A serious, foolish, helpful scientific article
arguing that octopi may have come here as aliens from outer space recently
appeared in the scientific journal, Progress
in Biophysics and Molecular Biology. This is not a joke. The article is a
joint effort by over thirty authors from scientific organizations around the
world. What does the article actually say? Why would they believe something
like this? How does it help Christians who believe that God created the octopus?
Keep reading to find out!
Panspermia:
A New Article about an Old Theory
The article proposes that the origin of octopi might not be normal
neo darwinian evolution. Instead it suggests that the tiny eggs of octopi (or octopus-like
creatures which then experienced relatively small amounts of evolution) were
frozen in ice particles on a comet which splashed into an ocean on the primitive
earth. After explaining the extreme difficulty of evolution accounting for octopi,
the authors write:
One plausible explanation, in our view, is that the new genes are likely new extraterrestrial imports to Earth - most plausibly as an already coherent group of functioning genes within (say) cryopreserved and matrix protected fertilized Octopus eggs.
Thus the possibility that
cryopreserved Squid and/or Octopus eggs, arrived in icy bolides several hundred
million years ago should not be discounted . . .
The article is not just about octopi, although they use them as an
example. The article proposes that both the bacterial cells and “pretty much
all major life forms” may have arrived here from space. They are not arguing
that in all cases eggs or baby creatures arrived on comets, but rather that
somehow the information needed to produce new organisms arrived on comets. One
possibility they mention is that viruses carried on the comets carried the
genetic information which produced evolution. They explain that retroviruses
may have carried genetic information needed to produce new types of animals,
eventually including you and me. According to the authors, retroviruses from
space “now appear to be important viral-drivers of major evolutionary genetic change
on Earth over the past few hundred million years.”
In other words, we’re all literally descended from aliens!
The theory that life on earth came from cells or genetic material
from outer space is called panspermia. It’s actually not a new theory. In fact, various panspermia theories trace
back well into the 19th century (see the Wikipedia article on Panspermia
for details). Perhaps the most famous proponent of panspermia was Francis
Crick, who together with James Watson discovered the structure of the DNA
molecule. In Crick’s case, he proposed directed panspermia could account for
life on earth. The word “directed” means that rather than believing the needed
material arrived by chance on comets or space dust, he believes it may have
been intentionally sent to earth by intelligent aliens.
The Problems
with Evolutionary Theory that Prompt Belief in Panspermia
Why would serious scientists suggest such nonsense? Well, they’re
desperate. Many scientists are committed to a completely materialistic
explanation of everything in our world, including all the fish and birds and
you and me. “Completely materialistic” basically means they believe God had
nothing to do with it. How do they explain butterflies and dolphins without
God? Well, the main story has been that molecules somehow joined up to make
living cells which then evolved into more and more complex life all the way up
to giraffes and people. But even the materialistic scientists are seeing more
and more reasons why it is simply impossible that this could have happened on
earth.
With regard to the first step of chemicals turning into living
cells (called abiogenesis), the authors explain that this idea . . .
. . . was developed at a time when the
earliest living cells were considered to be exceedingly simple structures that
could subsequently evolve in a Darwinian way. These ideas should of course have
been critically examined and rejected after the discovery of the exceedingly
complex molecular structures involved in proteins and in DNA. But this did not
happen.
Skepticism that life could have arisen on earth unaided is not new.
In 1981, Francis Crick wrote:
An honest man, armed with all the
knowledge available to us now, could only state that in some sense, the origin
of life appears at the moment to be almost a miracle, so many are the
conditions which would have had to have been satisfied to get it going.
Thirty-seven years later, the authors of the article in Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology
appear to agree with Crick’s assessment. They wrote:
The transformation of an ensemble of
appropriately chosen biological monomers (e.g. amino acids, nucleotides) into a
primitive living cell capable of further evolution appears to require
overcoming an information hurdle of superastronomical proportions (Appendix A), an event that could not have happened within the
time frame of the Earth except, we believe, as a miracle.
It’s not just the initial appearance of life which the scientists
who wrote the article find problematic. They also feel that evolution as
normally explained just isn’t capable of producing the vast variety of life we
see both in the fossil record and living today. And one example which they
focused in on happened to be the octopus.
Since they believe evolution could not have produced life on
earth, they have seriously proposed that life came to earth from outer space.
But could panspermia really work?
Problems
with Panspermia
It turns out there are many reasons to doubt that panspermia could
work. Here are just ten of the enormous difficulties this strange theory faces.
