Origin of Life: new commentaries (Introduction)

by David Turell , Sunday, March 06, 2011, 16:31 (5011 days ago) @ dhw

David has drawn our attention to what may or may not be an exciting discovery ... a meteorite with fossils of life from elsewhere.
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> http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/03/05/exclusive-nasa-scientists-claims-evidence-ali... 
> Comments from Robert B. Sheldon
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> http://www.rbsp.info/rbs/RbS/cv.html 
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> Unfortunately, the Robert B. Sheldon reference was just a CV ... or did I miss something? -No you didn't. Sheldon made some on-the-mark requirements, and I just wanted to show his background and ability to be critical. He thinks the article is probably correct in its conclusions.
> The suggestion that life on Earth was seeded from somewhere in space doesn't solve the problem of origin, but one can already hear the arguments:-
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> 1) Theists will say there's no reason why God shouldn't have created life all over the universe, and it's still too complex to have assembled itself. However, those theists who have hitherto claimed that life on Earth is unique, and God has a special purpose for us humans, will certainly have to rethink, unless they claim that all life throughout what you call "a much larger biosphere" was geared to us. Quite literally more and more far fetched?-Seeding the universe with life, early-on, still requires an Earth with all of its exact requirements for allowing early life to evolve to what we see today. The theists just have to shift emphasis a bit. The Earth is still special, as arranged by God in Genesis.
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> 2) Atheists, meanwhile, will claim that the discovery vindicates their belief that with, say, 50-100 billion galaxies in the universe, "the spontaneous arising of something equivalent to DNA" (Dawkins) is inevitable, not just on one planet but on millions.-Note this is exactly opposite of my theistic answer above. We still only know of one special planet.
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> Of course neither side can prove anything.....-From the NY Times:-http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/05/nasa-scientist-sees-signs-of-life-in-meteorites/?scp=1-b&sq=alien+life+meteorites&st=nyt-
And from atheist PZ Myers, biology professor:-http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/03/did_scientists_discover_bacter.php-His ranting criticism shows this is more of a threat to atheists. His blog is pharyngula.