Some scientists think humans descended from Martian microbes
Not possible. If that were the case, we'd all look like this:
Posted on 04/04/2006 6:13:57 AM PDT by planetesimal
Astrobiology sounds like the stuff of lava lamps and Jetsons reruns.
Yet seven years after NASA launched a formal astrobiology research program, scientists of every stripe — geologists, biologists, chemists, paleontologists, oceanographers and astronomers — have rallied to the quest.
They've spent as much as $65 million a year trying to solve a mystery that has underpinned religion and inspired thinkers from Seneca to Carl Sagan: How did life on the lonely Earth begin? And is Earth really the only source of life in the universe?
With the help of modern tools such as the genome, high-powered computer modeling and robotics, they're finding some out-of-this-world answers, ones that may lead to Mars and beyond.
(Excerpt) Read more at palmbeachpost.com ...
God and science are not mutually exclusive. I am no theologian, so I just comment on the science.
That's pretty wild. The only thing I didn't get, though, is why he thought that we're the Martians, since there isn't anything on earth that looks like a boneless monkey. :P
LOL, what? :D
I liked the story mostly because it's creepy as all get-out.
And they giggle at us that believe in a Creator as an act of faith,and supernatural mumbo jumbo.
More than just a school of thought. The evidence points to this very scenario.
Bad, bad Chrisitians!!!! Dim-witted, benighted, supeprstitious morons.... hate science.... want to defund it, yada yada:
"Kirschvink fears religious sentiment may be playing a role in the money (i.e., federal budget) cuts."
Actually it's more likely that trying to fund a major war, bail out Big Easy, pay for Medicare, etc., etc., the gummint is just tapped out.
As to the question: "Could Mars possibly have had spores?"
Well jeepers, if Mars had them, then why wouldn't earth have them as well? Same solar system; same sun spewing forth heavy elements, etc., etc. What would make Mars so special that it originates life that it cannot support in its own environment; but that earth, which is life-friendly, wasn't the inception of it?
This is actually an interesting question. Thoughts, people?
Thanks so much for writing, hp!
When it comes to science, I require evidence, and we have loads of evidence about how the solar system formed, how hot the early Earth was, etc. When it comes to religion, I don't giggle; I respect the faith of my Christian and Jewish friends. The Scientific Method requires proof for every hypothesis. I am comfortable with ambiguity since many past theories have turned out to be wrong.
I suppose it could have gone in either direction, or maybe in both. However -- and I'm guessing here -- if Mars were wetter and more congenial to life earlier than the earth was, then maybe life got started on Mars first. Only evidence can answer that, and it may be a long time, if ever, before we have the evidence.
Also, it seems likely (to me) that the meteorite spawned debris traffic in the solar system tends to move inward -- that is, sunward -- rather than the other way around. So the possibility of stuff from Mars ending up in our orbit may be more probable than the opposite. But I'm only speculating.
That chip on your shoulder must be giving you a hernia by now. :\
The open question is when would this have occur?
Methinks the I.D. momentum is causing a panic to create ANYTHING that shuts up questions about O.O.L...
Can't understand why I.D., which is pure creationism in disguise, as I keep being told, and thus it is a pure hoax, has such a profound ability to upset very smart, intelligent people.
Like the ones at Harvard who have formed a huge, new, cross disciplinary O.O.L. institute to answer that question.
It is a real head scratcher.
Are you kidding??? I LMAO when I hear people like this say such things. Moronic bigotry and sheer arrogance just drips from the words.... Inevitably, they tell me more about themselves than they do Christians.
I for one am a Christian who would have dearly loved to see the Supercollider get built that Congress axed back in '92. I fear American preeminence in science may slip away if enormous projects like this one aren't built here, in the good ol' U.S.A. Speaking as a taxpayer, I'd by far prefer my tax monies go for a project like that, and for NASA, than picking up the costs of senior prescription drugs. (For instance.)
Well, FWIW.
That chip on your shoulder must be giving you a hernia by now. :\
Moronic bigotry and sheer arrogance just drips from the words..
