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To: pby
"And, scientifically speaking, how can you (or anyone else) judge the correctness, or validity, of faith-based claims (if ID is faith-based...Is it any more faith-based than Dr. Crick's Directed Panspermia "theory"?) when "science" can not, or does not, address issues related to the supernatural?

Is someone trying to get Dr. Crick's DP taught in science classes?

231 posted on 01/03/2006 5:54:51 PM PST by b_sharp (Science adjusts theories to fit evidence, creationism distorts evidence to fit the Bible.)
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To: b_sharp

Crick didn't just dream up DP for a lark. He asked a simple question: Could there be a planet elsewhere where the origin of life was more probable than Earth? If yes (and that is quite likely) then life would have evolved there to a high degree of technology long before it did here. Given that interplanetary space flight is probably very unrealistic, wouldn't these beings want to "spread the good news"? If so, then they could have seeded the galaxy (panspermia) and here we are. DP presupposes evolution since the "sperm" would likely be some very primitive and highly resistant life form (i.e. spore forming bacterium).

I always used to mention DP in college level courses when abiogenesis came up. There is little to support DP other than conjecture, but there are also few nails in its coffin.


236 posted on 01/03/2006 6:04:41 PM PST by furball4paws (The new elixir of life - dehydrated toad urine.)
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To: b_sharp
Not that I am aware of.

But it certainly can be mentioned and discussed as a possibility in the scientific community and presumably in the science class without instigating the deafening cry of, "It is not science" and/or "It does not meet the criteria for a theory".

While both of these allegations may be true...Dr. Crick, a Noble Prize winner, had no problem putting the "theory" out there in spite of the lack of scientific evidence.

Was he anti-scientific in doing so?

Is Crick's Directed Panspermia harmful to scientific discovery and advancement?

250 posted on 01/03/2006 6:19:58 PM PST by pby
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