Implications of Martian life...

[Corvus]

As you may have heard, some scientists believe water once flowed on Mars, strengthening the case that life may have once existed there. Personally, if it really is proven, rather than relying on rather weak evidence, I don't expect to find any fossils of Martian animals. But microbes seems possible.

What exactly would the implication be to creation theory if life was found on the red planet?

[Alan]

There are certain assumptions here that are likely not true. The soundness of Christian doctrine does NOT depend on the "literal" or any other personal interpretation of Genesis, nor does the demonstration that evolution in a natural process challenge God's role as prime mover in any meaningful way. There is also a serious flaw in the commonly accepted definition of what "life" really is. We consider "life" to be an arrangement of chemical bonds that permit the assemblage to move about and possibly reproduce with DNA. That isn't much distinction between all the other spontaneous chemical reactions taking place about us.

This definition of life is also not only terribly narrow, but absolutely impossible to prove. A physicist explained that if we were to discover "life" forms outside of our solar system, we likely wouldn't be able to recognize them as such. And even if microbes are scattered about other planets and have evolved in more or less complicated DNA combinations, such evolutionary processes do not explain with any certainty the specific origins of man or shed any light on the role that God has or has not played in bringing them about. Sorry if I sound terribly opinionated on this. The discovery of "life" forms on Mars wouldn't and shouldn't mean a thing to "Christianity."

[adherent]

I do not think that if life was found on other planets that that would be a huge blow to creationists. If God WANTED us to know about other lifeforms on other planets then he would've told us. Also, the Bible doesn't state that life only exists on the planet earth. Having some bacteria or amoebas would not probe evolution since it could be argued that God created those amoebas and ONLY those amoebas on that planet.
And about the footage of UFO's at night... the topic of UFO's is even more controversial that there being a God. Even less people believe in all that green alien and "take me to you leader" sort of stuff. Are you saying that God is some sort of ET.

[Pyrrhonist]

ETs and UFOs in the bible:


Ezekiel describes a ufos as a wheel within a wheel with living creatures inside. The vehicles turned not when they went (like all ufo sightings) and their rings were full of eyes round about them, like windows or lights around the side. He also said their appearance was the likeness of the "glory of the Lord".

.

I remember that a NASA engineer wrote a book called "The Spaceships of Ezekiel" were he confirmed that what the old prophet wrote could really be a description of some sort of flying machine.
Throughout history and in various "Holy" books there have been reports of such craft, which the writers of those days saw as a manifestation of the divine.
To say that there is no record of such evidence shows a degree of dogmatism that is usually based on preconceived ideas and lack of research.

[Pyrrhonist]

Finding water on Mars would be a significant blow to creation theory. Finding life would possibly shatter it completely. The question focusses on questioning the truth of those two statements.

Why should that be? If earth and life on earth was the product of creation why could that not also apply elsewhere regardless of what the Bible says or not says about it?
Just musing.

[perfessor]

Alan wrote:

There are certain assumptions here that are likely not true. The soundness of Christian doctrine does NOT depend on the "literal" or any other personal interpretation of Genesis, nor does the demonstration that evolution is a natural process challenge God's role as prime mover in any meaningful way.

Alan, I agree with you. I have tried to argue this point elsewhere on this forum and generally gotten nowhere.

Personally, as a scientist, I am curious about the apparent lack of water on other planets. Earth has so much of it - and comets, we now know, carry significant amounts of water (ice, of course). But everywhere else, it's either gone or hidden.

If evidence of life were definitely found on Mars (or elsewhere), I would be fascinated but it would not change my ideas about God, Jesus, or creation. But I would probably get a kick out of watching some creationists contort themselves trying to explain it!

[fried beef sandwich]

For me, I think the implications are huge if life is found anywhere outside of earth. If life is found outside of earth, then that would be the strongest evidence of evolution.

Why do you think this is so? Maybe god had specially created life on earth and then later on, did it again to create extraterrestrial life? Or what if God let evolution happen on earth, but then decided to create martian life in an act of special creation?

Logically speaking, the mere existence of life somewhere, anywhere in the universe - neither proves nor disproves evolution.

[otseng]

Why do you think this is so? Maybe god had specially created life on earth and then later on, did it again to create extraterrestrial life? Or what if God let evolution happen on earth, but then decided to create martian life in an act of special creation?

I do not believe that God created any other life in this universe. Our place is special in the entire universe. So, the only way for life to arise on other planets would have to be by evolution. If evolution on other planets is true, then the evolutionary theory in general is true.

[fried beef sandwich]

I do not believe that God created any other life in this universe.

Note that nowhere in the bible does it say that God created life ONLY on this planet. And also, logically speaking, just because God created life on earth, it does not mean that God created life ONLY on earth and did not create it anywhere else.

Our place is special in the entire universe.

What do you mean by this? Is this a reference to the Fine-Tuning argument? Or are you just saying that God likes us?

[otseng]

Note that nowhere in the bible does it say that God created life ONLY on this planet. And also, logically speaking, just because God created life on earth, it does not mean that God created life ONLY on earth and did not create it anywhere else.

You are correct. The Bible does not specifically state that no other life was created outside this planet. It is something that I inferred from reading the Bible. To get more into this would probably be best if another thread was created.

Our place is special in the entire universe.

What do you mean by this? Is this a reference to the Fine-Tuning argument? Or are you just saying that God likes us?

There are several reasons I believe in this. One is the Anthropic Principle. I interpret it as - the way we see life is the only way life can exist. It cannot exist any other way. Therefore it makes us "special".

Another reason is that I believe the earth is at or near the center of the entire universe. (Yes, I believe the earth orbits the sun.) But, if we assume the universe is bounded, then all evidence points to the fact that the earth is at the center. Since we are at the center, we are special. (This debate would probably belong in another thread also.)

[Angry McFurious]

Actually the government has known about aliens for years and actually work in secret with them. Call me a nut but type in "majestic 12" into google search engine. There are pyramids on mars and an extraterrestrial base on the dark side of the moon, but they won't let anyone know. It's also been said that since kennedy, no president has been informed and the reason kennedy was killed is because he wanted to go public with the information.

Whoa lol. I gotta send this to the mother ship.... I mean tell my friend about it...