# I'm a biologist. I think evolution theory is only half right. What do you think of my Theory of Everything? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 24, 2021, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-biologist-i-think-evolution-theory-is-only-half-right-what-do-you-think-of-my-theory-of-everything/944927 "2021-06-24T08:47:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2021, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-biologist-i-think-evolution-theory-is-only-half-right-what-do-you-think-of-my-theory-of-everything/944927/61 "2021-06-26T18:07:32Z")
> [@GeneralTang](#): > > To be straight forward, Maastricht, you say you are studying in biology. If you want to make it in STEM you need to express yourself precisely and clearly. All your good ideas must be so precise that they would fit in a math class (even if the subject is biology). If you don’t do this then, even if the ideas sound nice and philosophical, they will never be useful and you will not be taken seriously. I thought Maastricht is a psychologist who worked for a stretch in plant spotting and identification. A very strong special interest in botany, but unknown whether any actual college-level coursework in biology (or other hard sciences? ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2021, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-biologist-i-think-evolution-theory-is-only-half-right-what-do-you-think-of-my-theory-of-everything/944927/62 "2021-06-26T20:19:43Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Except we _do_ know enough, at least about the possibility of life elsewhere. Because we _do_ know more than _just_ that life developed on Earth. We also have experience of places that it _didn’t_ develop. And we know the abundance of life precursors in the Universe. So it’s not just a datum of 1. If our set is “celestial bodies”, then yeah, we’re found thousands of those, and only one has life (so far). If you’re talking about “planets”, we’re dealing with a much smaller subset, even if you include moons and dwarf planets in your count. And frankly, we don’t know that simple life doesn’t exist elsewhere in the solar system yet, or that it didn’t exist at some point in the past. Certainly nothing very large or complex, and certainly no intelligence, but single called life under the ice of a frozen moon, underground on a “dead” planet like Mars, or in the depths of a gas giant is not impossible. But if our set is “rocky planets with surface water that’s mostly liquid” then we do have a set of 1. We know there are other rocky planets with surface water out there - and have no reason to believe that bit is vanishing rare - but we have no info at all about how many of them have life. It’s also true that we know the galaxy isn’t crawling with advanced civilizations, but that’s the whole point - does that mean that any life at all is rare? That multicellular life is rare? That intelligent life is rare? That civilization is rare? That interstellar travel is rare? We don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2021, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-biologist-i-think-evolution-theory-is-only-half-right-what-do-you-think-of-my-theory-of-everything/944927/63 "2021-06-27T00:31:21Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Thank you, but no; I’ll take a liberal social democracy with a well-educated populace managed by the balance of competing ideas and political philosophies negotiating to pragmatic solutions rather than some arbitarily enforced societal good. Ah, a citizen of Utopia, didn’t know your lot spent much time on the SDMB. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2021, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-biologist-i-think-evolution-theory-is-only-half-right-what-do-you-think-of-my-theory-of-everything/944927/64 "2021-06-27T08:17:45Z")
I’m confining my stance to “life”, not “intelligent life”. I agree we don’t know, but like I said, given our current theories of abiogenesis, and the abundance of precursor molecules out there, we _can_ say whether it is probable or not. ---
**Author:** ![Crane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crane/32/3495_2.png) [@Crane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crane)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2021, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-biologist-i-think-evolution-theory-is-only-half-right-what-do-you-think-of-my-theory-of-everything/944927/65 "2021-06-29T12:44:05Z")
> [@Maastricht](#): > > Classic evolution theory, with survival of the fittest, and sexual selection, is only part of a larger truth. Maastricht - upon your return could you clarify the “larger truth”? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-biologist-i-think-evolution-theory-is-only-half-right-what-do-you-think-of-my-theory-of-everything/944927.md?page=3)