Perhaps you are old enough to remember the 1987 hit novelty song by the rock group The Firm that parodied the TV series Star Trek. “Star Trekkin” was a catchy tune that used the main characters of the popular TV series to deliver clever and humorous lyrics. One verse has Captain Kirk greeting a newly discovered extraterrestrial civilization by announcing, “We come in peace, shoot to kill.” Later, the always beleaguered ship’s chief engineer, Scotty, explains to the officers on the bridge that, “Ye cannae change the laws of physics!” That brings us to the topic of a much-heralded discovery that has been picked up by all of the major news services. It reminded me of the Deforest Kelly character, the country doctor-turned-astronaut, that Captain Kirk affectionately called Bones, whose lyric in the Star Trekkin song was, “It’s life Jim, but not as we know it.”
Reuters recently reported that astronomers have found a pair of Earth-sized planets orbiting a star similar to the sun. Although scientists on NASA's Kepler telescope team said neither are believed to be suitable for life. This report generated a plethora of stories covering the same announcement, (Science News, 2011).
I began to remember that a series of reports had been trickling out of the science periodicals and websites. As early as February 20, 2009, Science Daily reported that NASA’s Kepler space probe could be moved to the launch pad that very day. Jon Morse of the Astrophysics Division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington explained, “Kepler is a critical component in NASA's broader efforts to ultimately find and study planets where Earth-like conditions may be present,” (Science News, 2009).
In a follow-up story one month later, this same source quoted Ed Weiler, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, saying, “This mission attempts to answer a question that is as old as time itself -- are other planets like ours out there? It's not just a science question -- it's a basic human question,” (Science News, 2009)
Then, in December 2010, the first data from NASA’s Kepler space probe were released and they were promising. It was reported:
First Habitable-Zone Super-Earth Discovered in Orbit Around a Sun-Like Star
On December 5, 2011, Science Daily reported - A team of researchers, including Carnegie's Alan Boss, has discovered what could be a large, rocky planet with a surface temperature of about 22 degrees Celsius (72 degrees Fahrenheit), comparable to a comfortable spring day on Earth. Boss noted, “This discovery supports the growing belief that we live in a universe crowded with life,” Boss concluded, “Kepler is on the verge of determining the actual abundance of habitable, Earth-like planets in our galaxy.” (Science Daily, 2011)
This was the article associated with the discovery of Kepler-22b, one of a thousand new candidates for earth-like planets in the Goldilocks or habitable zone. These terms are used to describe places in the universe that might be able to support life ‘as we know it.’
A mere fifteen days later, scientists announced the discovery of two new planets, that in their words would be very hot, inhospitable worlds. Kepler-20f, at 800 degrees Fahrenheit (427 degrees Celsius), is similar to an average day on the planet Mercury. The surface temperature of Kepler-20e, at more than 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit (760 degrees Celsius), would melt glass (Science Daily, 2011). These planets, unlike Kepler-22b, would not be able to support life. That is not life ‘as we know it.’
Now that we are riding the wave of a new set of stories intended to peek our collective imagination and get us on board with a primary goal of the current NASA space mission, it is important to remember that, for most people on planet earth, perception is reality. Those who write these science fiction oriented news stories, as well as those who are quoted therein, are sometimes tempted to hype or overstate the implications of their research.
I can still remember how a different news story concerning a NASA announcement, that the building blocks of life were found in outer space, circulated through the media. This news story was prompted by the discovery of NASA-funded researchers who said these meteorites that were likely (I guess that means they are not positive of their extraterrestrial origin) created in space. They claim the research gives support to the theory that a “kit” of ready-made parts created in space and delivered to Earth by meteorite and comet impacts assisted the origin of life (NASA, 2011). As I read further, I learned the actual discovery did not include the actual biochemical components of DNA, but only minute traces of two of the four so-called building blocks of life, (Rowitt, 2011).
While NASA looks with anticipation for more possible examples of extraterrestrial life, the evolutionists among them continue to ignore the unique and miraculous quality of biological life right here at home. They willfully turn a blind eye to the astronomical odds against abiogenesis (organic life arising naturally from inorganic molecules) occurring even once as it is alleged to have taken place 3.5 billion years ago here on planet earth. We need to remind ourselves that these evolutionary scientists, and their astrobiologist counterparts, believe life can spontaneously arise elsewhere in the universe.
The universe, as described by its physical laws and constants, seems to be fine-tuned for the existence of life. Weak nuclear force, strong nuclear force, proton to electron mass ratio, gravitational force, cosmological constant and electromagnetic force are all fine-tuned to allow for the existence of life on planet earth. These natural laws, coupled with the fact that the earth is situated in an extremely unique and propitious space within our own solar system, e.g. an habitable zone, is strong cosmological and teleological evidence for the existence of an Intelligent Designer or Creator God, (Gonzalez & Richards, 2004).
It takes an extraordinary amount of blind faith to believe that life, even in the most basic form, can spontaneously arise from non-living matter. Then, as if they are completely devoid of common sense, they assume that molecules can assemble themselves into microorganisms and those microbes can evolve into every living organism that has lived, or ever will live, on planet earth.
Here are some of the quotes concerning the spontaneous evolution of just the building blocks of life, Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). The structure of functional DNA, even in microorganisms, is so complex that even dedicated evolutionary scientists have serious doubts about the ability of the components of DNA to form spontaneously in nature via natural processes. Fred Hoyle (1915–2001), the late Professor of Astronomy at Cambridge University, wrote:
The chance that higher life forms might have emerged in this way is comparable with the chance
that ‘a tornado sweeping through a junk yard might assemble a Boeing 747 from the materials therein.’
