The Mystery of Life's Origin by unknow

The Mystery of Life's Origin by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
ISBN: 9781936599769
Publisher: Discovery Institute
Published: 2020-01-26T16:00:00+00:00


where R is the rate of star formation; fp, the probability that a star will have planets; ne, the number of planets per star with environments favorable to life; fl, the probability that life will develop; fi, the probability that intelligent life will develop; fc, the probability that intelligent beings attempt interstellar communication; fd, the probability that such beings desire to communicate; and L, the lifetime of a civilization after it reaches the interstellar communication stage.

Various estimates have been reached using the Green Bank-Drake equation. They range from N = 1 (even this value is assigned on the nearly universal assumption that spontaneous chemical evolution occurred once) to N = 108 or more. The wide spectrum of numbers cited in the literature for N reflects the room for individual subjectivity by those doing the estimating. Many enthusiasts consider it reasonable to conclude that perhaps a million advanced societies inhabit the cosmos. Several federally-funded projects, such as Project OZMA, have been undertaken to search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). There is a growing body of literature critical of the ETI concept, however. For example, Frank Tipler has thoroughly examined the arguments for ETI, and notes, “the problem with the Drake equation is that only fp, and to a lesser degree ne, are subject to experimental determination.”28 Even when assigning to each term the value usually given in discussions of interstellar communities, the conclusion is reached that “we are alone.”29

Directed panspermia, like panspermia itself, fails to give an account of the origin of life. It merely assumes that spontaneous generation must have occurred in some favored environment somewhere in the cosmos. Directed panspermia is primarily a suggested mechanism to get life safely to earth. Surely intelligent beings could design an appropriate spaceship.

Thus, in spite of the lack of any real evidence for the existence of ETI, there appears to be growing interest in directed panspermia among some scientists.

Special Creation by a Creator Within the Cosmos

Hoyle and Wickramasinghe30 have developed a novel and creative argument, which we shall present in some detail. As will be seen, the view of intelligence creating biological specificity comes in not one, but two types: (1) a creating intelligence within the cosmos; (2) a creating intelligence beyond the cosmos. In arguing for the former, Hoyle and Wickramasinghe contend that Darwinism has failed to account for the origin of life and the development of terrestrial biology:

No matter how large the environment one considers, life cannot have had a random beginning... there are about two thousand enzymes, and the chance of obtaining them all in a random trial is only one part in (1020)2000 = 1040,000, an outrageously small probability that could not be faced even if the whole universe consisted of organic soup.

If one is not prejudiced either by social beliefs or by a scientific training into the conviction that life originated on the Earth, this simple calculation wipes the idea entirely out of court... the enormous information content of even the simplest living systems... cannot in our view be



Download



Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.