Scientists: We Don’t Know What Life Is or How It Begins

But they hope a new space telescope will help them find the chemical signatures of life on some other planet.

It will take a lot of luck to find life in another solar system, a panel of experts has said. But within the next two decades, the scientists say they will have the tools needed to detect alien life if it exists and they can find it.

The James Webb Space Telescope, which is expected to launch in 2018, will have the ability to look for the chemical signatures of life in the atmospheres of other planets. That doesn’t assure that life will be found because nobody knows how life begins or how widespread it is, the scientists said. John Grunsfeld, a NASA administrator, pointed out that it could be very tricky to find life—scientists don’t know how many planets have to be examined before finding one with life.

"We can't really tell what life is," MIT astrophysicist and exoplanet hunter Sara Seager said. "All we can do is work with what life does. Life metabolizes and generates gasses, so that's what we're looking for … The good news is, whatever life is, as long as it uses chemistry, we're all set. I think it's fair to say that we just want to see one example. If we see one, we almost know that it's everywhere because we need to be reassured, we need confidence that life is actually ubiquitous."

The space scientists hope to increase their odds for finding life by building bigger space telescopes and by using something called a starshade, a huge sunflower-shaped craft that could block out light from stars and allow a telescope to get a better look at atmospheres of planets orbiting those stars.

It was interesting to hear the admission of these scientists that they don’t know how life begins or even what it is. However, anybody with a Bible knows the answer to that question—it takes an intelligent Being to create life. After decades of trying to create life in laboratories and being utterly incapable of doing so despite some false alarms, secular scientists should by now be finally admitting the need for a Creator. What steps many of them go through to ignore this obvious truth, with many still optimistically predicting life will almost surely be found someday somewhere else in the cosmos!

One is tempted to say maybe we should just be more concerned with the life we know exists, here on Earth, and less on the idea life exists in space. People are dying in wars; people are starving; people are being abused; living unborn babies are being aborted for selfish reasons; etc. Of course, this is not to say we should squelch completely the pioneer spirit and the curiosity factor which is part of human nature. Many helpful discoveries have been made because people have been curious. Just don’t go overboard.

Meanwhile, we Christians need to spread the word of Jesus Christ who said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10b). The life Jesus offers is one of confidence in a better future, a happy eternity in heaven, for all who want it and who believe He came to become our Savior. We can begin enjoying that confidence immediately when we become followers of Jesus.

Reference: Miriam Kramer, “Want to Find Alien Life? It Will Take A Lot of Luck,” Space/Yahoo News.
  
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QUESTION OF THE DAY

What is a Cefaly?

A Cefaly is a headband which “provides an alternative to medication for migraine prevention,” according to the director of the Office of Device Evaluation at the Food and Drug Administration. The headband looks something like a crown for a princess.

--USA Weekend (April 18-20, 2014).

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