Theology V Science

[Nick]

Let me know, Nick. 

Oh, don't you worry about that

[patman post]

They're already investigation whether there is or ever has been Algae on Mars, and if they find proof then what?

There was certainly a sort of fungussy bloom on an old bar I found in a cupboard under the stairs recently...

[Barry]

Let me know, Nick. 

[Nick]

There is no evidence of life anywhere else in the universe, so Cox was being honest. Even when pushed he only suggested it was possible.
Good discussion topic.

Saying that Barry, you can have no proof that there isn't any other life in the Universe. They're already investigation whether there is or ever has been Algae on Mars, and if they find proof then what?

[Barry]

There is no evidence of life anywhere else in the universe, so Cox was being honest. Even when pushed he only suggested it was possible.
Good discussion topic.

[johnofgwent]

OK I'll bite

Most of the "faithful" that i have met would have me believe we are it because we are the only place god made us. to which I feel the urge to scream well if this is the best he can do he needs a better watchmaker.

Setting that aside, I think Cox is probably right. He has the good sense to restrict himself to a focus on a small and finite part of the known universe so as to remove the infinite number of monkeys from the equation and once you do that, I think he is absolutely correct. I too believe that there is no other self aware / sentient life force on any other planet in our  immediate vicinity in the infinite universe and I feel that to be the case because I' like Cox, understand the time spans involved here. The rise and fall of the average civilisation in our ancient history is even more miniscule in comparison to the age of the galaxy as the life of a mayfly is to a galapagos tortoise. Truly one will miss it if one blinks.

Knowing as I do from my first year undergraduate course on physical chemistry, the mechanism postulated for complex organic chemical to arise on earth, and the fragility of the conditions and coincidences which together conspired to create the green slime on this rock from which we crept, and more to the point, knowing that the development of the earths atmosphere has totally and irrevocably destroyed the reducing atmospheric environment that is absolutely fundamental to the origin of those complex molecules, we are a one way ticket on a one way street and the chance that any other planet detectable to us is currently inhabited by beings of at least our sentience is vanishingly small.

The question of whether we are the first, or the current in a short or long progression, or depressingly that we are in fact the last such self aware life form is too depressing to contemplate at this hour of the morning when the sun is not yet over the yardarm.

There have been, of course, numerous attempts to discover such chemistry and biology. Perhaops the most notable is the foundation set up by Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wossisname to detect interstellar carbohydrates through spectrophotometric analysis of starlight, although i think that project was tainted by the fact the four people in receipt of its funding when I was a research student were all Ba'ath party members and had no knowledge of how to operate a spectrophotometer nor the bond energies of common carbon-carbon bonds in common carbohydrates. But that's a story for another part of this site.

[papasmurf]

Judging by internet forums I wonder if there is intelligent life on Earth.

[Nick]

Obviously this is just conjecture but can anyone categorically disprove this?
Faith won't cut it, it has to be tangible proof. I'm not expecting many challenges BTW.

https://youtu.be/p9GNCc_4f8A