Talk:Extraterrestrial life

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Such a discovery would cause problems for worldviews that presume the uniqueness of human beings and the universal importance of human events, especially certain religious viewpoints.

For example? --LMS

For example, Christianity. Christianity (at least in some of its forms) presumes a certain uniqueness for human beings, and that human history is of unique importance in the grand schemes of things: that God became incarnate in a human being is one of its beliefs. I suspect that problems would arise if other life forms existed: why humans? why didn't God become incarnate in any other intelligent lifeforms? Now Christianity (even of the more traditional sort I am referring to here) could no doubt survive the discovery of alien life, but it would make it seem less likely -- that God chose some particular lifeform for events of grand cosmic import seems much more believable when there is only one lifeform for him to choose from. -- Simon J Kissane

I was asking for a definite example be added to extraterrestrial life. Frankly, although I'm about as nonreligious as they come, I'm skeptical of the claim. What events of grand cosmic import (as opposed to grand Earthly import) does Christianity allege? If Jesus is divine, why couldn't he be poking around on other planets, spreading the gospel (that would explain why he's been gone for lo these 2,000 years)? See, I just wanted the claim, which strikes me as prejudiced, given some definite proof. Otherwise, it should be stricken. --LMS

Christianity as a whole may not assert these things, but some branches of it do, and I have both talked to people and seen programs which asert that Christianity (meaning their version) does not allow for extraterrestrial life. So, if Christ comes but twice, he can't be off saving people on other worlds, if man is God's image then nothing else could conceivably possess the faculty of reason, and while I'm not sure where the uniqueness of earthly life is argued from I can tell you that it sometimes is. How widespread such conclusions are, though, I do not know.

I don't see it as particularly prejudiced. But since it seems to be controversial, I'm going to delete it anyway. -- Simon J Kissane

"If extraterrestrial life was discovered to exist, it would have profound implications for all human thought, especially if the life was intelligent."

This seems non-encyclopedic. It is a sweeping assertion, and one that I rather doubt. - TS

Should we mention the Martian meteorite and the Viking experiments? Robert Merkel

It has been theorised that all life on Earth came from space. Evidence to suggest this includes the Cambrian Explosion, where primitive forms of life suddenly appear on the fossil record...

I doubt that anyone at all serious would treat the Cambrian Explosion as evidence for panspermia, given that animals are quite clearly related to other forms of life present in the fossil record long before then. I think we should remove this unless a source can be provided for it. --JG

Removed section:<bt>

It has been theorised that all life on Earth came from space. Evidence to suggest this includes the Cambrian Explosion, where primitive forms of life suddenly appear on the fossil record, and suggestions that comets may contain complex carbon chains, bordering at the level where they may become self-replicating.

This smells a bit fishy to me -- There is a great deal of convincing fossil, genetic and chemical evidence to support the notion that all life on Earth descended from a common ancestor that existed several billion years ago. There is no evidence to support the wild notion that there was a separate beginning for life during the early paleozoic. (this actually reminds me of a scene in the movie Mission to Mars where the holographic Martian yarns a holographic tale about the destruction of their world and how they decided to seed ours just before the Cambrian Explosion -- Remember folks, this stuff is fiction). The Varangian glaciation which preceeded the radiation of animals along with the subsequent over-warming of the Earth provided a great deal of evolutionary pressure. No extraterrestrial connection required.

And the "bordering at the level where they may become self-replicating" statement is pure conjecture. I remember reading about findings that complex carbon molecules were detected in the tails of coments -- but those molecules were PAHs and complex benzene rings -- not crude forms of DNA and protein (or anything that could even conceivably be considered to be on a path toward self-replication). --maveric149

Many movies and fictions are based on valid scientific theories. Being the plot of a movie does not discredit the theory as fiction. I have heard about the meteorite theory from news and documentary programs on Discovery and TLC channel. Can you prove this theory originate from fiction? Even a fiction writer can develop a valid scientific theory. I think it is not right to take it out unless it is proven wrong. --anon

In science, a theory is not considered "correct until proven wrong." Instead, it's only considered a good theory when there's a hefty helping of evidence to support it. In the case of the "earth-seeding" theory, the evidence is very limited, and if it's not fully ruled out by existing evidence, it's still got several noted points against it, notably Occam's Razor. In the case of "earth colonization" by anything larger than unicellular life, the available evidence does contradict that hypothesis in a fairly convincing fashion. Ergo, in discussing the scientific knowledge of this subject, it wouldn't be appropriate to include speculations of ET's during the Cambrian period. Stick to panspermia, if even that. -- April

Mega dittos --April. The Discovery Channel and TLC are in the business to entertain and therefore create ad revenue - informing the public about science is just a happy aside that occurs for many of their programs (most certainly not all). BTW I have also seen DSC and TLC programs on Bigfoot, the Lockness Monster, UFOs, ghosts and Angels (but then you probably believe in those too anon) -- these channels are not at all good sources of information about science. Gesh... --maveric149

I am glad you mentioned Angels. I don't believe in angels more than I believe in aliens. Honestly I don't believe either until I see one, but I never rule out the possibility that they might exist. Do you bleieve you know everything? I never believe life on earth are planted by alien civilization (the thoery that you deleted from the article did not say that either). But I think it is possible that the building blocks of life come from space, please explain how you can rule out such possiblity before you remove the statement:

If it was stated as a fact, then I agree you should just take it out. But if it is a theory, it deserves a space here unless it is absolute nonsense. -anon

Read the statements that --April and I have already made. You will then see that the removed section is not at all scientifically valid and is utter nonsense. It is true that many of the most basic building blocks probably did come from space -- the removed section does not say this -- Please read it again. It is furthermore non-scientific to believe in something that does not have evidence to support its existence. Yes it is possible and as a scientist I must admit this -- but then almost anything is possible in an absolute sense. Shall we place all these possibilities in the article as well? How about we stick to the most prevalent and pertinent arguments here. We have already explained why it was removed. --maveric149

Content that needs to be merged and NPOVed here:

An extra-terrestrial is any creature that possesses intelligence and originated on a celestial body other than earth.

Many people believe in the existence of extra-terrestials. Thousands believe that extra-terrestrials, also known as aliens, have visited earth on several occasions. One of the most popular of these occurences was an incident in Roswell, New Mexico. Conspiracy theories pertaining to this and other suspected occurences are rampant.

Extra-terrestrials have been the focus of numerous films, books, television shows, and radio shows. One radio show in particular, titled The War of the Worlds, stirred up terror when masses of listeners mistook the fictional show for an actual broadcast.

The Raelians are a group of believers in extra-terrestrial life; they believe that intelligent life on earth was initiated by aliens. Their leader is Rael.

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