Re: Life created in the lab

Question #1: has life ever been recreated in the lab?

Answer: No. But, by an amazing coincidence, I just came across a 
news release telling about some work done by physicists (who 
apparently have taken Biology 101) who have created cell-free protein 
readout systems "analogous to a conventional electrical circuit." As 
you put it: "an electro-biochemical process."
 http://www.rockefeller.edu/pubinfo/news_notes/rus_121203_h.php

It is only a matter of time before artificial membranes are added and...  
Voilą! A man-made cell. Thus, the cell will be "reinvented" not 
"recreated" in the laboratory.

Question #2: Where did the dust, and energy come from? I believe I 
remember someone saying that it always was. Is that about right?

Yes, except that the available evidence suggests that the Universe 
did have a beginning. The theory is called "The Big Bang." The 
upshot of a "Big Bang" is that the dust (atoms, matter) and energy did 
take quite a while to develop into the forms we recognize today. 
Physicists revel in it. Here is a quote from one of many Web sites:

"About 15 billion years ago a tremendous explosion started the 
expansion of the universe. This explosion is known as the Big Bang. 
At the point of this event all of the matter and energy of space was 
contained at one point. What existed prior to this event is completely 
unknown and is a matter of pure speculation. This occurrence was 
not a conventional explosion but rather an event filling all of space 
with all of the particles of the embryonic universe rushing away from 
each other. The Big Bang actually consisted of an explosion of space 
within itself unlike an explosion of a bomb were fragments are thrown 
outward. The galaxies were not all clumped together, but rather the 
Big Bang lay the foundations for the universe."
 http://www.umich.edu/~gs265/bigbang.htm

Here are some other good links that discuss the Big Bang Theory in 
what seems to be an authoritative way:

The Hot Big Bang Model http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/gr/public/bb_home.html

The Big Bang Theory http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/academy/universe/b_bang.html

Big Bang Cosmology Primer http://cosmology.berkeley.edu/Education/IUP/Big_Bang_Primer.html

Further reading at these sites may be enlightening. I wish you well 
with your commendable effort to reconcile the human need for 
spiritual satisfaction and answers to questions of existence with the 
reality of our current understanding of the Universe. I hope I have 
been of some help. Good luck!