Although a biologist, I must confess I do not understand how life came about... I consider that life only starts at the level of a functional cell. The most primitive cells may require at least several hundred different specific biological macro-molecules. How such already quite complex structures may have come together, remains a mystery to me. The possibility of the existence of a Creator, of God, represents to me a satisfactory solution to this problem.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the complexity of life and the origins of biological structures, suggesting a possible divine creator as a solution to this mystery.
In this quote, Werner Arber, a biologist, expresses his bewilderment at the complexity inherent in the formation of life's fundamental building blocks, namely cells. Despite his scientific background, he acknowledges the limits of his understanding regarding how life originated and suggests that the existence of a Creator could provide an acceptable explanation for the mysteries surrounding the emergence of life. Arber's perspective bridges the gap between scientific inquiry and philosophical contemplation, emphasizing the intricacy of biological systems and the potential for a divine influence in their origin.
In practice
During a debate on the origins of life, one could use this quote to illustrate the intersection of science and spirituality.
There is nothing more difficult to outgrow than anxieties that have become useful to us, whether as explanations for a life that never quite finds its true force or direction, or as fuel for ambition, or as a kind of reflexive secular religion that, paradoxically, unites us with others in a shared sense of complete isolation: you feel at home in the world only by never feeling at home in the world.
I can see the sun, but even if I cannot see the sun, I know that it exists. And to know that the sun is there - that is living.
The brain seems a thoroughfare for nerve-action passing its way to the motor animal. It has been remarked that Life's aim is an act not a thought. To-day the dictum must be modified to admit that, often, to refrain from an act is no less an act than to commit one, because inhibition is coequally with excitation a nervous activity.
The lapse of ages changes all things - time - language - the earth - the bounds of the sea - the stars of the sky, and everything 'about, around, and underneath' man, except man himself, who has always been and always will be, an unlucky rascal. The infinite variety of lives conduct but to death, and the infinity of wishes lead but to disappointment. All the discoveries which have yet been made have multiplied little but existence.
After all, what is your personal identity? It is what you really are, your real self. None of us is what he thinks he is, or what other people think he is, still less what his passport says he is. And it is fortunate for most of us that we are mistaken. We do not generally know what is good for us. That is because, in St. Bernard's language, our true personality has been concealed under the 'disguise' of a false self, the ego, whom we tend to worship in place of God.
No man is to be credited for his mere authority's sake, unless he can show Scripture for the maintenance of his opinion.
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