# Say we discover life elsewhere..so what? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 17, 2000, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-we-discover-life-elsewhere-so-what/18039 "2000-04-17T02:07:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Needs2know](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5e925/32.png) [@Needs2know](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Needs2know)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2000, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-we-discover-life-elsewhere-so-what/18039/41 "2000-04-20T14:57:00Z")
Intellegent life would fit in nicely with my creation/evolution fantasy. Then we could ask them something like…Hey! Have you ever met this guy we call God? Religious in nature I know but it makes me feel good anyway. Needs2know ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2000, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-we-discover-life-elsewhere-so-what/18039/42 "2000-04-21T05:49:00Z")
Hm, why couldn’t Jesus have been born and killed on dozens of other planets… Well, for one thing, that rather negates the ‘specialness’ of the event, don’t ya think? I mean, after the 50th death or so, it’d kinda seem like God’s just going through the motions. For another thing, why is a blood sacrifice necessary at all for redemption? And why would it have to be repeated over and over? Is God a sadist? Finally, I’m more than a little disturbed at the idea of God traipsing across the universe and impregnating virgins along the way. One intergalactic tailmeister, that God… ---
**Author:** ![Threll](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c37758/32.png) [@Threll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Threll)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2000, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-we-discover-life-elsewhere-so-what/18039/43 "2000-04-20T18:16:00Z")
I would say that if I were an alien I would incinerate the suface of this planet.We can’t even get along. What ever happened “to love thy neighbor?” Well, that rule seems to have been changed to “love thy neighbor if he believes the same as you.” The goverment is made up of a pseudo-democracy where big money chooses who the people vote on, and this is the best goverment on earth? Science will always take a back seat to money.We can’t even get the money to sent an erector set to Mars. What is even more scary is that some day we would get off this rock called earth. ## humanity has got to stop and think about its self and have a clear goal before we reach out to aliens. History is on our side we will bury you -Nikita Kruschev ---
**Author:** ![aha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eada6e/32.png) [@aha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aha)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2000, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-we-discover-life-elsewhere-so-what/18039/44 "2000-04-20T19:00:00Z")
> [@](#): > > humanity has got to stop and think about its self and have a clear goal before we reach out to aliens. We have already done that…it’s called a Green Card…ohhh wait you mean \*those \* aliens…sorry * * * One of the few to be personally welcomed to this board by Ed Zotti. Yours truly, aha ---
**Author:** ![JoeyBlades](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a87d85/32.png) [@JoeyBlades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoeyBlades)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2000, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-we-discover-life-elsewhere-so-what/18039/45 "2000-04-20T19:31:00Z")
Catching up… hardcore wrote: > [@](#): > > Conversely, it could give evidence for Scylla’s favorite theory, panspermia, if E.T. had DNA and it was similar to the DNA of life on earth. Not necessarily. If the new life form was completely unique, that would not preclude that panspermia was not the mechanism. Maybe there are different kinds of ‘seeds’ out there. Likewise, if the new life form was genetically similar to life on Earth, that wouldn’t necessarily support panspermia. Perhaps there is only one combination of factors that can result in life from abiogenesis and any life form may be constrained to a certain set of rules. I agree with Satan, that a discovery like that would trigger the apocalypse in the minds of the fundies, but I think the fundies that he’s referring to are a minority of the religious population in the world, so I agree with StrTrkr777 and hardcore that most religious types would accept this without too much ado. The word of God is not too specific about this. I mean, I’ve never heard it said that God said that Earth was the **ONLY** place he did his thing… MaxTorque writes: > [@](#): > > Not necessarily an indication that there’s no God, but it’s powerful evidence that life arises spontaneously, without divine intervention. I don’t see this as a necessary conclusion. > [@](#): > > Let’s use Christianity as an example. If we’re to believe Genesis, man was created in God’s image; (Also to Threll) Few Christians would argue that God meant that we are genetically similar to him, or even physically similar. The ‘image’ spoken of here is, perhaps, the soul. SPOOFE Bo Diddly wrote: > [@](#): > > it’d mean that there’s a likelihood that PEOPLE can go there and survive for a relatively long period of time. I like the way this kid thinks. I agree that there would be a great deal of energy and money put into contingency planning, as long as the conditions for that life form were similar to the conditions for our life forms. Humans like backup plans and today if a big rock from space were headed our way we’d just have to cross our fingers. If we found life on another planet (assuming that this life couldn’t kick our butts intellectually and literally) we’d be figuring out how to exploit the planet. MaxTorque wrote: > [@](#): > > Hm, why couldn’t Jesus have been born and killed on dozens of other planets… Playing along with this silly tangent… What makes you think that would be necessary. Maybe the boys on the other planet weren’t sinners like our ancestors. Also, who says that God would choose precisely the same motivator for a potentially very different cultural environment? Very narrow minded of you… But let’s say he did do encore performances: > [@](#): > > Well, for one thing, that rather negates