"Educated guess"?

Yes. I'll go along with that, Wolfgang. That's exactly what Clinton's opinion is, it's an educated guess, as is mine. That's what most people's opinions are.

Is it so hard to imagine that atomic structures are in some way alive, and that therefore there is a life force in all things? Does "life" have to mean biological life? Or can there be other forms of life?

It all depends on words, people. There is no practical difference whatsoever in how Clinton and I see or deal with a rock. None. There is just a difference in what we mentally conceive of when we use the words "alive" or "life" as to exactly how we define that concept.

I never said, Clinton, that a rock has consciousness, awareness, free will, muscles, blood, or that it is born, grows, or dies. Did I?

If your definition of life does not extend to looking beyond such very obvious outward phenomena that even a child can easily observe then of course a rock is not "alive"...in your terms. Nor is a spirit. Nor is a thought. Nor is a concept. Hence you can easily dismiss all possibility of spiritual life, as well as a life force existing in atomic structures, I suppose.

We are arguing about words, period, and are both of us are equally inclined to be rational, and there is no one around here sniffing glue.

And there is something far more unreliable than eyewitness testimony...no witness at all. That's the position you are in at the moment regarding certain things you choose to believe are impossible or nonexistant...because you don't know about them yet, haven't encountered them, and are merely repeating something you've heard someone else say...which is exactly what most of humanity does most of the time.

- LH