One of the most fundamental ideas of creationism revolves around us being the only known intelligence in the universe (other than a presupposed creator). However, more and more in modern culture we see ideas of "alien salvation" (knowing) and similar concepts popping up. However, is it any more reasonable to believe that an extraterrestrial form of life exists when we have little nothing to suggest it is so?
And if yes, use your knowledge of evolutionary theory to explain why it would seem logical to believe that there are other intelligent forms of life.
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I think that it is completely reasonable to believe that an extraterrestrial form of life exists and that it is in fact unreasonable to believe that no extraterrestrial form of life does exist. The universe is at least 93 billion light years across in size with multiple galaxies. I think that in the possibly infinite amount of space that is the universe it is unreasonable to believe that we are the only intelligent life forms that exist. Just because we do not have proof that intelligent life forms exist outside of human beings we are also very limited in our abilities to explore those possibilities. Our space explorations have given us barely a peek at what the entire universe is like so how can we rule out the possibility that other intelligent life exists?
ReplyDeleteLife on Earth requires carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, phosphorus, water and some other elements in smaller amounts. On another planet the existence of these things would most likely lead to life but I also think that just because that is what we require to live does not mean that if there is extraterrestrial life out there that they require the same things as us.
The evolutionary theory has given reason to why life on earth has adapted into the way that it is today. Yet, life all started from unlikely chains of chemical reactions. Once the building blocks of life were discovered it seemed as if life even outside of Earth is an inevitable consequence given certain starting conditions. In space organic chemicals such as amino acids have been found suggesting that general ingredients of life can be found throughout the Universe if we were able to explore it completely.
The reason that as the world moves on modern culture contains more and more ideas about aliens is because we are asking more questions and gathering more information. Twenty years ago no one would have believed that they could talk to almost anyone in the world from a little hand held device called a cell phone or click some buttons and get virtually any information on something called the internet. Is it really so out of the box to think that extraterrestrial life exists?
http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/E/evoltheo.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universe#Size.2C_age.2C_contents.2C_structure.2C_and_laws
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraterrestrial_life
If the ideas of evolution and abiogenesis are held to be true, then it is without a doubt that extraterrestrial life would seen as possible.
ReplyDeleteAbiogenesis is the idea of life appearing out of non-life. Scientists who don't believe in creationism or intelligent design often come to abiogenesis to explain how the earth developed living organisms when there were originally no organisms living on it. The idea of a primordial soup, suggested by Alexander Oparin, in early earth suggests that through an oxygen-less atmosphere and sunlight, molecules would commence with fusion and fission with other molecules to create the most basic unit for life.
If this idea is assumed to be true, then there is no reason why in the vast galaxy, with planets possessing similar conditions as our own earth, would not rise to life. Water, an essential molecule we see necessary to survive is already existent on other planets in our solar system; this suggests water is also present in countless other planets. Naturally, for intelligent or extraterrestrial life to appear, life must first be created.
Creationists assert that we are the only intelligent beings in the universe, saying that there is no extraterrestrial life. We were created as we are now. Evolution claims that through natural selection and chance a fitter species arrives and continue to grow superbly adapted to its environment. Assuming evolution along with abiogenesis, life would be seen as likely to already exist on other planets.
In terms of intelligent life on other planets, however, is another matter to be debated. Evolution doesn't say the best species will survive, just the better species. If the environment on another planet requires a less sophisticated form of life in order to survive, an intelligent life form would not appear.
It must be stressed very strongly this is all assuming evolution and abiogenesis are true. As an intelligent designer myself, I don't believe there is extraterrestrial life out there.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abiogenesis#Conceptual_history
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundance_of_the_chemical_elements
We will never be able to figure out if there are extraterrestrials unless we find valid proof on another planet or if they stumble upon our planet. All these cases that have been reported by people have been proven by this TV show that I watched about how these lights are similar to those of modern airplanes. Plus we have no idea what our government is making in area 51, and they could be testing this stuff out at night. We don't know what our government has in terms over there. So i don't believe that we have encountered anything yet in terms of other life forms because isn't it just weird how they just disappear. Think about it, when a space shuttle goes out into space, it experiences so much heat and pressure from the outside that they sometimes need to make repairs because otherwise they would not be able to enter the earth's atmosphere. So for a spaceship to enter the earth's atmosphere without damage, or anything and just disappear would not be possible. If they entered our atmosphere, why is it that they don't visit or anything? Sounds silly, but its just very weird why we haven't seen any for real.
