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Talk:Extraterrestrial life

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Such a discovery would cause problems for worldviews that presume the uniqueness of human beings and the universal importance of human events, especially certain religious viewpoints.

For example? --LMS

For example, Christianity. Christianity (at least in some of its forms) presumes a certain uniqueness for human beings, and that human history is of unique importance in the grand schemes of things: that God became incarnate in a human being is one of its beliefs. I suspect that problems would arise if other life forms existed: why humans? why didn't God become incarnate in any other intelligent lifeforms? Now Christianity (even of the more traditional sort I am referring to here) could no doubt survive the discovery of alien life, but it would make it seem less likely -- that God chose some particular lifeform for events of grand cosmic import seems much more believable when there is only one lifeform for him to choose from. -- Simon J Kissane

I was asking for a definite example be added to extraterrestrial life. Frankly, although I'm about as nonreligious as they come, I'm skeptical of the claim. What events of grand cosmic import (as opposed to grand Earthly import) does Christianity allege? If Jesus is divine, why couldn't he be poking around on other planets, spreading the gospel (that would explain why he's been gone for lo these 2,000 years)? See, I just wanted the claim, which strikes me as prejudiced, given some definite proof. Otherwise, it should be stricken. --LMS

Christianity as a whole may not assert these things, but some branches of it do, and I have both talked to people and seen programs which asert that Christianity (meaning their version) does not allow for extraterrestrial life. So, if Christ comes but twice, he can't be off saving people on other worlds, if man is God's image then nothing else could conceivably possess the faculty of reason, and while I'm not sure where the uniqueness of earthly life is argued from I can tell you that it sometimes is. How widespread such conclusions are, though, I do not know.

I don't see it as particularly prejudiced. But since it seems to be controversial, I'm going to delete it anyway. -- Simon J Kissane

"If extraterrestrial life was discovered to exist, it would have profound implications for all human thought, especially if the life was intelligent."

This seems non-encyclopedic. It is a sweeping assertion, and one that I rather doubt. - TS

Should we mention the Martian meteorite and the Viking experiments? Robert Merkel

It has been theorised that all life on Earth came from space. Evidence to suggest this includes the Cambrian Explosion, where primitive forms of life suddenly appear on the fossil record...

I doubt that anyone at all serious would treat the Cambrian Explosion as evidence for panspermia, given that animals are quite clearly related to other forms of life present in the fossil record long before then. I think we should remove this unless a source can be provided for it. --JG

Removed section:<bt>

It has been theorised that all life on Earth came from space. Evidence to suggest this includes the Cambrian Explosion, where primitive forms of life suddenly appear on the fossil record, and suggestions that comets may contain complex carbon chains, bordering at the level where they may become self-replicating.

This smells a bit fishy to me -- There is a great deal of convincing fossil, genetic and chemical evidence to support the notion that all life on Earth descended from a common ancestor that existed several billion years ago. There is no evidence to support the wild notion that there was a separate beginning for life during the early paleozoic. (this actually reminds me of a scene in the movie Mission to Mars where the holographic Martian yarns a holographic tale about the destruction of their world and how they decided to seed ours just before the Cambrian Explosion -- Remember folks, this stuff is fiction). The Varangian glaciation which preceeded the radiation of animals along with the subsequent over-warming of the Earth provided a great deal of evolutionary pressure. No extraterrestrial connection required.

And the "bordering at the level where they may become self-replicating" statement is pure conjecture. I remember reading about findings that complex carbon molecules were detected in the tails of coments -- but those molecules were PAHs and complex benzene rings -- not crude forms of DNA and protein (or anything that could even conceivably be considered to be on a path toward self-replication). --maveric149

Many movies and fictions are based on valid scientific theories. Being the plot of a movie does not discredit the theory as fiction. I have heard about the meteorite theory from news and documentary programs on Discovery and TLC channel. Can you prove this theory originate from fiction? Even a fiction writer can develop a valid scientific theory. I think it is not right to take it out unless it is proven wrong. --anon
  • In science, a theory is not considered "correct until proven wrong." Instead, it's only considered a good theory when there's a hefty helping of evidence to support it. In the case of the "earth-seeding" theory, the evidence is very limited, and if it's not fully ruled out by existing evidence, it's still got several noted points against it, notably Occam's Razor. In the case of "earth colonization" by anything larger than unicellular life, the available evidence does contradict that hypothesis in a fairly convincing fashion. Ergo, in discussing the scientific knowledge of this subject, it wouldn't be appropriate to include speculations of ET's during the Cambrian period. Stick to panspermia, if even that. -- April
Mega dittos --April. The Discovery Channel and TLC are in the business to entertain and therefore create ad revenue - informing the public about science is just a happy aside that occurs for many of their programs (most certainly not all). BTW I have also seen DSC and TLC programs on Bigfoot, the Lockness Monster, UFOs, ghosts and Angels (but then you probably believe in those too anon) -- these channels are not at all good sources of information about science. Gesh... --maveric149
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