A recent article on NPR’s website postulates that it is credible science to think that aliens had a hand in creating life on earth. As a theist and an old earth advocate (not a young earth creationist), I have to say I marvel at the ends “science” will go to to suppress the obvious truth that there is a GOD.
Science itself tells us that universe is extremely finely tuned to produce life. “Science” is currently attempting to explain this – thus the multiverse theory: ours is just one universe in a frothy bubbly sea of other universes, so our universe is thereby somehow more likely. However, the multiverse is unprovable and untestable, and thus enters the realm of a metaphysical belief. You can’t tell me credibly that aliens fine-tuned their own universe which randomly produced them! Yet each parameter in the tuning of the universe multiplies the unlikeliness that it could have happened by pure chance. One parameter of our finely tuned universe, the cosmological constant, must be accurate to 10^23 decimal places, or else we don’t have a universe that could even remotely support life. Ultra advanced aliens could not have done this to their own universe. Are we saying that the ultra-advanced aliens are from a different universe? Are we talking about science here? Oh my goodness, I call BS! We have aliens of the gaps, but the aliens can only fill in the “where did the first living cell on earth come from” gap, but not the “where did the finely tuned universe come from” gap.
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Let’s do some simple math. Given that the universe is 14.6 billion years old (notice that there is pressure to ratchet this up a bit – it used to be 13.7 billion!), the ultra-advanced aliens would need to have already existed IN ULTRA-ADVANCED FORM prior to the emergence of any life on earth, 3.8 billion years ago (according the timeline on wikipedia). They needed at least 3.8 billion years to evolve into ultra-advanced form themselves, plus extra because supposedly there were no aliens to help them get started and they needed time to become ultra-advanced, so let’s be generous to the alien-science advocates and make that 4.5 billion years. That means the aliens started out as single celled organisms when the universe was 8.3 billion years old. What was the universe like at the ripe young age of 8.3 billion years? I am skeptical that it was at a point friendly to life.
Yet I’m the irrational moron for believing in God, and if I invoke God as a designer I’m accused of believing in a “God of the gaps”. I think that any normally intelligent person is going to have to come around to seeing that there really is a God, a creator.
Here is the mistake that is being made across the board. Science is not a world-view. Science is the investigation of the truth of what is there in the physical world. It is specifically NOT about metaphysical speculation. Because it isn’t supposed to pander to metaphysical interpretation, it doesn’t mean metaphysics doesn’t exist. If a miracle happened, it is the place of science to observe that, not to conjure up multiverses and alien designers. Cosmologists and astrophysicists are making themselves a laughing stock when they don’t stick to science. The emperor definitely has no clothes in this case.
Interesting discussion Jim. These are things that I have thought about a fair amount. I fully agree that humanity and our world could not have happened by accident or a fluke. The part I struggle with is how old our world is. We should discuss some time.
Take care.
I’d love to get together, let’s have coffee soon! I am an old-earther by the way, not a young earth creationist.