text: does life have a physical and chemical basis?   this is a very interesting question. there are obviously many complicated processes going on in a living creature that can be described as physical and chemical processes, and we are slowly starting to understand them.   however, is it possible to produce artificial life by just producing the correct machinery? or is there something else involved? there is progress being made towards imitating the systems we observe in nature in the laboratory. will they be alive in the same way? what about more advanced life forms? what is consciousness anyway? does it come spontaneously with a certain structure or does it take something else?  i do not think anyone really knows yet. however, there are probably strong theological arguments why the actual "life spark" or "consciousness" requires some sort of supernatural intervention. in the next few decades, we will probably get much closer to answering this question.