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the
"strongest argument" for life on Mars is very weak — like claiming
that the discovery of aluminum ore on Mars is evidence that ancient Martians
built space shuttles - scientists have not found life on Mars - and although
they think they have found evidence of past surface water, they can only
speculate about present subsurface water
BY
JAKE HEBERT, PH.D.
No liquid water is present on the surface of
Mars, but researchers have suggested that a lake may have once existed on the
surface of the red planet.
Researchers inferred, based upon photographs
taken by the NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the presence of a former lake in
the northern hemisphere.
The lake's waters are believed to have flowed
into the crater from an underground source.
The researchers suggested that these possible
underground water sources may have allowed microbes to live below the Martian
surface.
They have suggested that life may have
originated below the surface on Mars, and therefore life on Earth also started
below the ground.
Creation scientists do not expect intelligent
extraterrestrial life to exist in the universe, and they generally think it is
barely possible that "simple" extraterrestrial life exists.
Evolutionary scientists, on the other hand,
tend to ignore the enormous difficulties with secular origin-of-life stories
and reason that if life evolved here, then it likely evolved elsewhere in the
universe as well.
So, they reason a discovery of
extraterrestrial life would somehow validate evolution, despite its apparent
improbability.
Of course, there is currently no evidence
whatsoever for any extraterrestrial life on Mars or anywhere else.
However, evolutionary scientists would see
the discovery of liquid water (or even past liquid water) on Mars as in
indication that life could have existed on the red planet — the next best
thing.
But even if there was water on Mars' surface
once, it does nothing to assist evolutionary speculation about life's origin.
Although water is necessary for life, water
cannot produce life.
In fact, the presence of water is problematic
for secular origin-of-life stories, since it tends to break apart the complex
biomolecules necessary for life through spontaneous chemical reactions known as
hydrolysis.
Moreover, even if microbial life were found
on Mars, the same insurmountable difficulties that plague secular stories about
life's origin on earth would also plague stories about life's origin on Mars.
Far from making the evolutionary story more
believable, the discovery of microbial life on Mars would require two wildly
improbable series of fortuitous coincidences — one on Earth and another one on
Mars!
In summary, this "strongest
argument" for life on Mars is very weak — like claiming that the discovery
of aluminum ore on Mars is evidence that ancient Martians built space shuttles.
Scientists have not found life on Mars.
And although they think they have found
evidence of past surface water, they can only speculate about present
subsurface water.
But water cannot produce life. Even if
microbial life were eventually found on Mars, its existence would still require
a miracle.
Dr.
Hebert is Research Associate at the Institute for Creation Research and
received his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Texas at Dallas.
The
Institute for Creation Research (ICR) wants people to know that God’s Word
can be trusted in everything it speaks about—from how and why we were made, to
how the universe was formed, to how we can know God and receive all He has
planned for us.
After
50 years of ministry, ICR remains a leader in scientific research within the
context of biblical creation. Founded by Dr. Henry Morris in 1970, ICR exists
to conduct scientific research within the realms of origins and Earth history,
and then to educate the public both formally and informally through
professional training programs, through conferences and seminars around the
country, and through books, magazines, and media presentations.
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