I’m saving the biggest and most obvious problem for last.
1. Ejection is brutal. The
poor little octopus eggs (or bacteria) would have to survive being blasted off
their home planet in some type of huge explosion.
2. No air in space. They then have to survive in the vacuum of
outer space.
3. No liquid water. While
the rock they began on could in theory include some water, there would be no liquid
water available during the whole journey to earth.
4. Super cold. Space is
really, really cold.
5. Radiation is a killer. The earth’s magnetic field and, to some
extent, our atmosphere shield us from the harmful effects of radiation. Radiation
would likely do a lot of damage to any DNA flying through space for long
periods of time.
6. The journey is really
long. There are no planets in our solar system where life is more likely to
have arisen than on our own earth. Travelling from a distant star would take a
really, really long time. It’s true that some objects in the galaxy travel at
near light speed. However, the processes that accelerate them to such speeds
(such as ejection from a solar system being swallowed by a black hole or
possibly being blasted to incredible speeds by a supernova) are not exactly
friendly to life. The alternative is a trip that could easily take many
millions of years. That’s a long time for the little octopi eggs to survive!
7. Reentry is tough. A
couple of years ago my wife and daughter talked me into driving out into a farm
field around 2 am to watch a meteor shower. I admit, it was worth it. We saw
quite a few meteors. Do you know how many of those impacted the earth? None.
They were all vaporized by the extreme heat produced by super-fast moving meteors
impacting the atmosphere. Even if a meteor makes it to earth, it is heated to
extreme temperatures on the way down. Poor baby octopi!
8. It has to land in the
right place at the right time. What if the octopi eggs survived ejection from
their home planet, persevered through the long, frigid, irradiated journey
through deep space, and were buried deep enough in the rock to not be burned up
on reentry, only to end up landing in a field in Kansas? Or, what if they
arrived at the wrong time in earth’s history? According to evolutionary theory,
the types of creatures that octopi eat have only been around the last 500
million years or so. If the poor baby octopi arrived anytime during the first
3.5 billion years they would have been very hungry!
9. No alien life has been
found. It should be pointed out that panspermia is a theory based on wild
speculation. No actual octopi eggs (or even bacterial cells) have been found in
outer space!
10. The first nine problems
are easy compared to the final one we will list. You probably already thought
of it. If evolution can’t work on earth, then why should we think it should
work elsewhere? How did the alien octopi (and other life forms) arise somewhere
else? The scientists who promote panspermia honestly have no clue how to answer
this question. They just basically say that maybe something we haven’t thought
of was different and somehow it happened.
Why not
just believe in God?
The scientists are absolutely correct to reject the possibility of
abiogenesis and evolution producing life on earth (see some arguments for why
this is true here).
But why do they choose to believe in aliens as the explanation for life on
earth? Why not believe in God?
I don’t know the hearts and motives of the scientists that wrote
the particular article I’ve been discussing. But I do know a little about human
nature, both because I am one, and because God’s Word teaches us about
ourselves. Most of the human race are living in rebellion against their maker.
John 3:19 This is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and
people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.
20 For everyone who does evil hates
the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed.
Aliens don’t tell us what we should think, how we should treat our
enemies, what our priorities should be, or who we can sleep with. God does. So
if you’re a human being wanting to live outside God’s will, it’s a lot more
convenient to believe in octopi from outer space than it is to believe in a God
who not only created us, but who has a revealed will for how we should live.
Of course, those of us who have come to know God through our Lord
Jesus Christ feel very differently. We want
to know and obey God’s will. We believe His will is best for us and we have
learned that we can trust Him more than we trust ourselves. We know both that
He is wise, and also that He loves us.
We often struggle to obey him, but at least we want to obey Him.
And so we rejoice to see evidence of our great Creator whenever we
look at a flower, deer, or even an octopus!
To learn
more . . .
I did not find the article about panspermia directly myself. I don’t
generally read Progress in Biophysics and
Molecular Biology. I wouldn’t understand most of it if I did. But scientific
evidence for the existence of God is an intellectual hobby of mine and so I do
often look at articles on the excellent Evolution
News website. It was there that I found two articles about alien octopi
which reference the article I discussed above. You may find those articles here
and here.
How countless are
your works, Lord!
In wisdom you
have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.
Here is the sea,
vast and wide,
teeming with creatures beyond number-- living
things both large and small.
(Ps. 104:24-25 CSB17)
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