FALSE ALARM

"Putting all the elemental table in a box by itself will never create life" - this is not what they did at all. They created a simulator of the genitic code, artificial life.

"The resulting microbe then looked and behaved like..." not in actuality.

It has "been over-stated."

"A 'synthetic cell', although only its genome is truly synthetic."

These are just machines not able to produce self-consciousness or God-consciousness, nor will they develop to be able to do so. They exhibit not ability to mutate.

They are not technically organisms, because organisms can develop into sentient life.

Still we are unable to produce true organic life from the elements as they admit, it's "synthetic" unless of course you want to grant there was a mind that created the universe to bring about existing life over 13.7 billion years. But then you would be a theist.

Nobody in the article was declaring we have discovered how to turn the elements into replicating organisms. They need a mixer and a shaker, not an intelligent being like humans a priori, otherwise you are conceding an Intelligent Designer, thus you are confessing you are a theist. That's great! Love to hear it.

Their synthetic genetic code lacked the essence of life that can mutate itself into higher beings.