lifes' forms and successes, The BIG SHOW question goes before and beyond that.
" Science cant prove----" The big efforts, big energies (CERN), great intellect that is needed to re-create, probe the existing universe, discover its laws, recreate life, is evidence per se of the existence of a master worker, creator, intellect, is it not? me,
Having been involved (with carefully sequestered mind) in the bible-fable enterprise, what superior religious experience is there, based on reality and the awe that people like Einstein experienced? is that religion?
blessings. * element- creation was finally realized in our day, so there is hope for artificial neo-live too?