Comments on: Credible prediction – positive signs of alien life found within ten years. https://habitablezone.com/2015/04/24/credible-prediction-positive-signs-of-alien-life-found-within-ten-years/ Sun, 19 Apr 2026 21:38:00 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: ER https://habitablezone.com/2015/04/24/credible-prediction-positive-signs-of-alien-life-found-within-ten-years/#comment-32478 ER Fri, 24 Apr 2015 17:56:25 +0000 https://www.habitablezone.com/?p=49446#comment-32478 But I doubt I'll see it my lifetime. Although life is, in principle, detectable at interstellar distances, in practice, it may not be quite as simple. The life forms and their ecosystems have to cooperate, and our budgeting authorities have to be willing to come up with the bucks to finance the spacecraft and the telescopes. The obstacles there are much greater than the purely technical or astronomical hurdles. I find it particularly interesting how enthusiastic scientists are at studying this issue, which may turn out to be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to get to the bottom of. I agree life is probably quite common in the cosmos, at least some form of microbial life, and I certainly am curious about it, but I suspect the fervor which seems to guide the scientific community in this quest is almost religious in nature. Their eyes get glassy and their voices unearthly. I know that's the way it affects me, and what's more, I know why. Finding any form of life off-planet would be of enormous philosophical importance. It would demonstrate that life is not a miracle of divine intervention, but a simple chemical process that is likely to happen wherever conditions are suitable. Although this tells us nothing about whether or not god has anything to do with it, it does remove the mystique and the emotional support for a divine creation. It is a similar debate to the one about Darwinian Evolution; although there is no reason not to believe god uses evolution rather than divine vitalism in his creation, the very idea that he doesn't require divine intervention for the existence of life will be profoundly disturbing to the religious mentality, and reassuring to the agnostic mind. And the nature of the question is such that it can be answered in the positive, but never in the negative. If we can't find life, it can always be argued that the search is not thorough enough. But once it is found, it will be very difficult to deny or ignore it. When I was in high school in fundamentalist Protestant rural Florida, debates on the nature of life usually ended with some statement on the order of "Science will never be able to create Life in the laboratory. Only God can do that." But the fundamental secret of life, that it is a chemical process that can be understood in chemical terms, both through protein synthesis in the cell and the genetic role of DNA, had already been discovered in England by Watson and Crick while we were in middle school. We still are only just beginning to unravel this colossal puzzle, but one thing is certain, god has nothing to do with it. Like gravity, or electromagnetism, life is a natural phenomenon that can be understood in purely mechanistic terms. Although its origins are still shrouded in mystery, it is open to human reason and understanding, it is not a supernatural force. I am well aware this makes no statement on whether or not a god exists, or is even necessary, but those who worry about such things demand absolute proof, one way or the other. The discovery of life on another world will tell us for sure that life is just a process, one that occurs from time to time all throughout the universe. The religious will find this threatening, the agnostics will be appropriately smug about it. But I doubt I’ll see it my lifetime. Although life is, in principle, detectable at interstellar distances, in practice, it may not be quite as simple. The life forms and their ecosystems have to cooperate, and our budgeting authorities have to be willing to come up with the bucks to finance the spacecraft and the telescopes. The obstacles there are much greater than the purely technical or astronomical hurdles.

I find it particularly interesting how enthusiastic scientists are at studying this issue, which may turn out to be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to get to the bottom of. I agree life is probably quite common in the cosmos, at least some form of microbial life, and I certainly am curious about it, but I suspect the fervor which seems to guide the scientific community in this quest is almost religious in nature. Their eyes get glassy and their voices unearthly. I know that’s the way it affects me, and what’s more, I know why.

Finding any form of life off-planet would be of enormous philosophical importance. It would demonstrate that life is not a miracle of divine intervention, but a simple chemical process that is likely to happen wherever conditions are suitable. Although this tells us nothing about whether or not god has anything to do with it, it does remove the mystique and the emotional support for a divine creation. It is a similar debate to the one about Darwinian Evolution; although there is no reason not to believe god uses evolution rather than divine vitalism in his creation, the very idea that he doesn’t require divine intervention for the existence of life will be profoundly disturbing to the religious mentality, and reassuring to the agnostic mind.

And the nature of the question is such that it can be answered in the positive, but never in the negative. If we can’t find life, it can always be argued that the search is not thorough enough. But once it is found, it will be very difficult to deny or ignore it.

When I was in high school in fundamentalist Protestant rural Florida, debates on the nature of life usually ended with some statement on the order of “Science will never be able to create Life in the laboratory. Only God can do that.” But the fundamental secret of life, that it is a chemical process that can be understood in chemical terms, both through protein synthesis in the cell and the genetic role of DNA, had already been discovered in England by Watson and Crick while we were in middle school. We still are only just beginning to unravel this colossal puzzle, but one thing is certain, god has nothing to do with it. Like gravity, or electromagnetism, life is a natural phenomenon that can be understood in purely mechanistic terms. Although its origins are still shrouded in mystery, it is open to human reason and understanding, it is not a supernatural force. I am well aware this makes no statement on whether or not a god exists, or is even necessary, but those who worry about such things demand absolute proof, one way or the other. The discovery of life on another world will tell us for sure that life is just a process, one that occurs from time to time all throughout the universe.

The religious will find this threatening, the agnostics will be appropriately smug about it.

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