Life on Other Planets: Science Fiction or Reality

Dolan Barnes
Mrs. Bowen
Comm.101
1 September 2014
Life on Other Planets: Science Fiction or Reality? As I began reading the article written by Danny Faulkner, PhD, I found my self asking more questions than having questions answered. Dr. Faulkner states in his first paragraph that, “Many people make a distinction between the origin of life and the evolution of life.” What is this distinction and what does it mean for other theories moving forward? As I continued reading it became abundantly apparent that there was an on going theme in which he was writing around, religion vs. evolutionist theory. I feel Dr. Faulkner was making the argument that you can believe religion and say there is no life anywhere else in the universe, or you can be an evolutionist and say there has to be life on some other planet somewhere in the universe. I disagree, I fell you can believe in religion and believe there is life somewhere out there. This also brings up a very controversial thought, in my opinion. If we do find intelligent life out there, does that disprove religion? Or what if we do find intelligent life out there and they have the same religious views as us, same stories or very closely related stories and even a bible, would that prove religion as 100% and force scientists to take religion into account while moving forward with further exploration of the origins of man? Another theme I sensed in this article was the point that other life, if any, has to be just like us. I strongly disagree with this thought. In the section of this article titled, “Looking for Life on Mars,” Dr. Faulkner makes the point that Mars’ atmosphere is to thin to reflect Ultra Violet rays from the sun. This he says would make it impossible for life to exist because they are lethal to living things. Just because they are lethal to us as humans, doesn’t mean that all intelligent life in the universe has to have a lethal weakness to UV rays. Why couldn’t they have adapted? On the same point Dr. Faulkner states that water is essential in having life. I ask again why? Just because that is the way it is on our planet doesn’t mean that is the cosmic order in the universe. I believe life can take many forms and adapt, as evolutionists believe, life evolves to the conditions around it. In conclusion, I feel we have many more questions to answer when it comes to talking about life existing on other planets. In my opinion I feel that the astrobioligists are being very self centered in their search for foreign life. I believe life doesn’t have to be humanoid, life, in my opinion, can come in a vast amount of shapes and forms, but we just have to be willing to look and make our own assumptions on what life is or should be.