There's a lot to a bacterial cell. They didn't create the ribosomes, cell wall, cytoplasmic membrane, pili or flagella if necessary, or any other organelles. Creating a full genome from scratch and implanting it into a cell is sweet but it isn't creating life. This kind of stuff has going on for quite some time, though this is the first I've heard of a genome completely from scratch. Hats off to them for that. The implications of this are huge in medicine. They have already "programmed" bacteria to produce insulin, hormones and other chemicals from bacteria by splicing genes into existing genomes. Maybe they could venture into cancer treatment or something with this, who knows.

But really, the cell was already there. They essentially just gave it some instructions. And bacteria are prokaryotes, waaayyy simpler than eukaryotes. Dinking around with bacteria compared to eukaryotic cells is like playing with lawnmotor engines then going on to design a nuclear reactor. Whole different ball game. When they create a synthetic mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum, nucleus, lysosome or some other eukaryotic organelle then I'll be truly impressed.

Keep in mind, religious or not, playing with genetics and actually creating a life form in it's entirety is completely different. Personally, I think we'll be able to do it one day, but this isn't it.