What will it do to the story of creation if we should find life on another planet?

Question

The bible doesn't mention life on other planets? Is it possible that meteors smashing in to the earth thousands or millions of years ago could have cause debris containing life from earth to travel to other planets? Even if it was just bacteria could that bacteria evolved in to species that are surviving on other planets today??

Isn't the universe so vast that the conditions for life almost certainly exist on other planets? I didn't say intelligent alien beings. Maybe a planet has an ocean with sime kind of fish like creatures. After all life exists on earth in almost every environment. It doesn't matter if there is extreme temperatures or even the absence of light. There are other chemical that are capable of sustaining bacteria in the absence of light. Then there are other creatures that survive by eating that bacteria causing an entire food chain.

Answer 1

New revelations (from the religious) will abound.

Answer 2

This isn't necessarily an astronomy question, but rather one of philosophy.

If one looks at the bible stories of creation, one sees that they are all scattered and disconnected. They were never intended to be taken literally -- they are allegories created for a simpler time when people did not have the understanding of the universe that they have now.

Does this mean that they are lies. No. One can still believe that God created the light first, then the firmament, then the plants, then the animals, and finally humans. In essence, this DOES reflect the current scientific view of the evolution of the universe and life on earth. One just has to put that "six days" part into the allegorical bin.

So, if life exists on other planets, does this mean that God didn't create THAT life also? If God is the author of the laws of the universe, isn't all life anywhere in the universe ultimately His creation?

One needn't give up religious beliefs to embrace scientific knowledge.

Answer 3

I think you answered your own question, but it won't make any difference to ''believers'' they will continue to believe that God (whoever that is) created everything because then they do not have to consider any difficult questions.

The point is life in the universe is probably everywhere, but we do not stand any chance of having a conversation with it because the laws of possibility are truly astronomical when you consider the vastness of it, the distances and time scales involved and the fact that life on earth will die within the next billion years or so as the Sun dies, swells first blasts off its outer shells followed by a Helium flash and finally shrivels into a cinder.

Consider too the fact that all the matter in the universe is moving away from each other at an increasingly accelerating rate so there will eventually be no one left to talk to anyway. They will all disappear over the edge of the visible universe.

what does the bible say about that?

Answer 4

Honestly, here is my opinion. Please do not give me a lot of heat from this because this is just my Opinion using what little knowledge i have. I DO believe that there is other life, possibly intelligent, somewhere else in the universe, and very possible our own galaxy...( i feel 99.9 percent sure that there is other life, even if it is as small as bacteria, somewhere else in the universe). However i do not think that that particular life came from earth during a great impact. I believe this because, if debris left from this earth with any life on it if would not survive in space as a particle. If it (the debris) had life contained in is as it left the atmosphere it was probably eradicated immediately due to the impact or to the harsh environment outside of the earth. Life exists on the earth partly because our solid iron core creates a magnetic field around the earth that protects us from solar flairs and solar radiation. Mars had a similar core but it has since cooled down and there is no magnetic field protecting it from the sun's radiation. As you know, a similar satellite is revolving around the earth (the moon) that is widely accepted by many scientists to be the remains of debris from the earth. In theory, there was a great impact to the earth caused by a body as large as mars. That impact took place when the earth was still just a large mass of molten rock. The debris was blown away from earth and after millions of years has clumped together to form the moon and is still flying far away from the earth at 2 inches a year due to that impact. As far as we can hypothesize there was no way life could have existed on our planet when this impact took place but we do have evidence that suggests that the moon is just a large clump of debris that was detached from the earth. There is no evidence that there was life on the moon at any time... once again this is just my opinion using what little scientific knowledge that i have... there is life other that us somewhere else in the universe... but i do not believe that it came from what we call earth...if that life is found it will have a clear and profound effect on what many people hold as their religious beliefs.

Answer 5

i dont think it would disprove creation,but it may enhance it because God created universe. I know to some this sounds foolish but have you examined the scripture too see how they are put together if you study closely .even the 1st book of the bible explains that the water was in the firmament.would not this cause a bubble surrounding the earth which maintained a constant temperature all over the planet?we know there have been finds of animals trapped in the polar regions in ice .some of these animals had grass sill in their stomachs that would tell me that these musk ox had been living there and when the flood came it destroyed the bubble that was maintaining the constant temperature and they froze.if you look in the book of Hebrews 11Th chapter it tells of the people at the time of the flood had never seen it rain 11:7these tiny clues are very important and makes me believe that something happen on this earth that the scientist are trying to figure out.for example just life its self in its simplest form ,we have not been able to duplicate it.some claim they have but they had to start with a living organism 1st.this is what make it so interesting & i think its foolish to argue over because it just take all the attention away from learning the truth

Answer 6

the bible doesn't mention a lot of things, but we know them to exist.

The bible is kind of a guide/history book... It does some chronicling of people alive at that time, and gives a brief view of their beliefs - it doesn't talk about the solar accretion disk or how planets formed - that was beyond their knowledge. If the Bible truly is the word of God, then God didn't grant any particle physics or knowledge about gravitational fields or nuclear fusion to the authors, he told the story in simplistic terms so that they (and everyone else) would understand.

At any rate, whether you believe in a 'designed' universe or not, the origin of life is an open question - and whether it was an accidental occurrance or by divine choice is a matter of personal choice.

Answer 7

You could write a book about all the possibilities however, even if we found out the answer to that question it doesn't change the fact that we're here. Maybe if we did find life on other planets, therefore disproving the bible as you state, this planet could drop religion altogether and finally learn to live as one unit. A world without religion...that's a crazy thought! We might have a world forced to live in reality, the here and now and stop focusing so much on the after life!

Answer 8

Maybe from another God in another universe, eh? Think about that one.
If this bacteria was intergrated with our planets life history, then I don't believe it. I don't believe there is any bacteria on earth that would survive millions of years floating through space on an astroid and coincidentally end up here, alive, passing through the atmosphere unburned.
I think the mars rock that had the bacteria got the bacteria on it after it landed on earth.

Answer 9

Well ive got to say if they were aliens in this universe then im sure we would have come across them by now, think how long humanity has been on earth and in this universe and consider the reasons why if we've been here so long then we have'nt come into contact with them. What i think is that we are the aliens and taking the meteor theary onboard i believe that we are the ones that are the evolved bacteria.

Answer 10

No. i understand of no faith that announces there is not any existence someplace else. As for the Abrahamic religions The Bible by no capacity says that is all approximately us. guy says that. God made a colossal creation. The Bible says you are able to no longer understand the suggestions of God. incorrect

Answer 11

Very likely. Life springs from life, not from lightning, ammonia, CO2 and H20. If life is found on another planet or in another galaxy, and God is the creator of the universe, where is the inconsistency? I see none.