@Kilroy70
There is no reason to believe life appeared on Earth by any means other than natural selective processes that have been operating since time immemorial right here. On Earth. Speaking in strict physical terms, life is just a very complex chemical reaction, with the border between "living matter" and "nonliving matter" being very fuzzy indeed.
More problematic for science, but by no means necessitating the invocation of the supernatural, is the essence of consciousness and self-awareness. Thought thinking about thought becomes a tricky hall of mirrors to navigate, but thought is necessary to carry out good science.
@soothfast saidLife has to already exist for there to be natural selective processes. Abiogenesis is problematic because nothing is selected, it just happens. This is why, as kooky as it may seem, some people are willing to speculate life on earh was seeded with pre-existing DNA information. I'm not saying I believe this, but I do recognize (as many scientists do) the need to explain how life was able to arise from non-living matter before a package of information and DNA instructions existed.
@Kilroy70
There is no reason to believe life appeared on Earth by any means other than natural selective processes that have been operating since time immemorial right here. On Earth. Speaking in strict physical terms, life is just a very complex chemical reaction, with the border between "living matter" and "nonliving matter" being very fuzzy indeed.
This has never been adequately explained.
@soothfast said
@Kilroy70
More problemat ht becomes a tricky hall of mirrors to navigate, but thought is necessary to carry out good science.
More problematic for science... is the essence of consciousness and self-awareness.
I agree. Attempting to explain consciousness and self-awareness naturally arising from non-consiousness and non self-awareness is a tricky proposition. Fortunately science (physics in particular) is not required to explain how non-living matter is able to reach a state of self-awareness.
Thought thinking about thought becomes a tricky hall of mirrors to navigate, but thought is necessary to carry out good science.
Science is a human invention. It's not a self existent entity and therefore not in itself a "god".
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@kilroy70 saidThe problem with Life From Aliens is that it doesn't explain anything at all, whether adequately or not. All it does is kick the problem down the line: if DNA on Earth started as DNA From Aliens, where did the Aliens get their DNA?
Life has to already exist for there to be natural selective processes. Abiogenesis is problematic because nothing is selected, it just happens. This is why, as kooky as it may seem, some people are willing to speculate life on earh was seeded with pre-existing DNA information. I'm not saying I believe this, but I do recognize (as many scientists do) the need to explain how l ...[text shortened]... re a package of information and DNA instructions existed.
This has never been adequately explained.
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@kilroy70 saidBy the way, it is a mistake to believe that natural selection requires life. All natural selection requires is nature, and a selective pressure. That pressure can be chemical just as well as biological.
Life has to already exist for there to be natural selective processes. Abiogenesis is problematic because nothing is selected, it just happens. This is why, as kooky as it may seem, some people are willing to speculate life on earh was seeded with pre-existing DNA information. I'm not saying I believe this, but I do recognize (as many scientists do) the need to explain how l ...[text shortened]... re a package of information and DNA instructions existed.
This has never been adequately explained.
In other words, if certain pre-biological bases are more chemically stable than others, they will be selected for. If certain ways of combining molecules prove to catalyse the existence of more, similar combined molecules - and that by merely chemical, not biological, processes - they will be selected for against other combinations that only happen and don't propagate.
Life needs natural selection. Natural selection is greatly sped up by life, but ab initio only needs chemistry
@shallow-blue saidthe daily hail is an excellent tabloid if one runs out of loo roll.
As there is in any phyzzog piece.
Phyzzog is to science as the Daily Mirror is to journalism. Not quite as bad as the Daily Hail, but they still make it clear, Every. Single. Article. that they don't actually understand even the basics of what they write about.
I wish people would stop re-posting their &!*@ everywhere.
@Catpower25
And as that paper rolls down the sewer and gets mushed up, new combinations of bacteria and viruses appear........
@sonhouse
At the other end of the spectrum, life on earth, a previously unknown species found: a pre-human species which buried their dead, used tools, controlled fire, and carved symbols into cave walls. We aren't unique. We aren't special at all.
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/06/05/world/homo-naledi-burials-carvings-scn/index.html
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@moonbus saidWell... except that Homo Naledi was already known, and if not an ancestor of H. Sap. is at least a close aunt or uncle.
@sonhouse
At the other end of the spectrum, life on earth, a previously unknown species found: a pre-human species which buried their dead, used tools, controlled fire, and carved symbols into cave walls. We aren't unique. We aren't special at all.
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/06/05/world/homo-naledi-burials-carvings-scn/index.html
@Shallow-Blue
It strongly indicates that life could develop anywhere, that we are not special in any way.
