An Earthlike Planet Found

In the past I have engaged in e-mail debates with some of the Christianist faculty at Pat Robertson's religious Regent University concerning the inerrant and the literal application of the Bible. The position of these religious zealots was that the Bible controlled on a literally applied basis across the universe and would be binding on any other life that might be found to exist on other planets. I'm sure readers are not surprised that I disagreed with this hubris. Any reading of the Bible will quickly demonstrate that it is an earth and human centric work whose authors - whoever they were - lacked any knowledge of modern astronomy, modern medical knowledge and zero knowledge of modern mental health knowledge. Indeed, the Catholic Church tried Galileo as a heretic for arguing that the earth revolved around the sun rather than vice versa. Now, as Time reports, an earth like planet has been discovered that seems to have the ingredients to support life. The nature of such life is unknown, but the odds of there being no other intelligent life somewhere in the universe seem nonexistent. When the existence of such life is ultimately confirmed, we can expect a huge crisis in the Christianist world. And it will be delicious fun to watch- especially if humans turn out to be the less evolved form of life. Here are highlights from the Time article:
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[O]n Wednesday, a team of astronomers announced that it had found two more planets circling the star, bringing the total to six. And one of them, assigned the name Gliese 581g, may be of truly historic significance.
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For one thing, the planet is only about three or four times as massive as our home world, meaning it probably has a solid surface just like Earth. Much more important, it sits smack in the middle of the so-called habitable zone, orbiting at just the right distance from the star to let water remain liquid rather than freezing solid or boiling away. As far as we know, that's a minimum requirement for the presence of life.
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None of this proves that there is water on Gliese 581g. "Those are things we just have to speculate about," says Vogt. But he goes on to point out that there's water pretty much everywhere else you look. "There's water on Earth," he says, "and on the moon, and Mars, and on Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's moon Enceladus, and in interstellar space. There's enough water produced in the Orion Nebula every 24 seconds to fill the Earth's oceans."
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It's not hard to imagine, in other words, that Gliese 581g might have plenty of water as well. "It could have quite a good ocean," Vogt says. Certainly, it could be a sterile, nonbiological ocean. But unlike any planet found until now, there's nothing to rule out the idea that it could be teeming with life.
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I continue to believe that those who preach that the Bible is inerrant and demand a literal application of the Bible will ultimately be the death of Christianity. And best of all, their critics will be the ones to have the last laugh.

Galaxy May Be Full of "Earths" and Alien Life

Some years back I had an e-mail debate with a faculty member at Pat Robertson's Regent University in response to something idiotic he had said in a local newspaper article. In the course of the debate we got around the issue of whether or not the Christianist view that the literal interpretation of the Bible with all its human frailties and cultural and historical limitations applied to the entire universe or whether perhaps instead adjustments might be required to account for life on other planets, etc. This supposed academic was adamant that the Bible applied literally everywhere and at all times. I can only imagine how this man and similar flat earth Neanderthals will react to news being reported by CNN that scientists suggests there could be hundreds, even thousands, of intelligent civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy. Personally, I do not put the concept of God in a small box and, therefore, do not see where the basic Christian message of the Gospels - love of God and love of neighbor - is irreconcilable with intelligent life on other planets. Biblical literalism on the other hand simple falls apart and is irreconcilable. No doubt the extreme Christianists will label such scientific claims as the "work of the devil." Here are some story highlights:

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As NASA prepares to hunt for Earth-like planets in our corner of the Milky Way galaxy, there's new buzz that "Star Trek's" vision of a universe full of life may not be that far-fetched. . . . scientists are offering fresh insights into the possible existence of inhabited worlds and intelligent civilizations in space.

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There may be 100 billion Earth-like planets in the Milky Way, or one for every sun-type star in the galaxy, said Alan Boss, an astronomer with the Carnegie Institution . . . Other scientists are taking another approach: an analysis that suggests there could be hundreds, even thousands, of intelligent civilizations in the Milky Way Galaxy.

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NASA is hoping to find much more habitable worlds with the help of the upcoming Kepler mission. The spacecraft, set to be launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida next week, will search for Earth-size planets in our part of the galaxy.

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Finding intelligent life is a very different matter. For all the speculation about the possibility of other civilizations in the universe, the question remains: If the rise of life on Earth isn't unique and aliens are common, why haven't they shown up or contacted us? The contradiction was famously summed up by the physicist Enrico Fermi in 1950 in what became known as the Fermi paradox: "Where is everybody?" The answer may be the vastness of time and space, scientists explained.

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Even if intelligent civilizations did exist at the same time, they probably would be be separated by tens of thousands of light years, Forgan said. If aliens have just switched on their transmitter to communicate, it could take us hundreds of centuries to receive their message, he added. As for interstellar travel, the huge distances virtually rule out any extraterrestrial visitors.