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To: RadioAstronomer
I personally believe (and yes this is a belief) that life is replete throughout the universe.

The presence of organic molecules in interstellar dust clouds would suggest that life has a good chance of getting started wherever there is a favorable environment -- one that remains favorable long enough. And it now appears that stars with planets are plentiful. We can't be the only world with liquid water where life can develop. The big question -- and you know this better than I do -- is not whether there's life out there, but how often life gets the opportunity to develop past the stage of lichens, mosses, etc.

40 posted on 09/08/2005 11:04:45 AM PDT by PatrickHenry (Discoveries attributable to the scientific method -- 100%; to creation science -- zero.)
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To: PatrickHenry

OK. Time to bury this chestnut.

Methane is an organic molecule. So is ethane. So is formaldehyde. However, NONE of the organic molecules found in space are even close in scope to the molecules needed for biological processes.

The organic molecules used in even the simplest life forms are much more complex, and unstable. The big catch-22 of life is that the molecules required for life require life to form.


49 posted on 09/08/2005 11:56:53 AM PDT by frgoff
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To: PatrickHenry
but how often life gets the opportunity to develop past the stage of lichens, mosses, etc.

From what we know it seems to require occasional mass extinctions.

52 posted on 09/08/2005 12:02:53 PM PDT by js1138 (Great is the power of steady misrepresentation.)
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To: PatrickHenry

If it gets to the stage of mosses and liverworts. etc., then it's gone a long way and further evolution will almost surely occur. If it stays stuck at the procaryotic level then your point makes more microbiological sense.


54 posted on 09/08/2005 12:08:43 PM PDT by furball4paws (One of the last Evil Geniuses, or the first of their return.)
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