We need a poll: is a virus alive?

[Haggis for Breakfast]

23. What I meant is that it's not alive and kicking in the normal sense

that we think of when we classify something as being a living organism. "Is it alive ?" Well, we still don't have a clear guideline, much less a universally agreed upon standard by which to say yes or no.

There's been a raging (Bad choice of words !) debate about whether viruses are a living thing or not since long before I was in school (and that was back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth). One of my Dons used to say that a virus is alive, but attenuated, in that it is weakened just below the thresh hold of that we can say with certainty (a BIG word in science) is alive. So, the debate goes on and on.

Am I making any sense ? I think I phrased this whole thing in a confusing manner. Sorry.