[meteorite-list] Alien Contact Predicted

From: Darren Garrison <cynapse_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:00:08 -0500
Message-ID: <739695hf3jutg0mu4hfgpogt8tflv2po6h_at_4ax.com>

On Mon, 24 Aug 2009 12:17:30 -0400, you wrote:

>destiny and a matter of survival. Nobody knows how or why it happened, it
>just did. It was either God or chance, take your pick.

This is what is known as a false dichotomy. There is at least one more option
than "god" or "chance"-- that some types of molecules or systems of molecules
have the ability to make copies of themselves. That is a unquestionable fact-we
call those systems of molecules "life." The question is, how unlikely is it
that the first molecules capable of copying themselves - AT ANY DEGREE OF
CRUDENESS-would form? Even the crudest degree of copyability opens a molecule
up to the selective forces of natural selection-out of the variety of copied
molecules, some will be better able to reproduce themselves than others. The
building block molecules from which organisms are formed are common as dirt in
the universe, present in comets, meteorites, vast interstellar
clouds-everywhere. So we know that the raw materials of life are very common.
And we know that life exists here. So the key question is, how often are
conditions met where the molecules can, out of the trillions on trillions of
interactions in an abiotic environment, combine to form molecules capable of
providing a template for their own replication?

My gut feeling is that-- in a very, very, very large universe, where it is every
day becoming more obvious that planets are very common byproducts of stellar
formation-there are millions, billions, trillions of planets with at least some
type of life. And since there was a selective advantage for nucleated cells and
multicellularity to evolve on Earth, I see no reason to think that a big chunk
of life-bearing planets haven't done the same.

>Might as well say Yahweh or Brahma did it. Evolution guided by chance and
>probability, how is that any different from chaos and total randomness?

Evolution is not guided by chance. Genetic mutations are random. Evolution is
guided by natural selection, differential reproductive success. Natural
selection and probability are the opposite of chance and randomness.
Received on Mon 24 Aug 2009 08:00:08 PM PDT