Is there really life on other planets?

Discussion in 'Astronomy, Exobiology, & Cosmology' started by pluto2, Mar 13, 2009.

  1. pluto2 Banned Valued Senior Member

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    In the bible it's written that God created man in his own image, meaning he created only us.

    Can it explain the reason why we haven't found life on other planets maybe because threre isn't any?

    I can see 2 reasons why we haven't succeeded in finding life on other planets:

    1. Life was created exclusively on this planet by God.

    2. The conditions required for life to form are very rare and life has formed in just a few places.
     
    Last edited: Mar 13, 2009
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  3. D H Some other guy Valued Senior Member

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    No. There's lots of stuff in the bible that if interpreted literally and narrowly are just plain wrong.
     
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  5. Pandaemoni Valued Senior Member

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    In any event, that God created man in his own image does not mean there was only one creation. Imagine the Bible had read, "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image,'" and then on the seventh day read, "Also, let us make the beings of Omicron Perseii 8 in our our image too." Those would not be "contradictory" actions, it just means there would be two species on two different planets created by God.

    A closer question would be whether the aliens would look just like us or whether the "image" of God is a spiritual image that can be housed in varied physical forms.
     
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  7. unixgeek13 what a long strange trip ... Registered Senior Member

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    Another possible reason that we have yet to "discover life" on other planets is that we have a narrow view of the word "life". Perhaps we have encountered "life" but in another form.

    I have never looked upon the Bible as the scientific explanation for all that is... I look upon the Bible as a collection of moralistic tales designed to bring people together and form a fairly reasonable society.

    The fact that more money is raised as donations in support of the Bible's teachings only reinforces to me the notion that the Bible is a lengthy charity foundation pamphlet...

    and flame away....
     
  8. D H Some other guy Valued Senior Member

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    You've missed two rather obvious explanations:

    3. We haven't looked very hard.

    The jury is still out on whether Mars currently harbors primitive life. We haven't looked hard enough to rule it out. Conditions might be right for life somewhere within Jupiter's atmosphere and in Europa; we haven't looked there at all.


    4. We don't yet have the technology to look for life on planets outside our own solar system.

    For the most part, we have discovered extrasolar planets by seeing signs of their existence rather than seeing the planets themselves. Even in the extremely few cases where we have imaged extrasolar planets, the images are like this:

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  9. djvisionconcepts Registered Member

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    What the?


    I though only science-driven people posted in this section?


    Do people seriously believe that the earth is the only planet with life?



    I guess that my car works magically as well.
     
  10. EndLightEnd This too shall pass. Registered Senior Member

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    echo echo echo
    (there is an edit button you know)

    And it would be pretty absurd if life existed only on Earth.
     
  11. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    There could be life on other planets because there's life here so why not out there?:shrug:
     
  12. Enmos Valued Senior Member

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    Faulty logic.
     
  13. domesticated om Stickler for details Valued Senior Member

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    The problem is that the universe tends to rotate around the earth faster than current day scientific instruments can handle.The sun (in particular) is the worst because it obfuscates the view of most telescopes, and they can't resolve down to a level that would allow researchers to detect life. They usually have to wait for the sun to rotate past the horizon, and even then they have lost valuable observation time.
     
  14. StrangerInAStrangeLand SubQuantum Mechanic Valued Senior Member

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    5.
    6. They don't want to be discovered by us.

    7. We're in an artificial simulation.
     
  15. kaneda Actual Cynic Registered Senior Member

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    It is now generally accepted that there is bacterial life under the surface of Mars (due to methane):


    On Earth, 90 per cent of the methane produced is released by living organisms far beneath the soil. Three large telescopes based in Hawaii revealed that the colours absorbed by gas in Mars' northern hemisphere during the planet's summer match those absorbed by methane on Earth. 'One of the plumes released about 19,000 metric tons of methane,' Professor Mumma said. The latest discovery is proof that the gas is actually produced by the Red Planet.


    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1122963/If-IS-life-Mars-lives.html


    An 'antifreeze' chemical found in soil on Mars could allow pockets of life-sustaining liquid water to exist on the planet, say scientists. Last year, Nasa's Phoenix lander made the surprise discovery of perchlorates in the Martian soil. The chemicals, containing chlorine and oxygen, are relatively rare on Earth but abundant on Mars. They made up 1 per cent of the soil samples tested by the Nasa probe.


    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...reeze-chemicals-Mars-indicate-signs-life.html


    .
     
  16. Ophiolite Valued Senior Member

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    This is a viable viewpoint. Basing a universal projection of life on a sample size of one when we cannot yet adequately explain how life arose here (or even if it did arise here) is questionable at best and pseudoscientific at worst.
    Not only, but science-driven people should remain sceptical until more data are available.


    It is not generally accepted. It is a plausible explanation for the observations, but it is not the only explanation.
     
  17. Orleander OH JOY!!!! Valued Senior Member

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    Why can't earth be like the Playpus? Out of millions of forms of life on the planet, its one of a kind. Why can't earth be one of a kind?
     
  18. Enmos Valued Senior Member

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    It can, but right now it looks like that has a really small chance of being true.
     
  19. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    The methane on Mars makes that a very unlikely hypothesis. At this point the probability that there has never been life on Mars is pretty small. And if it turns out that life has arisen on two planets orbiting the same star, then despite the fact that we haven't figured out yet exactly how abiogenesis works, it's probably going on all over the universe.

    The platypus is a poor analogy. There are probably trillions of planets, so at that same ratio millions of them would be life-bearing.

    Most people have trouble grasping how the law of averages works over sample sizes with that many zeroes.
     
  20. Orleander OH JOY!!!! Valued Senior Member

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    so God can exist as well?
     
  21. nietzschefan Thread Killer Valued Senior Member

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    Ya and the fact that our star is sooo middle of the road, average, further compounds the possibilities. There are more stars like ours, in the universe than people living on this planet.
     
  22. quantum_wave Contemplating the "as yet" unknown Valued Senior Member

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    Yikes. I luv threads like this so why do i want to scream?

    I guess it is because the universe that we observe might just be an infinitesimal portion of the greater universe, almost nothing. And yet what we can see has so many places that would have to be hospitable to some kind of life that there is absolutely and certainly (almost) no chance that we are alone.

    And even if some think that we are alone, being alone would not be convincing evidence that the Bible has any clues as to whether God intended it to be that way or not.
     
  23. kaneda Actual Cynic Registered Senior Member

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    I heard on the news the other day that liquid water had been pictured on a lander there. It was something like -50.C, so had various chemicals dissolved in it but it was water nonetheless.
     

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