Srila Prabhupada challenges the modern idea that the scientists can solve the mystery of life.
Dr. Singh. Scientists are in the process of trying to create life.
Srila Prabhupada. "Process of"! "Trying to"! That we kick out; that we do not accept. A beggar is saying, "I am trying to be a millionaire." We say, "When you become a millionaire, then talk. Now you are a poor beggar; that is all." The scientists say they are trying, but suppose I ask you, "What are you?" Will you say, "I am trying to be..."? What are you now? That is the question. "We are trying" is not a proper answer, what to speak of a scientific proposition.
Dr. Singh. Well, although they haven't been able to create life so far, they say that soon they should be able to do so.
Srila Prabhupada. Any rascal may say that. If you say, "In the future I shall be able to do something extraordinary," why should I trust or believe you?
Dr. Singh. Well, the scientists say they have done so much in the past and they will accomplish more in the future.
Srila Prabhupada. In the past there was death, and people are dying now. So what have the scientists done?
Dr. Singh. Helped them.
Srila Prabhupada. Scientists have helped to minimize the duration of life! Formerly men lived one hundred years; now they seldom live more than sixty or seventy years. And the scientists have discovered atomic energy; now they can kill millions of men. So they have helped only in dying. They have not helped in living, and still they dare to declare that they will create.
Dr. Singh. But now we have airplanes and --
Srila Prabhupada. The scientists cannot stop death, they cannot stop birth, they cannot stop disease, and they cannot stop old age. So what have they done? Formerly people used to become old, and nowadays they are becoming old. Formerly people used to become diseased, and now they are becoming diseased. Now there is more medicine -- and more disease. So what have they accomplished? Scientists have not helped improve the order of the world. We are going to challenge all the rascal scientists who say that life has grown out of matter. The fact is that matter has grown from life.
(Life Comes Life)