virus - Changing the definition of life?

...many biologist/scientists say that viruses are not living because everything they do is just chemicals carrying out their predefined chemistry.

I don't think that's correct. Many definitions of life exclude viruses because they lack the apparatus to perform the life functions themselves, especially reproduction. They don't seem to qualify as parasites because, when they've infected a cell, they no longer occupy a bounding structure (other then the cell itself.)

When viruses are acting like a living thing, they look like misbehaving cell. Here's a similar puzzle; what organism is cancer? Viruses are basically rogue genes, just like cancer cells are basically rogue cells.

"Organisms carrying out their predefined chemistry," is basically saying that living systems are deterministic. The interesting question is, are very complex systems that emerge from stochastically-driven events themselves deterministic? Are organisms like a clockwork?

Probably you should check out Schrödinger's What is Life? to get started.