Asteroid contains building blocks of life

[VaughanJB]

The current abiogenesis theory, is still pretty much, "We don't know, but we think it only happened once." It doesn't rule out panspermia, which just like the current theory, doesn't explain how it happened the first time. And panspermia has never been universally ruled out. It's just one more possible event in a much more important process that everyone would like to understand. To me, where it happened is interesting, but a minor part of a bigger question.

I'd sit in the panspermia room. As far as we know, there was nothing special or unique about the creation of the Earth. Meaning, we literally have, by current estimates, 100 sextillion planets that have formed in the universe (with trillions of them being habitable). I can't wrap my head around the idea that similar processes that brought us into existence didn't also occur elsewhere.

The Earth is roughly 4.5bn years old, and the oldest planet we currently know about is around 12.7bn years old. The oldest fossil we have is around 3.5bn years old, which means our rock in space was a billion years old before all the madness started. Simple math tells me it is far more likely life first started elsewhere.

We like to think we're advanced these days, but on a cosmic scale we're still living in caves. We have found the building blocks of life on an asteroid, but it's not like we've had an awful lot of asteroids to examine. We do know that in the distant past, Earth was blitzed by hits as our Solar System sorted the wheat from the chaff. I therefore think it's highly likely those events helped bring about the conditions that allowed life to evolve.

 

[Lewkat]

So do the stars in the skies we see on clear nights.

 

[JustDave]

we literally have, by current estimates, 100 sextillion planets that have formed in the universe (with trillions of them being habitable). I can't wrap my head around the idea that similar processes that brought us into existence didn't also occur elsewhere.

I keep reading that life only happened once on Earth, and "happened" it did, but I don't know why it could only happen once on Earth. How does anyone know it hasn't happened many times here too, but died off early in the stiff competition of evolutionary dynamics? Life is made of ordinary substances, substances that combine and react, and come up with new substances and new things.

 

[VaughanJB]

I keep reading that life only happened once on Earth, and "happened" it did, but I don't know why it could only happen once on Earth. How does anyone know it hasn't happened many times here too, but died off early in the stiff competition of evolutionary dynamics? Life is made of ordinary substances, substances that combine and react, and come up with new substances and new things.

In my ignorance - isn't the answer to your question simply that nothing in the Bible suggests life was created before, elsewhere? I think a lot of people are comfortable with just that.

I'm with you though, it seems far more unlikely that life as we know it did not occur elsewhere. The building blocks of life are simply not very special.

 

[JustDave]

In my ignorance - isn't the answer to your question simply that nothing in the Bible suggests life was created before, elsewhere? I think a lot of people are comfortable with just that.

I'm with you though, it seems far more unlikely that life as we know it did not occur elsewhere. The building blocks of life are simply not very special.

Actually, I was just thinking a moment ago that life itself is not special. Plants and animals and insects are everywhere. Is thinking life is special just a matter of human hubris?

 

[VaughanJB]

Actually, I was just thinking a moment ago that life itself is not special. Plants and animals and insects are everywhere. Is thinking life is special just a matter of human hubris?

Speculation on my part - but this is where the question of "consciousness" comes into play.

As a living organism, we're not special. Nothing about us is special. Other creatures have brains, hearts, lungs. etc. Some creatures don't! 99% of the creatures there has ever been on Earth are extinct. I don't even think we're particularly well put together. As you state, life isn't special.

What sets man aside is that we are conscious, we have advanced intelligence. We have immense communication skills. We are self-aware and have abstract ideas like morals and ethics. In other words, we're special after all.. It's on what constitutes ourselves, that becomes the real question. Are we simply a body with a brain, or are we actually something tethered to a body and brain?

Which is philosophy. Some people think we have a spirit or soul that transcends our physical selves. Others, like me, believe that my brain, and my thoughts and being, are simply part of a fully functioning creature walking the Earth . I die, I'm gone.

