The answer is no. Mars used to be inhabited:
Posted on 06/10/2005 8:04:42 PM PDT by CHARLITE
For a few moments there, “Intelligent Design” seemed to be making headway.
Two weeks ago, the Smithsonian announced it would screen the movie, “The Privileged Planet,” produced by the Discovery Institute, at the National Museum of History on June 23rd. The outcry in the New York Times and The Washington Post was immediate. The Smithsonian was caving to religious fundamentalists. “While `The Privileged Planet’ is an extremely sophisticated religious film, it is a religious film nevertheless,” pronounced The Post in an editorial entitled “Dissing Darwin.”
Within a week, the Smithsonian had yielded to liberal opinion. It cancelled its “co-sponsorship” of the event and gave back Discovery’s $16,000 contribution – although the movie will still be shown on schedule. It’s a fitting resolution. Thanks to the Times and Post, Discovery will now have an extra $16,000 with which to spread its heresies.
I haven’t seen the movie, but I did read the excerpt from the book, The Privileged Planet, in the March 2004 issue of The American Spectator. I don’t know whether I’d call authors Guillermo Gonzalez and Jay Richards’ argument “religious.” “Creepy” would seem a better term.
Some of “Privileged Planet” is legitimate science. Gonzalez and Richards are addressing the question of whether life exists elsewhere in the universe. We know there are billions of galaxies, each of them containing somewhere between 100,000 and 1,000,000 stars. (The Spectator made a telling typographical error when it said there are “1022 visible stars.” They meant to say “1022.”) With astronomers now finding that planets are fairly common around nearby stars, the odds that there is life out there somewhere seem reasonably good.
Not so fast, say Gonzalez and Richards. Instead they approach the question from a different angle. There may be billions and billions of stars with billions of planets circling around them, but how many of these planets are right in the earth’s sweet spot – the “temperate orbit” where temperatures range only between 0o and 100o so that life can survive? How many have a liquid ocean, rather than icebergs or infernos? How many have a moon that massages the oceans so they circulate nutrients and even (so G&R claim) stabilize the parent planet in its orbit? How many suns are in the mid-range of their galaxy, where they aren’t overwhelmed by cosmic radiation or starved for lack of it?
Fair enough. These are legitimate arguments that illustrate the earth’s very unique position in relation to the solar system and the galaxy.
But then Gonzalez and Richards start talking about other strange “coincidences.” How many planets have a clear atmosphere so they can look out on the stars? they ask. How many have a moon that is exactly the size of the sun in its sky? Without that, say Gonzalez and Richards, we wouldn’t be able to see a perfect solar eclipse. “Newton was able to examine the spectrum of sunlight because of the solar eclipse,” they argue. “Einstein’s Theory of Relativity was only proved by observing the bending of starlight during a solar eclipse.”
All this leads them to one conclusion. Not only is our planet “designed” for life, it is also “designed” with a “purpose”—to breed a species just like ourselves capable of looking out on the rest of the universe and discovering its secrets.
Now wait a minute. Are you trying to argue that not only did God put us here on earth but also arranged the size of the sun and the moon so that Einstein’s theory of relativity could be verified? This seems a little far-fetched to me. I don’t think even firm believers in Hinduism, Christianity, or any other religion who would go quite that far.
Instead of arguing that everything on earth has been “designed” for some mysterious “purpose,” I think it’s much more instructive to look at some of God’s little errors. The one that has always struck me is the density of ice.
One thing we learn right away in elementary physics is that gas is the least dense state of matter, liquids are in the middle, and solids are the densest. That’s because the molecules are loosely associated in gases, adhere together somewhat in liquids, and are tightly bound together in solids.
There is one glaring exception, however—ice. Unlike any other element or compound, H2O is lighter as a solid—ice—it is as a liquid—water. No other substance has this property. Is this a big deal? It certainly is. It just so happens that it made the evolution of life possible.
If ice were heavier than water, it would sink to the bottom in a lake or shallow sea. Then, more water would freeze on the surface and sink again and soon the whole body of water would be frozen solid from top to bottom. Anything living in that lake or shallow sea would die. Since most life originated in water, living forms never could have survived.
Instead, ice floats. Why? There doesn’t seem to be any real explanation. I’ve always thought it was evidence that God was willing to admit His mistakes and bend the rules when it counted. When He was finished designing the fundaments of the universe – gases, liquids, and solids – He said, “Oh, darn, I forgot. This isn’t going to work.” So, He made that one exception. All solids shall be denser than their liquids except water. That way life could evolve.
Is there a better explanation? The Darwinian “anthropogenic” view now popular in scientific circles, would say, “Of course ice has to be lighter than water. Otherwise we wouldn’t be here to observe it. Therefore, Q.E.D.” At the other end of the room, the “Privileged Planet” people would say, “It has to be more than coincidence. Things like that don’t just happen. It’s proof of Intelligent Design.”
Personally, I prefer the explanation offered in the Book of Job. “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?” The ways of God are still more mysterious than any of us can comprehend.
NOTE: You’ll notice I haven’t even gotten around to mentioning Charles Darwin, who is supposed to be the target of “Intelligent Design” theory. Next week I’ll talk about whether complexity theory supports ID—as Dan Peterson argues in this month’s American Spectator— or whether it indicates something different.