the ‘specialness’ of the event, don’t ya think? Not at all. From a global perspective, for the maturity level that we were at, perhaps this was appropriate and globally personal enough. Perhaps God would realize that, by the time we matured enough to find other life forms, we’d also be mature enough to deal with the news accordingly… > [@](#): > > For another thing, why is a blood sacrifice necessary at all for redemption? And why would it have to be repeated over and over? > Is God a sadist? Off-topic!!! > [@](#): > > Finally, I’m more than a little disturbed at the idea of God traipsing across the universe and impregnating virgins along the way. Again, you’re making an incredible leap in logic to assume that God would always do things according to some formula? > [@](#): > > One intergalactic tailmeister, that God… Oooh… I wouldn’t wanna be in yer shoes on Judgement Day!!! Actually, my God has a pretty good sense of humor, so I’m sure he’ll have a witty comeback and a friendly grin for you… just before he pulls the lever… ---
**Author:** ![oldscratch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ed655f/32.png) [@oldscratch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oldscratch)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2000, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-we-discover-life-elsewhere-so-what/18039/46 "2000-04-20T19:42:00Z")
What if the intelligent life was that, intelleginet. Maybe they could try something like saying, we are the original angels. Make up a bunch of crap about coming to earth constantly, say that the eraly prophets were aliens. I’m sure they could get quite a few people to believe them. ---
**Author:** ![hardcore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@hardcore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hardcore)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2000, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-we-discover-life-elsewhere-so-what/18039/47 "2000-04-20T21:15:00Z")
JoeyBlades: > [@](#): > > Not necessarily. If the new life form was completely unique, that would not preclude that panspermia was not the mechanism. Maybe there are different kinds of ‘seeds’ out there. Likewise, if the new life form was genetically similar to life on Earth, that wouldn’t necessarily support panspermia. Perhaps there is only one combination of factors that can result in life from abiogenesis and any life form may be constrained to a certain set of rules. I didn’t say anything about panspermia if the life form had unique DNA. But if it did have differing DNA, that would be evidence of a separate abiogenesis event _somewhere._ If it were genetically similar, I said it _could_ support panspermia, though I would still need to see evidence of “seeds” before I believed it. Since the structure of DNA is often called a “frozen accident”, my intuition is that similar DNA implies similar heritage. ---
**Author:** ![JoeyBlades](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a87d85/32.png) [@JoeyBlades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoeyBlades)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2000, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-we-discover-life-elsewhere-so-what/18039/48 "2000-04-20T21:58:00Z")
hardcore: > [@](#): > > I didn’t say anything about panspermia if the life form had unique DNA. Just covering my bases… > [@](#): > > But if it did have differing DNA, that would be evidence of a separate abiogenesis event somewhere. I’m confused. I thought that was the basic tenet of panspermia anyway??? > [@](#): > > Since the structure of DNA is often called a “frozen accident”, my intuition is that similar DNA implies similar heritage. Yeah, my intuition tells me the same thing, but I’ve heard the argument from pro abiogenesis folks that life, as we know it, is as we know it due to fundamental chemistry. They maintain that this fundamental chemistry is unique and specific and that DNA ‘architecture’ must be a natural outcome. If this is true, perhaps only a limited population of DNA sequences are viable. In other words, maybe all abogenetic processes are nearly identical and produce nearly identical results… I believe the source of that argument stems from the questions from creationists: “Why does all life on Earth seem to come from a common ancestor (or architect)? If abiogenesis occurs, shouldn’t there be more diversity in the DNA structure itself, across the entire population of living things?” Architectural constraints are one possible answer to these questions. Probability may be an alternate answer, but as Spiritus Mundi pointed out in another thread - we don’t know what the probabilities are for one instance of abiogenesis, much less two or more… ---
**Author:** ![hardcore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@hardcore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hardcore)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2000, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-we-discover-life-elsewhere-so-what/18039/49 "2000-04-22T08:10:00Z")
JoeyBlades, don’t be confused. I tend to ignore the panspermia hypothesis because it simply moves the abiogenesis event to another location. Life from non-life interests me, not some unfounded idea about “seeds from space”. > [@](#): > > In other words, maybe all abogenetic processes are nearly identical and produce nearly identical results… Certainly this is a possibility. If life were found elsewhere with a VERY similar chemistry, that proposal and panspermia would likely be the primary theories competing for acceptance by the scientific community. > [@](#): > > “Why does all life on Earth seem to come from a common ancestor (or architect)? If abiogenesis occurs, shouldn’t there be more diversity in the DNA structure itself, across the entire population of living things?” Now _I’m_ confused. Maybe I just don’t understand the question. If all life evolved from a common ancestor, one would _expect_ to see similarity in the DNA, with slight differences over time in the various branches of the evolutionary tree. If each species were separately created, one could find **extremely** diverse DNA or life based on something else entirely. Are you suggesting there should have been numerous abiogenesis events? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-we-discover-life-elsewhere-so-what/18039.md?page=2)