 

[David777]

I've mentioned on this board numbers of times that I have strong reasons to believe consciousness is an electromagnetic oscillating standing wave field phenomenon. I could make a convincing argument to any science audience but won't on this board in any depth as even the little I have posted has been barely absorbed. But for a start will post the below that some here might engage.

All earth animal DNA life contains bilayer lipid cellular walls that separate internal versus external electrolytic fluids. Plants have an additional outer structural, protective wall with the alive lipid layers just below. Wikipedia:

Lipids are amphiphilic: they have one end that is soluble in water ('polar') and an ending that is soluble in fat ('nonpolar'). By forming a double layer with the polar ends pointing outwards and the nonpolar ends pointing inwards membrane lipids can form a 'lipid bilayer' which keeps the watery interior of the cell separate from the watery exterior. The arrangements of lipids and various proteins, acting as receptors and channel pores in the membrane, control the entry and exit of other molecules and ions as part of the cell's metabolism.

The way Earth life controls selective entry and exit of ions and molecules for cells is by electromagnetic voltage fields using ion pumps keeping the internal cell wall voltages about 110 millivolts negative with respect to the outside of cell wall external electrolyte environment. In the human body that is our blood and lymph fluid systems. That is a key factor in why mind in animal life brains evolved from electromagnetic phenomenon and is NOT some philosophical mumbo jumbo so many non-science persons blabber about.

All earth creatures with neochords will have such oscillating standing wave fields. Single giant cell slime molds that definitely show intelligence, don't even have neurons but DO HAVE such electromagnetic fields.

Now to address @VaughanJB 's last statement, it is because IMO mind within animal life brains is electromagnetic that it does not necessarily hypothetically need to exist only in these organic body neural systems that are mortal certain to eventually die. So the same electromagnetic field within our bodies (what the Bible refers to as "spirit") as a container may possibly be able to also exist if provided with an adequate non-body container with matching impedances. In the Bible that is why there is so much scripture referring to "special water", an incredible bipolar molecule in our universe, that would be an absolutely necessary element of such a container.

John 4:13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

That is also why Jesus also stated the body MUST die to be reborn as "SPIRIT". Ancient Ultimate Intelligent Entities (UIEs) billions of years old within our universe 13.6 billion years old would have enormous reasons for creating a way to selectively give eternal life to otherwise mortal organic life they love. And I choose to believe regardless of admitted unlikeliness from our primitive science perspectives, that was Jesus's mission from God as a carrot, "gift" to change inherently evil oriented humans into moral entities.

 

[David777]

The Bible has very little scripture one might point to with any science elements. A strong reason writings can be dismissed as being primitive writings of mere men with agendas. And conversely, increasing doubt to filter out evildoers looking for excuses, plenty of scripture with nonsense to science interpretations like the world-wide Flood, they allowed men to write whatever they might without ever correcting them, probably having a good laugh at times.

The several verses concerning special water in both the Old and New Testament are one of the subtle exceptions though only something a few in this technology era might notice. Thus God's race of spirit Angels may have put that loosely into the minds of prophets with that expectation that humans would never make that water connection to possible eternal life until a science and technology age had arisen.

The fact the Gospel of John contains the most important and clearly stated scripture concerning the gift of eternal life is also significant because it tends to show Jesus was not satisfied by the what was communicated in the 3 synoptics. Since his church was off to a better start than they earlier expected, the arguably more inspired Gospel of John was added to make the purpose of his sacrifice absolutely clear just as St Paul also stated. Otherwise from the Old Testament era, there was a tendency to view the whole Christian god narrative within scripture as being about a human's life while alive on the Earth with benefits posed so.

In fact, by the Roman era, there was a significant rift in opinion with Israel about possible eternal life between the religious class Sadducees and Pharisees. Instead the Christian god was like that of myriad other kingdom's gods of the region, about spiritual forces for political power that is clearly the case for anyone studying the recent anthropology archeology science of Mesopotamian civilizations.