The news has been buzzing with the human creation of the first synthetic cell. Religious leaders in the theologically litigious world of western religions are not quite sure what to make of this one. Is it life? If so, by definition, people could not have created it; only God creates life. Right?

Life is one of those hazy concepts that, although it may easily be described, is difficult to define. What exactly is a “life force”? Where does it come from? It seems to have arisen naturally on the primordial earth, and likely has developed elsewhere in the vast universe as well. Traditional theisitic approaches to religion claim that this is God’s trump card, the ace of spades in the game that is existence. Only God gives life, takes life, and gives it back again. Human efforts to replicate the process are bluffs.

No wonder religious leaders don’t know what to make of this development! This is the final gauntlet to be thrown down. Once life itself is explained, the god of the gaps may vanish forever. In the 1950s amino acids were created in a laboratory. Not quite sixty years later, cells have been replicated. There is still time for religious leaders to contemplate where all this is going. Of course, many stake their beliefs that 2012 may take care of all of this and life will forever remain in the provenance of the divine.

Amino acid or cosmic SOS?