Directed panspermia - a plausible theory of intelligent design?

by EdenOne 27 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  EdenOne

  Sure, it's only speculative thinking. But a lot of great scientific discoveries started out as speculations too. It could be a viable path of future investigation. Also I agree that it doesn't quite answer the question of how and where and when life originated in the universe - it just pushes the horizon line further into the past. But as I said, it would settle once and for all the question whether life appeared on Earth by special creation acts of a deity or deities - thus rendering false all accounts of creation described on religious 'holy books'.

  I don't like the implications of the word 'directed' either. Because it could have been a random event.
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  Landy

  Sure, it's only speculative thinking. But a lot of great scientific discoveries started out as speculations too. It could be a viable path of future investigation.

  And how would you propose to investigate it?

  There's a difference between reasoned hypothesis leading to a theory and blind guesswork based on what you want to be true.
  
  
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  Crazyguy

  I like the idea of intelligent design. Maybe life was easier to start on another planet and once it did this life evolved to a piont that it was able to take live organisms or bacteria to other planets.
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  cofty

  I like the idea of intelligent design.

  Reality doesn't care what we like.
  
  
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  never a jw

  intelligent design - one NOT related with religious driven agendas involving theism.

  Really? It's like saying that there's a creator, but it's not God. Quite an oxymoron.

  
  

  The very assumption in which it rests is obviously at odds with the biblical account of creation.

  I suppose Asian religions creation accounts don't even merit mentioning. Are you assuming that only the religions of the book (Bible) can be classified as theistic? Quite arrogant to imply that, if there's a creator, it must be the one described in the Bible.
  
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  Crazyguy

  I understand what your saying Cofty but the fact that man can't and hasn't been able to create life is a major problem, so the idea that life may have come from beyond this planet is a realistic idea.
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  cofty

  the fact that man can't and hasn't been able to create life is a major problem

  No it isn't. That is like setting about solving the biggest puzzle ever invented and five minutes later somebody starts complaining that you haven't solved it yet.
  
  
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  Crazyguy

  I think man with all thier tools and intelegence should be able to create life, especially when the theory is that life was created randomly by some random event.
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  cofty

  I think man with all thier tools and intelegence should be able to create life

  That's because you have no grasp of the scale of the challenge.

  Origin of life research got off to a false start with the Miller-Urey experiments in the 50s. It is only in very recent years that it has began to make progress. It will likely be decades before there is anything approaching consensus.

  The most promising idea is that life began in hydrothermal Alkaline vents under the ocean in a world devoid of oxygen 4 billion years ago. These vents were only discovered in the year 2000.
  
  
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  Village Idiot

  EdenOne,

  In this article he describes a process called "Directed Panspermia" as a plausible way that one form of intelligent design

  Why should such a roundabout way of creating life be considered intelligent? Besides, the most critical problem with the subject of panspermia is the fact that life must have originated at some point in a 'conventional' manner on the surface of a planet.