A Critique of Scientific Reductionism
Scientific reductionism is, essentially, a methodological approach, a philosophical stance, or a metaphysical belief of conventional science. It presupposes that "life" is an emergent property arising from the spontaneous occurrence of complex chemical reactions. This viewpoint is backed by the following laboratory facts:
The synthesis of (organic) urea from an inorganic salt.
The spontaneous generation of amino acids following the application of electrical discharges in a simulation of primitive Earth's atmosphere.
The structure of DNA, which contains hydrogen bonds and precise interactions between nitrogenous bases.
The creation of entire bacterial genomes on a computer which, after being chemically synthesized and injected into an empty cell, generated life.
The first three facts merely prove that life is composed of atoms and molecules, and generated by the laws of nature (the firmware of physics and chemistry), which is common ground. The fourth fact, however, clearly demonstrates the opposite of reductionism: that the generation of life requires the execution of hierarchically superior processes. Therefore, from a systems engineering perspective, scientific reductionism fails by ignoring the processes of the system's higher levels, which are actually responsible for the generation, maintenance, evolution, and obsolescence of all organisms.