Other Forms of Life (Evolution)

by dhw, Tuesday, December 09, 2008, 22:24 (5624 days ago) @ George Jelliss

George argued that without evidence BBella's hypothesis concerning extraterrestrial beings was no better than fiction. - dhw, on the subject of abiogenesis: "There is no evidence for this hypothesis. Ergo, no better than fiction?" - George: "Life on Earth is known to have existed for some four billion years. Before that there is no known life, only non-living material (though that would include 'organic' molecules, e.g. involving long chains of carbon atoms). This is evidence that life DID come from non-living materials. If not what else could it have come from? We know that all existing life forms depend on carbon-chain chemistry." - The argument is incontrovertible. There was no life before there was life, so what preceded life must have been non-life. But that is not what the abiogenists are out to prove, since as a statement it is too self-evident to require proof. The emphasis ... but do correct me if I'm wrong ... is on the theory that the elements needed for life (and reproduction) can come together spontaneously, i.e. without any guiding intelligence. (David has just posted a similar observation.) Some dictionaries actually equate the term with "spontaneous generation". That is the hypothesis for which there is no evidence. Ergo, no better than fiction?