[meteorite-list] Alien Contact Predicted

From: Bob King <nightsky55_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 2009 18:21:15 -0500
Message-ID: <99c1e91a0908291621x32c7bfd8pb1c2ea9abf378dc8_at_mail.gmail.com>

Phil,
Urey's experiment was fewer than 60 years ago and we've barely
scratched the surface on Mars. You seem willing to give up so easily.
Science succeeds through persistence and persistence takes time. How
many centuries has humankind wanted to fly? Hundreds, thousands of
years? It finally happened in the 20th century.

Back in the 1700s there were astronomers who said we'd never, ever be
able to learn the composition of the stars. The stars were so far away
that they'd be forever inaccessible. Let's take your perspective and
apply it to someone from that era. They may very well have said
something like this: "I know you think it's possible to determine a
star's composition but show me just one shred of evidence, one bit of
information and I'll believe you. In the meantime, as far as I'm
concerned, the only things we'll ever be to analyze are what I can see
and touch here on planet Earth."

That pillar of certainly fell with a thud when the first spectroscope
was invented. There are many things that once seemed impossible to
understand that are now commonplace and predictable. Rather than
touting how ignorant science is on the subject, it might help to keep
an open mind. Even now scientists have seen short strands of RNA
molecules make copies of themselves in the lab. With time and the
development of new tools and approaches to the issue of life's origin,
we may soon have an answer. In the meantime, making a big deal of our
current ignorance comes off -- at least from my perspective -- as
gloating and self-serving.
Best regards,
Bob


On Sat, Aug 29, 2009 at 4:59 PM, Phil Whitmer<prairiecactus at rtcol.com> wrote:
> Hi Darren,
>
> I'm back to join the circle jerk! ?Please note: the following are just my
> personal beliefs and I will completely recant it all upon being provided
> credible evidence that I'm full of hooey.
>
>
>
> So I'm a stupid Yahwehist? ?You're telling me to believe in alien beings
> that live up in the heavens without providing ?a single shred of evidence
> for their existence? Are they like angels? ?I'm not making any extraordinary
> claims about the existence of any kind of god or other extraterrestrial life
> form, as you are. Martin hit the nail on the head, you're trying to convert
> me to your religion. ?Just have faith, you say, you don't need evidence, you
> backward tribal animist ancestor worshipper. ?Come join the New Religion!
> Believe all it has to say, even when it oversteps its limits.
>
> Show me some evidence I say, and I get the freakin' Drake Equation?!?
> Believe in the Drake Equation, for it is Holy Writ chime in the chorus of
> True Believers. It surely proves there is life out there. The Drake Equation
> is some ink scribbled on some paper, it's not magical runes. ?The Book of
> Genesis is some ink scribbled on paper. I have faith in neither one. ?I fart
> in the general direction of the drake equation. ?You want a real equation?
> How about E=mc2. ?Now that one's got some gut to it!
Received on Sat 29 Aug 2009 07:21:15 PM PDT