We are a group of atoms plus ‘much more’!

Krishna: We are more than mere atoms!

If you look at a whole range of influences that make you the person you are, from the evolutionary process that shaped us as humans to your consciousness, personality and genetics, a special thing denotes this cluster of atoms called ‘living beings’.

But one fundamental aspect is the atoms making up your body. Each atom in you came from somewhere. The atoms in your body are constantly being replaced at different rates – some remain only for hours, others for a few years, but over a ten-year period the majority will have been replaced. And there are only two obvious ways to join your body – the air that you breathe and the food and drink that you consume. The atoms that become incorporated in your body were previously in the air, plants, other animals and minerals.

If we could follow an individual atom back through its history, it will have been incorporated many times into other animals and plants, after originating in star dust. There are so many atoms involved that your body incorporates atoms that were previously in the body of other things - both living and non-living.

The very same atoms will have been in the first life forms, then dinosaurs, while throughout the presence of life on Earth many will also have been in bacteria. With the exception of a few atoms produced by radioactive decay, every atom in your body already existed when the Earth formed around 4.5 billion years ago.

Okay, you came into existence by using the atoms present on Earth. Became a living being from non-living atoms.

All organisms are composed of molecules that assemble together via numerous chemical reactions. Just as heat flows from hot to cold, these molecules obey the universal tendency to diminish energy differences, so that the most likely chemical reactions are those in which energy flows “downhill” toward a stationary state, or chemical equilibrium.

The molecules involved most likely underwent a series of more and more complex reactions to minimize mutual energy differences between matter on Earth and with respect to high-energy radiation from the Sun. The process eventually advanced so far that it culminated into such sophisticated functional structures that could be called living (1).

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Then you follow certain scientific rules to be called a ‘living being’.

Order, sensitivity or response to the environment, reproduction, growth and development, regulation, homeostasis, and energy processing.

You are a highly developed living mechanism! The atoms in your body follow these living rules of science to thrive: 1. Nutrition- Living things take in materials from their surroundings that they use for growth or to provide energy, 2 Respiration, 3 Movement, 4 Excretion, 5 Growth, 6 Reproduction, 7 Sensitivity.

The atoms of your body got organized and formed a system to perform specific functions of a living organism! They developed  command and control systems.

The bodily atoms working together developed consciousness to get aware of everything around and within the system to function properly.

Thinking and emotions made the system more sophisticated.

The group of atoms in human beings became so evolved that it started controlling itself and most of the things around by studying the atoms around and co-operating with one another. They developed “ intelligence” to do this.

Yes, we are a group of atoms plus ‘much more’!

That ‘much more’ distinguishes us from a rock or a hill or dead wood in a forest that are masses of atoms too.

Image source: shutter stock

Footnotes:

1. http://Annila,%20Arto%20and%20Annila,%20Erkki.%20%E2%80%9CWhy%20did...