Earthworms. Earthworms are different from us. There are probably other ways to stir up primordial goo. barfo
not what you're talking about with alien life, but I thought I should say, I had a lot of physics professors, all doctorates, that were religious. Mostly Jewish, and I think one was Bahai
Life on Earth is evidence that nature can create life. Nature exists on other planets too. I have faith in that. Might? Anything might be. You're giving me a weak standard to defend, so that's cool. As barfo noted, there's a wide diversity of life on this planet. We can also, through study of biology, envision other biologically viable life that doesn't operate like us. If you want the "evidence," you'll need to actually study biology. As the kids (by which I mean, professors) say: That's outside the scope of this class. Yeah, that's a nice factoid about Earth. Imagine the factoids about other planets, where their, I dunno, magnetars do all sorts of fascinating things for them. They have their own Denny, denying the existence of us because of the implausibility of life arising on a planet woefully devoid of a local magnetar.
With such a weak standard to defend, how did you fail so miserably? Life on earth is carbon molecule based. Silicon is right below Carbon on the periodic table, and it's been suggested that maybe there could be Silicon based life since the chemical bonds could work the same. But there isn't any Silicon based life, so no evidence, just something imaginary (like God, of all things). It's true that Nature works on other planets, but from what actual evidence we've seen, other planets are barren and frozen deserts or burnt cinders of rock or highly radiated. If there were life, like a mold or something, it'd be visible from earth with a telescope. If life isn't rare, why wouldn't it be everywhere?
there have been multiple suspect (it is still hard to tell with current technology) earth-like planets found just around nearby stars including one that appears to be covered with liquid water. well at least you should be able to smell it with a smelloscope. give me a break. "isn't rare" is subjective. there are at least 30 sextillion (3 x 10^22) stars just in the visible universe (which may be only a tiny fraction of what exists if inflationary theory is correct). if only .000000000001% of those contained planets or moons with life, life would still exist in a trillion places. for all we know life may exist everywhere it can possibly exist.
Here you go the first laboratory experiment to verify evolution via natural selection using bacteria at high temperature: http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=18761 So evolution has never been shown to take place in a lab aye?
The weak standard was to defend "might." That's easy and I successfully defended that: anything might be. Again, you asked for evidence that life could be different from us. You've given a nice example of such evidence. There could be silicon-based life, as the biology and chemistry show that it's a viable possibility. I never said there was evidence that such life does exist. This started with me pointing out that a planet does not have to a 100% carbon copy of Earth for it to possibly harbour life. You asked what evidence there is that life COULD be any different from us. And then you, yourself, admitted such evidence. I realize you're arguing just to be contrarian, but usually it helps not to argue against yourself while being a contrarian. Unless you're also being contrary to your contrarian stance! And we know of life on this planet (called "extremophiles" ) that can live in conditions that would kill us. In addition, scientists are finding planets that might resemble Earth. I'm afraid not. Current telescopes can't even see exoplanets directly, let alone what might be on them. Scientists discover exoplanets either by seeing it dim its star as it orbits in front of the star, or by detecting the jiggle of the star caused by the gravitational pull of a planet (or planets) orbiting around it. Once they know an exoplanet exists, they can use techniques like viewing it in another light spectrum to analyze its atmospheric make-up...but they certainly can't view its surface. Life may well be rare. Rare doesn't mean unique to Earth. The universe is a big place. Even if there were life on a trillion planets, it would be exceedingly rare and we may never find it.
Nobody's questioning evolution here. We're talking about the ORIGIN of life, making it spontaneously happen in a lab vs. injecting DNA into an existing cell.
You italicized "could be" - there could be God, too, and based on every bit of evidence you've produced so far. Extremophiles are a non-sequitur. They're the result of evolution, not the only species on some frozen desert of a planet.
Due to evolution, life should exist EVERYWHERE and adapt to whatever conditions. The fittest survive. You can bring up those big numbers, 3x10^22, but if the chance of a habitat suitable for life is 1/3x10^24, we're REALLY lucky to exist at all. And that's how I see it until there's actual evidence to the contrary. When I say to the contrary, a single cell not of the same origin as us, and I would believe there is life pretty much everywhere.
While there could be a god, there's no evidence of a god. There is evidence that life could be different from us. You're the one creating non-sequitors. Who said anything about "only species?" Life that resembles extremophiles here could evolve on a very different type of planet, one that would be a hostile environment to us. Other life doesn't have to look like humans or have the same capacities as humans. Extremophiles illustrate that life can exist in a variety of environments.
That doesn't make much sense. Sometimes the fittest aren't fit enough, and nothing survives. Move this planet somewhere between Mercury and the Sun, and probably all life on the planet ceases to exist once the oceans have completely boiled off. barfo
Extremophiles illustrate that life can evolve to exist in a variety of environments. And there is no evidence life could be different from us.
Move it 1% closer to the sun (or further away) and you get the same result. Closer and the oceans boil away, further and they freeze over.
Sure there is. You provided some. I am enchanted by your arguing style though: "There is no evidence that X is possible. Biology shows that X could happen. There is no evidence that X is possible." I don't know whether you're trying to confuse others or yourself.
I don't think that's true. The difference between perihelion and aphelion is about 3% currently, and that's historically low. barfo