ReplyDeleteThough I do not doubt that there could be life outside our planet. As Sami said we are made from a series of chemical reactions. So life didn't only have to start on our planet, but could have started on another planet. Though these creatures could have developed a completely different bodily system depending on what they are exposed too and through natural selection, they would have prob experience adaptations that would help them survive better on the world that they live on. The universe is infinitively big, so it would take us a while to develop machinery to be able to explore it. Since it is so big, and all this chemical matter was made life could have assembled on another planet. As I said, they could have the same bodily systems as ours, but they could be living on CO2 for all we know, or something else. We don't know if we are the most intelligent creatures out there, and there might be other creatures trying to come to our planet right now. It will take time because the space exploration is just beginning. Before we know it, we will be able to conquer other planets and what not.
Sources:
Sami's comment
http://www.unexplainable.net/artman/publish/article_1501.shtml
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/beta/evolution/how-did-life-begin.html
Disclaimer: I personally believe that all that exists in this universe adheres to a strict physical rules. Most of this argument is based on the fact that light speed is the theoretical highest speed of travel and descriptions of the big bang.
ReplyDeleteIn a previous post on Murad's "Is it mathematically possible?" I argued that the random arrangement of elements could form self replicating RNA with the help of protobionts and the prime conditions of Earth's early atmosphere acting as a catalyst. I also argued that even though the random arrangement was statistically improbable, it does not mean that it is impossible. For more details on how life could have theoretically formed from the non-living, refer to my argument on this link: http://erdmannevolution.blogspot.com/2010/04/is-it-mathematically-possible.html
The big bang theory suggests that the universe is 13.9 billion years old. Prior to its "birth", scientists believed that time and matter did not exist except in a singularity. Scientists can determine the age of the universe and the fact that it is expanding via examining particle waves that have bounced off the "edge" of the universe. Since all the intercepted waves are determined to be redshifts rather than blue shifts, it proves that the universe is expanding exponentially. Given that life on earth took approximately 700 million years to form and that the universe has existed for much longer and is much bigger than Earth, it is probable that the same conditions that allowed the creation of life on Earth exist somewhere else in the universe. In short, even though it is of low probability that life formed in the first place, since it did (proved by life on Earth), then it is a high enough probability to have happened somewhere else.
However, my argument for life on Earth requires the atmosphere to act as a catalyst. Earth is in the ideal location in our solar system to harbor life due to its distance from the sun. Given that there are multiple solar systems in the Milky Way and there are multiple galaxies in the universe, it is probable that another planet would have similar conditions to that of Earth.
If life existed on another planet, which I am convinced it does statistically, I believe it is impossible to prove its existence. Popular media always shows extraterrestrial life as being more intelligent than humans, however, this would not necessarily be guaranteed. We can see from the diversity of life on Earth that there are all forms of life. Life on another planet could exist in a form without technological abilities to explore space. Not to mention, based on the principles of physics, even if the extraterrestrial life was beyond human intelligence, it is physically impossible to make contact with us. This is because it is probable that this other life form would exist millions of light years away. Even if the species could travel at the speed of light (which would already be pushing the borders of physical law), it would be impossible for them to survive the hundred million year journey. With life is death. Even though life on Earth comes in a variety of lifespans, from 20 minutes to hundreds of years, nothing on Earth has the capability to survive for hundreds of millions of years. Not to mention, an intergalactic journey would have a limited source of resources for survival, surely resulting in death of the organism before it could reach us.
Extraterrestrial life exists, but we can only prove it statistically and using the patterns we see here on Earth. There will never be any physical proof of life which originated on another planet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_big_bang