The EDGE: ABIOGENESIS vs CREATIONISM

One thing that amazes me today is the fact that till this day with all the amazing technology at our disposal, no one has yet discovered any form of life outside our planet.

All we have is signs and indicators that life might or has ever existed on some extraterrestrial bodies. For example it’s been postulated that since Mars contains some form of water, it might harbor life or life might have existed there at one time. Similar thoughts have been suggested for Enceladus (Saturn’s moon), where water was found by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft.

To me the search for extraterrestrial life is a battle between 2 theories about The Origin of Life”. These are 1. Creationism. 2. Abiogenesis

In creationism, it’s believed that Life was created by a Supreme being or a Higher Power. Christians call that being God, for Moslems it’s Allah and for Buddhists it’s Buddha. This theory postulates that all species were created by the Higher Power.

In the Abiogenesis or chemical evolution, it’s believed that Life originated from non living materials or molecules (inanimate matter) which over millions of years reacted with one another to form a Cell. This cell multiplied to form several cells and also evolved to form other types of cells. It also states that various Species develop by Evolution by various mechanisms such has Natural Selection and Genetic Drift.

The Abiogenesis theory also accounts for the new species that are continuously being formed in our environment and also explains how they gain some of their complexity. There is also lots of evidence to support Evolution. This is why this theory is most accepted by Scientists.

However majority of Humans believe in Creationism theory.

According to the Creationism, it’s believed that the Higher Power created all Life in it’s current form and put that life on Earth. It doesn’t talk about the existence of Life outside Earth. Since this detail is left, it can then be assumed that if this theory is to be accepted, Life only exists on Planet Earth and doesn’t exists outside it.

With Abiogenesis, it’s believed that Life forms because of the favorable conditions available on the body for example a planet. So therefore this theory assumes that Life can form on any body that has those favorable conditions. Let’s say for example the right molecules, water and favorable temperature.

If this theory is correct, then Life has to exist or once existed on any body with the right conditions that favor Cell formation.

Therefore according to me the discovery of Extraterrestrial Life will be full proof evidence for the correctness of Abiogenesis. When this happens there will more doubt about the correctness of the Creationism theory since it doesn’t talk about existence of extraterrestrial life.

So this quest is most certainly a battle for the approval of one of these two theories.

The irony about these theories is that, whereas you can disqualify the Creationism theory, it’s hard to disqualify Abiogenesis because the Universe is a very huge place and prospecting for life on all candidate planets is not a task that anyone can easily accomplish.

Therefore as long as all such Planets are not probed, you can’t disqualify the Abiogenesis theory.

I personally believe it’s going to be a huge mile storm for mankind and discovery of extraterrestrial life will most certainly be a huge turning point in our understanding life and how it came to be.