For those given to mathematical illustrations, Hoyle (1981) offered this:
At all events, anyone with even a nodding acquaintance with the Rubik cube will concede the near-impossibility of a solution being obtained by a blind person moving the cube faces at random. Now imagine 1050 blind persons each with a scrambled Rubik cube, and try to conceive of the chance of them all simultaneously arriving at the solved form. You then have the chance of arriving by random shuffling of just one of the many biopolymers on which life depends. The notion that not only the biopolymers but also the operating programme of a living cell could be arrived at by chance in a primordial organic soup here on the Earth is evidently nonsense of a high order.
Hoyle and Wickramasinghe (1990), scientists not given to hyperbole, wrote:
The random chance is not a million to one against, but p to 1 against, with p minimally an enormous superastronomical number equal to 1040000 (1 followed by 40,000 zeros). The odds we have thus computed are only for the enzymes, and of course, correct arrangements with many other important macromolecules histone-4 and cytochrome-c are two such examples, each with exceedingly small probability of being obtained by chance. If all these other relevant molecules for life are also taken account of in our calculation, the situation for conventional biology becomes doubly worse. The odds of one in 1040000 against are horrendous enough, but that would have to be increased to a major degree. Such a number exceeds the total number of fundamental particles through the observed Universe by very, very many orders of magnitude. So great are the odds against life being produced in a purely mechanistic way that the difficulties for an Earthbound, mechanistic biology are in our view intrinsically insuperable.
Such criticisms of this conclusion as have been voiced are, in the main, of a superficial polemical kind. By prevailing cultural standards, it is usually thought that this type of conclusion is so outrageous and unacceptable that it has to be fought and condemned at all costs. Facts themselves cease to be important, and it is considered permissible to pile unlikely hypotheses, one upon another. If there remains even the slightest chance of maintaining the status quo within some type of quasi-logical framework the situation is that anything goes. The hypotheses that come to be invoked take on an extremely complex character, which appear to remain invisible to the protagonists of conventional theory.
The next time we hear about habitable zones and earth-like exoplanets, beware of the fact that astrobiologists and other NASA scientists are facing ever more austere budget cuts. Couple this with an economy that is not likely to produce much support for their gallivanting around the galaxy in search of ET, and you have the reason why so many of NASA’s eggs are being placed in the basket of astrobiology.
It would be far better for all if these so-called rational scientists would take their collective heads out of far reaches of our galaxy and turn their attention to the Word of God. There is a Latin phrase that describes the way the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob created life, in the beginning. God spoke the universe into existence in six literal 24-hour days declaring all He had created to be “very good,” Gen. 1:31. He created life and everything else in the universe, ex nihilo (out of nothing). The next time life arrives here on planet earth, it will not be an alien life form. It will be the Creator and Savior, returning a second time to establish a righteous kingdom.
Until that time comes, the Apostle Peter instructed his fellows Israelites, those who were witnesses of the life and ministry of the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth:
Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you - even Jesus. He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised
long ago through his holy prophets, Acts 3:19-21.
The humor of “Star Trekkin” aside, the exhortation of Peter to his fellow Jews applies today to all who have left the Light of the World out of their worldview. This certainly includes the evolutionary scientific establishment who continue to search the heavens for signs of life, studying the stars and planets of God’s creation without acknowledging the One who created them. Unless, and until, they repent of their narrow, materialistic worldview, they will remain in darkness, endlessly studying the creation, without ever acknowledging the Creator.
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References
Gonzalez, G., Richards, Jay W. (2004). The Privileged Planet. Regnery Publishing, Inc. Washington, DC. pp. 195-218.
Hoyle, Fred (1981). Hoyle on Evolution. Nature November 12, 1981 p.105. First accessed on 8.11.11 at http://bevets.com/equotesho.htm.
Hoyle, Fred (1981). The Big Bang in Astronomy. New Scientist November 19, 1981 pp. 521-527.
Hoyle, Fred & Wickramasinghe, Chandra (1990). Cosmic Life-Force. New York, NY: Paragon House. p. 134.
Science News (2009). NASA Finds Earth-Size Planet Candidates in Habitable Zone, Six Planet System. Accessed 12.211.11 at http://www.sciencedaily.com/ releases /2011/02/ 110202133321.htm.
Science News, (2009). Seeking Earth-Like Planets: NASA's Kepler Mission Set For Launch. Accessed 12.21.11 at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/ 2009/03/090305143932.htm.
Gonzalez, G., Richards, Jay W. (2004). The Privileged Planet. Regnery Publishing, Inc. Washington, DC. pp. 195-218.
Hoyle, Fred (1981). Hoyle on Evolution. Nature November 12, 1981 p.105. First accessed on 8.11.11 at http://bevets.com/equotesho.htm.
Hoyle, Fred (1981). The Big Bang in Astronomy. New Scientist November 19, 1981 pp. 521-527.
Hoyle, Fred & Wickramasinghe, Chandra (1990). Cosmic Life-Force. New York, NY: Paragon House. p. 134.
Science News (2009). NASA Finds Earth-Size Planet Candidates in Habitable Zone, Six Planet System. Accessed 12.211.11 at http://www.sciencedaily.com/ releases /2011/02/ 110202133321.htm.
Science News, (2009). Seeking Earth-Like Planets: NASA's Kepler Mission Set For Launch. Accessed 12.21.11 at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/ 2009/03/090305143932.htm.
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