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From a scientific standpoint this is excellent and yet another place where we should send explorers, robotic or human, to do some digging and analysis.
From a religious perspective, if life were found elsewhere ... would your religious foundations be shaken?
And you just wait! There's more to come, and not just on Mars.
Fact: the conditions for the spontaneous rise of life are probably (and logically...) not that uncommon in this universe. Of course the ultimate form it takes, measured at any point in time, will be highly variable. Example? Our current level of speciation is but a snapshot in time; we're all still evolving in response to our environmental challenges!
What if some alien scientists had arrived here 10,000 yrs ago and documented what they found? Or 5 million yrs ago? Or better yet; 100,000 yrs from now, assuming some meteorite hasn't wiped us out and only left the earthworms?
The last time Mars hit the media Headlines in a big way was actually around the time that I was helping set up Atheist Ireland. We thought it would be fun to open up the Atheist Ireland blog by asking some well known names in the realm of Science and Religion to comment on what life on Mars would mean to us as a species.
The response of Kenneth Miller, Catholic, Biologist and famous for being a key witness in the Dover Trial against creationism is here.
There hasn't been a question about the Martian ice cap. If there's ice, then somewhere along the line there's going to be water. A shattering surprise? Hardly. And you can't have life without water--at least, not carbon-based life. So the possibility of life on Mars doesn't upset my view of things. (Besides, even if you have to fall back on the Bible as the ultimate authority...it doesn't specifically prohibit life from existing anywhere else).
From a scientific standpoint this is excellent and yet another place where we should send explorers, robotic or human, to do some digging and analysis.
From a religious perspective, if life were found elsewhere ... would your religious foundations be shaken?
No, not really. Is it your secret desire that they would be shaken?
There hasn't been a question about the Martian ice cap. If there's ice, then somewhere along the line there's going to be water. A shattering surprise? Hardly. And you can't have life without water--at least, not carbon-based life. So the possibility of life on Mars doesn't upset my view of things. (Besides, even if you have to fall back on the Bible as the ultimate authority...it doesn't specifically prohibit life from existing anywhere else).
No, it doesn't. The Bible neither affirms nor denies extra-terrestrial creaturely life.
No, not really. Is it your secret desire that they would be shaken?
Not so secret - anything to cause the theists to stop and ask a few questions outside the faith - box. For that's when deconversion begins.
However, I have Faith in the ability of theists to adapt their own personal marque of God and His Plan to fit any new information that might pop up, as the majority of them did when Darwin rocked their Ark.
Not so secret - anything to cause the theists to stop and ask a few questions outside the faith - box. For that's when deconversion begins.
However, I have Faith in the ability of theists to adapt their own personal marque of God and His Plan to fit any new information that might pop up, as the majority of them did when Darwin rocked their Ark.
Ahh, atheist evangelism!
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A watery Mars-scape? How unGodly!
and very holy..