Remember, lift with your legs, not your back.
Maybe they're just whistling past the graveyard....
A lot of people have invested a great deal of time and energy to fortify and shore-up themselves against God. If God really does exist, however, then they are in deep doo-doo, and I think the more thoughtful ones realize this. Therefore, God "can't possibly be true, because I'm so smart and I said so."
I know it's silly, even infantile. But deep-down, I really think that's how anti-Christian bigots think, and that's why they act the way they do. Look at Richard Dawkins: I've never seen anyone invest so much time and energy and sheer spite doing battle against what he insists does not and cannot exist: That would be God and soul.
But if God really doesn't exist, then why bother "doing battle" with Him? In the end, Dawkins comes across as an ersatz Don Quixote, tilting at windmills; but with far less charm, manners, and grace than the old Don had....
Honestly gobucks, I really think the whole world is going nutz these days.... Thanks so much for writing!
Hi Patrick! Sounds reasonable. But then again, the solar wind blows outward from the Sun....
Anyhoot, it really is a puzzle. For both spores and microbes are organic materials. What was the tipping point from the inorganic to the organic? What was the "push?" It seems to me there must be more to Life than organic materials. Even organic materials are not "alive" in any conventional sense. Or so it seems to. FWIW
Fascinating stuff, no??? Thanks so much for writing PH!
Not possible. If that were the case, we'd all look like this:
DUDES relax
What i posted is verified and not even officially a secret. Although apparently things don't have to be a secret as long as the public rather assumes that someone that makes a statement the publics doesnt want to hear, must be lying.
1)
"The first CIA Director, Vice Admiral Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter, stated in a signed statement to Congress, also reported in the New York Times, February 28, 1960, that, "It is time for the truth to be brought out... Behind the scenes high-ranking Air Force officers are soberly concerned about the UFOs. But through official secrecy and ridicule, many citizens are led to believe the unknown flying objects are nonsense.... I urge immediate Congressional action to reduce the dangers from secrecy about unidentified flying objects." In 1962, in his letter of resignation from NICAP, he told director Donald Keyhoe, "I know the UFOs are not U.S. or Soviet devices. All we can do now is wait for some actions by the UFOs." (Good, 347)"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unidentified_flying_object
2)http://www.arikah.net/encyclopedia/Robertson_Panel
The Robertson Panel was a committee commissioned by the Central Intelligence Agency in 1952 in responses to widespread Unidentified Flying Object reports, especially in the Washington DC area. The panel was briefed on U.S. military activities and intelligence, hence the report was originally classified Secret.
Later declassified, the Robertson Panel's report concluded that UFOs were not a direct threat to national security, but could pose an indirect threat by overwhelming standard military communications due to public interest in the subject. Most UFO reports, they concluded, could be explained as misidentification of mundane aerial objects, and the remaining minority could, in all likelihood, be similarly explained with further study.
The Robertson Panel concluded that a public relations campaign should be undertaken in order to "debunk" UFOs, and reduce public interest in the subject, and that civilian UFO groups should be monitored. There is evidence this was carried out more than two decades after the Panel's conclusion.
Critics (including a few panel members) would later lament the Robertson Panel's role in making UFO's a somewhat disreputable field of study.
3) If im insance for believing in UFO's then i am in good compagny:
"Sturrock did another survey of over 400 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics members in 1973. About two-thirds thought UFOs were possibly, probably, or certainly a scientifically significant problem. 5% said they had had UFO sightings. 10% thought UFOs were from space."
With all the space stuff deposited on Mars..Mars does have life NOW.. The odds of some microbe not making the trip is HUGE.... Same with the Moon.. and any other place humans visited in person or by automation.. The human body is loaded with microbes.. and all that stuff was "touched"..
On earth all microbes have enemies.. maybe on Mars one could develop into a killer critter, having Zero enemies.. Like Kudzu(plant) except with microbes.. Who knows it could happen.. Because one thing is certain.. "WE" are invadeing the solar system.. with microbes..
"My God, Quartermass, you were right! We came from Mars, but liberals really do come from Uranus!"
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