New planet

Discussion about scientific issues as they relate to God and Christianity including archaeology, origins of life, the universe, intelligent design, evolution, etc.
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Silvertusk
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New planet

Post by Silvertusk »

Hi.

Looks like they have found a new earth.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6589157.stm

How does everyone else feel about the possibility of life elsewhere in the universe? How does that fit in with Christianity?

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godslanguage
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Post by godslanguage »

I saw this on the discovery channel
Here are some VERY MISLEADING claims I heard:
Im quoting the guy with the beard:
"So there could be advanced civilization there, more advanced then us"
"The evolution of life on the planet is old enough and has been given ENOUGH TIME" for multi-tudes of living systems to occur"...or something along the lines of this.

The main reason why this planet is more interesting then the others is that it happens to be at the right distance between the star and temperature would be a suitable range for life to "occur", but that doesn't mean that life actually exists there at all. The climate seems suitable as well for the origin of life to occur. Once again, they assume that just because your given the right climate and right distance and temperature from the star and the most misleading of all--> given enough time, THE ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF LIFE IS INEVITABLE. Now, instead of jumping to other planets and construing the philosophical claims of the origin of life, they should first understand all the elements on this planet before jumping bridges.
"Is it possible that God is not just an Engineer, but also a divine Artist who creates at times solely for His enjoyment? Maybe the Creator really does like beetles." RTB
LJ57
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Post by LJ57 »

I do believe many of the reports of this have been overenthusiastic. There is really nothing known about its atmosphere, whether water is present or not, and if it is even remotely capable of sustaining life. I believe, as a matter of science and not religion, that life is probably exceedingly rare, if not completely nonexistent, outside of earth.
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godslanguage
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Post by godslanguage »

The idea is also that organisms would adapt like they would on earth. I find that "assuming" that another organism would have eyes on a differant planet is astounding and at the same time corruptly deluded. The discovery channel added that organisms would most likely have darker eyes since they would adapt differantly to the light by the "red" star. This is just plain silly non-sense that will never go away, how can you possibly assume life would actually evolve with similar or exact features or functions (ie: the eye) as here on earth? When we talk about the first living cell and how that came about (which we have no clue about), the discovery channel seems to be claiming that the same cell would eventually arise on every "habitable" planet.
Has there been any experiments to prove this? Any hard science? I'm getting tired of these claims I'm going to have to take a break from T.V and the internet for a while.
"Is it possible that God is not just an Engineer, but also a divine Artist who creates at times solely for His enjoyment? Maybe the Creator really does like beetles." RTB
LJ57
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Post by LJ57 »

Something that Guillermo Gonzales mentioned today should be cause for consternation among these scientists who assume this new planet may harbor life of some kind :

"You are right about the host star being an M dwarf posing problems for habitability. The smallest planet's eccentricity is comparable to that of Mercury, so it is probably locked into a 3:2 spin-orbit resonance. So, the planet will experience large temperature variations over the course of its orbit. What's more, because its rotation is slower, it should have a weaker magnetic field and be subject to enhanced solar wind stripping of its atmosphere. Finally, the fact that it has a mass at least 5x Earth's means that it will have a high surface gravity and less surface relief than the Earth -- meaning no dry land."
Enigma7457
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Post by Enigma7457 »

I agree with guillermo's quote. For more information, read the privileged planet (a book he co-authored). There are many many more blocks to life than just what he mentioned there. It's fascinating that people get so excited about the possibility of life on other planets, especially with something so small as this.
phoney
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Post by phoney »

Enigma7457 wrote:I agree with guillermo's quote. For more information, read the privileged planet (a book he co-authored). There are many many more blocks to life than just what he mentioned there. It's fascinating that people get so excited about the possibility of life on other planets, especially with something so small as this.
These people only continue to get grant money if they dream up this type of crap.
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