https://apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=12&article=3756
Are We “100% Sure” Goldilocks Planet has Life?
| by | Kyle Butt, M.Div. |
Associated Press science writer Seth Borenstein recently
reported on a new planet that seems to be in what scientists call the
“Goldilocks zone.” What is the “Goldilocks zone?” Very few places in our
Universe maintain conditions that are suitable for life. One of those
conditions is that liquid water must be present. The “Goldilocks zone”
is a specific distance from any star that is “not too hot, not too cold.
Juuuust right,”—a situation that allows water to remain in its liquid
form (Borenstein, 2010). According to atheistic, evolutionary ideas
about the origin of the Universe, in theory, there should be hundreds,
thousands, or even millions of planets in our Universe that maintain
conducive conditions for life to “begin.” In fact, we are incessantly
informed by the media and the scientific community that it is just a
matter of time before we discover other planets where life has evolved
from non-living chemicals. One would think, according to the propaganda
about life arising in other places, that a little liquid water and a few
amino acids thrown together will inevitably produce life.
Thus, we have a report of the first Earth-like planet that could
possibly “support life.” The planet, labeled Gliese 581g, is the sixth
planet from a dwarf star named Gliese 581. Borenstein described the
planet in the following way:
It is about three times the mass of Earth, slightly larger in width and much closer to its star—14 million miles away versus 93 million. It’s so close to its version of the sun that it orbits every 37 days. And it doesn’t rotate much, so one side is almost always bright, the other dark. Temperatures can be as hot as 160 degrees or as frigid as 25 degrees below zero, but in between—in the land of constant sunrise—it would be “shirt-sleeve weather,” said co-discoverer Steven Vogt (Borenstein, 2010).
Gliese 581g is of interest, then, because there is a chance that it
could have liquid water on its surface. Of course, as Borenstein noted:
“It’s unknown whether water actually exists on the planet.” What, then,
is so important about liquid water, as opposed to any other constraints
that are necessary for life to survive? Vogt said that “chances for life
on this planet are 100 percent” since “there always seems to be life on
Earth where there is water.” Wow! Look at that reasoning. This new
planet might have some water, so we are 100% sure there is life on the
planet. We are not even 100% sure it has water. How in the world could
we be sure it has life?
The false idea that finding liquid water is the equivalent of finding
biological life is easy to debunk. Take some water, kill all the
microscopic organisms in it so that no life exists. Add any amino acids
or “building blocks” of life that you want, then shock the mixture, blow
it up, heat it, cool it, or whatever else you want to do, and see if
you get life. News flash—you don’t get life! Louis Pasteur proved that
almost 150 years ago (Butt,
2002). Yet Vogt boldly stated: “It’s pretty hard to stop life once you
give it the right conditions” (as quoted in Borenstein). And what, pray
tell, are the right conditions? Vogt can’t tell you, and neither can any
other human alive. Water is certainly not “the right conditions” for
life, because we can supply water to any mixture of non-living chemicals
all day long for the next 20 billion years and not get life.
What, in reality, are the “right conditions” for life to begin? There
is really only one: an intelligent Creator must superintend the process.
“In the beginning was water,” will not produce life. But “in the
beginning God created the heavens and the Earth,” will supply the
necessary condition for life on Earth or any other planet—God. Beware of
the false assumptions that fill the media and “scientific” discussions
of other planets and life in outer space.
REFERENCES
Borentstein, Seth (2010), “Could ‘Goldilocks’ Planet Be Just Right for
Life?”, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100929/ap_on_sc/us_sci_new_earths.
Butt, Kyle (2002), “Biogenesis—The Long Arm of the Law,” http://apologeticspress.org/articles/1769.