William Tucker is a contributing writer for TAE Online.
Haven't heard from Missler in a long time. Is he back in that closet hehehehe
I enjoyed several of his insights
"Cat's Cradle"
Thanks for this. The inspiration for Vonnegut's book actually came from Bell Labs in Murray Hill, NJ in the 1960s. I worked there in the 70s.
ATT needed crystals of DHP, dihydrogen phosphate, a piezo-electric crystal. The means of growing large crystals of DHP was worked out and sent to the Allentown (Penna) facility where they produced kilograms every day. It was important that the crystals grew with their c-crystallographic axis in the right direction, so they could be cut and used in making filters for the frequencies we know as the touch-tone tones.
Well, one day, all the crystals at Bell Labs started growing with their b-axis vertical. Crystals grow, of course, according to very specific temperature and pressure conditions, lowest free energy, enthalpy, etc. Alarmed, researchers at Murray Hill went to Allentown to warn them to pay attention. The next day, every Allentown crystal grew with the wrong orientation!
This was because the visitors had brought dust of the lower free-energy crystal, which then grew perfectly as now seeded.
Kurt Vonnegut visited the Labs, heard this tale, and became intrigued. Hence, the idea for an ice-9 that would solidify all water at STP.
I believe this story from having heard it first-hand at Bell Labs from good scientists.
I might mention that ID-types never mention enthalpy or the Gibbs free energy, and I doubt they ever heard of them. Or get the ideas mixed up with entropy and 'zero-point' energy.
However, real science has never stopped an IDer from some faith-based belief--Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Shinto--, and it is unlikely that facts and rationality will ever dissuade creationists or liberals.
Just think a moment. The water molecule has its two hydrogens about 101 degrees apart, from the central oxygen.
Now why should it have anything magnetic? What could possibly create a north or south pole?
Sorry, microwave ovens work on the basis of the electric vector in electromagnetic waves. You can do the calculation yourself based on the electric dipole moment.
Many have a belief that magnetic bracelets and magnetic shoes are the key to health, and magnetism explains crop circles. I am not of this faith-based persuasion.
The same reason a metal ship can float.
Because the atoms share electrons. The hydrogen atoms pick up a net negative electrical charge from the shared electrons they 'gain', and the oxygen atom picks up a net positive charge from the two electrons it 'looses'. Since the hydrogen molecules are only 101 degrees apart, their side of the water molecule has a net negative charge, and the other 'side' of the water molecule (the oxygen atom) has a net positive charge, hence the polar quality of the water molecules. The overall charge of the molecule remains neutral, but the charge is distributed to the polar ends.
According to some abductee interviews, the aliens are tired of this particular petri dish, regarding it as a complete failure, and are extracting DNA to make hybrids for some Earth 2.0, elsewhere in the galaxy. Kinda like Clarke's "Childhood's End".
IOW - "Thanks for playing, you can keep the planet, have a nice eon.
P.S. watch out for asteroids"
Fun stuff.
Thanks for your kind, and very interesting, post.
My mother was born in New Jersey and grew up in a farm house in Murray Hill. You are the first person I have known to ever have heard of the place. Everytime I ask somebody from NJ, they say they never heard of Murray Hill.
By the way, are you familiar with 'The Last Question', by Isaac Asimov?
>> Actually there are three heavens in the Bible. The heaven we see in the day, the nighttime heaven and Heaven where God resides.
"behold, the kingdom of God is within you" -- Luke 17.21
So Steve Jobs and his crew will be recruited to pupulate the new planet, leaving us behind as the "Windows" of the universe.
Don't know.
Given that China never developed a scientific outlook, maybe their relgious police took over that country. Taoist/Buddhists vagaries don't lend themselves to it. and it was left to the Jesuits to instruct the Confusionists in astronomy. As to the Catholic view of creation, I suggest you get hold of "In the Beginning..." a short (100 pages) reflection on Genesis by Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) (EERDMANS, 1995)
This really isn't a big problem unless you are forging military documents to help Dan Rather. :-P
Excellent explanation; if my aging memory serves, the angle between the two H atoms is 147 degrees, give or take a minute. I am also recalling (again, if an aging memory serves) that there are crystalline states of some exotic molecules once considered good candidates for near room temp mag-lev that are 'lighter' when in a solid state. I'm not a scientists, so the memory may be 'corrupted'.
"I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, ...
such an one caught up to the third heaven. 2 Cor. 12:2
and more ... read on
All solids shall be denser than their liquids except water. That way life could evolve.
Supposing that ice IS the solid of water, but what if it
isn't, what if it was only an intermediary stage?
Could Ice be compressed further into a different state?
Not very scientific but just curious.
The answer is no. Mars used to be inhabited:
Me:There is hardly a Native American legend that is not known through the writings of white men, that is through a Christian prism.
You: We also know that Native American Indians, given a belief that they were intelligent (which I assume no detractors are present on), knew there had to be a “Great Spirit”; but they also gave way to a polytheism.
We know no more about the authentic indian religions than we do those of the ancient Germans. Even those which have survived have been greatly influenced by Christian thinking. How could it be otherwise? The language and rituals of all the nations are cultural admixtures, just as their bloodlines are.
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