Nothing seems to upset creationists as much as the idea of life on worlds other than earth. They’re all pretty much bound by their belief that life on Earth is unique, and all of it was created (or designed) just for us.
They tremble at the thought that one day, perhaps soon, SETI (the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) will discover life elsewhere. So we’re bringing you the latest from the SETI Institute’s website: Small Planets Abound. The bold font was added by us:
Today, astronomers have announced new evidence that small planets – the type of worlds most favorable for biology – may be more common than thought. Once believed to accompany only stars with a large helping of heavy elements, this result suggests that – like weeds that can grow anywhere – Earth-size planets can be found around nearly any type of star. The new work bolsters the chances that scientists will eventually succeed in discovering extraterrestrial biology.
A team of 29 Danish and American astronomers, led by Lars Buchhave, of the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, has analyzed data from both NASA’s Kepler space telescope and ground-based observatories to discover that even star systems that contain only sparse amounts of the heavy elements that make up planets can still get enough of this material together to form small worlds, the size of Earth or Mars.
All those worlds, many of them earth-like, possibly bearing life — and none of this is scriptural. You know it gives the creationists nightmares. Here’s more:
This has two consequences in the search for extraterrestrial life: (1) The tally of small worlds is even greater than we once believed, and (2) Even relatively ancient stars, billions of years older than our Sun and generally deficient in such relatively heavy elements as silicon and iron, could host planets that are potential homes to life. This circumstance may help in the discovery of intelligent life beyond Earth.
May help? That’s an understatement. Let’s read on:
At SETIcon II, a public event being hosted by the SETI Institute, leading experts on planetary systems will be discussing where life might be discovered and how we could find it.
Here’s the website for SETIcon II. It’s too much work to navigate around there, so we’ll look at a news item from PhysOrg: Alien life searchers conference SETICon 2 held in Santa Clara. It says:
SETICon 2, a conference unlike any other, ran this past weekend in Santa Clara, California. In attendance were people from all walks of life whose area of interest intersects on the topic of the search for intelligent life somewhere other than here on planet Earth.
The best thing about it is that there was likely a total absence of creationists. We continue:
Fueling much of the discussion this time around (the first SETICon was held in 2010) are findings by NASA’s Kepler mission which is dedicated to looking for extraterrestrial life, regardless of form or degree of intelligence. Since 2009, the mission has uncovered the existence of over 2,300 exoplanets that researchers believe hold the possibility of harboring some forms of life.
Wow — over 2,300 planets found so far that may have some form of life. Creationism — which assumes that Earth is the stage for the key events of creation — is essentially a one-planet view of the universe, so it’s very likely that their days are numbered. Thousands of transitional fossils haven’t made a dent in their thinking, but one extra-terrestrial world with life … it would be absolutely devastating. Here’s more:
This year’s conference, those in attendance noted, was much more upbeat than the last, as more information from Kepler becomes available, the numbers of planets that might have life on them keeps going up, making the possibility of detecting its presence more plausible than ever before.
Well, the big discovery hasn’t happened yet, so the creationists can continue to cling to their beliefs — but deep down, they’ve got to know that their primitive view of things can’t last much longer. One more excerpt:
In addition to offerings talks, the conference also held panel discussions, interviews, and even screenings of movies, all aimed at opening the door to the possibility that extraterrestrial life might truly exist, and if it does, highlighting the fact that we are now in a better position than ever before to find evidence of its existence.
If the SETI folks can take the time to screen movies, we can open up our discussion a bit. Let your thoughts roam, dear reader. It’s a big universe out there.
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