An important online forum of leading scientists and intellectuals refreshingly admits science has no real answer and only questions on when and how life began on earth. This is notable because we are often told science is about absolute knowledge while religion is about speculative faith. Of course, this is a false philosophical assumption. Science must rely on faith and assumption itself.
These authors correctly admit science has uncovered remarkable truths: “Here in our own cosmic backyard, we’ve uncovered a tremendous amount of information about the Universe, discovering many fantastic facts and properties about reality that our long-ago ancestors could scarcely fathom.” This is the profound benefit of science which has a very close relationship with a biblical Christian worldview because both hold to an orderly, systematic universe that can be known and studied. Paganism does not hold such a view.
These scientists correctly admit life is “found only on Earth and not anyplace else we’ve ever looked so far” even as science has confirmed nearly 6,000 exoplanets beyond our solar system. They admit “many burning questions remain unanswered” by science as to how life developed in the first place. Their article presents five of the most pressing unanswered questions science is currently wrestling with.
1. Did life actually originate on Earth?
They admit life beginning on Earth is the most reasonable conclusion because life has only been found on Earth “and not any place we have ever looked so far.” But since science has no definitive record or explanation for how life arose on Earth, these authors say we must be open to the possibility that life might have originated somewhere else, and was brought to Earth by some means. As this article admits, “the only evidence we have is the presence and record of life on Earth encoded within our own planet, and the lack of signs of life, either related to or independent of Earth-life, elsewhere within our Solar System and our Universe.” This would seem to favor the idea that life started in the only place where it exists, if one takes Occam’s Razor to be true.
The Judeo-Christian worldview offers an important nuanced explanation that life did originate beyond our earth and was delivered here … by divine orchestrations as we read in Genesis 1. But as far as science can explain, “Whether earth-based life originated on earth or elsewhere in the universe is still an open question.”
So, science has nothing to say over a biblical perspective regarding this fundamental question of the origins of human existence.
2. Why is life only found on Earth?
The second question these authors ask is why Earth is the only planet to win the “life lottery”. Thus, what are the essential qualities that make it unique, and will other planets ever obtain these qualities so that biological life could grow there? They wonder, “What are the minimal sets of ingredients and/or conditions that we need to have a non-zero chance of life coming into existence on such a world?” That is an important scientific question indeed.
In another article this same science site admits “only our ‘lucky stars’ enabled our existence.” Sounds very similar to a religious or fairy tale answer, doesn’t it?
Hence, the limits of science.
They confess, “Here on Earth, all we know is that life came to exist on it, somehow, at some point long ago: as far back as the fossil records can take us, and possibly even earlier than that.”
They add, “But on all other known worlds, from exoplanets to the planets, moons, and dwarf planets in our Solar System, we have no signatures of life anywhere.”
The human world is indeed unique.
3. How do living organisms first arise from non-living ingredients?
This is related to one of the most vexing questions about our material origins regardless of what philosophy or worldview you hold: How does something arise out of nothing? Science has no credible answer. It cannot speak definitely to origins.
These authors do show their prejudice to any concept of divine origins, but they thankfully admit that that question is not absolutely rejectable.
Assuming, as scientists often do, that there’s no “divine intervention” in our Universe – or that the processes that occur in our Universe are purely physical in nature – we’re left with the inescapable conclusion that, at some point, something we would consider “life” arose from what we would consider “non-life.”
They admit all science has are competing hypotheses on this question. It is unlikely science, as a discipline for understanding things, will ever be able to answer this most important of questions because it lies outside its boundaries of observation and repeatable experience. As they admit, “We have not by any means ever synthesized something that we would classify as a living organism from solely non-biological precursor ingredients.”
4. Which method of searching for life beyond Earth will be successful?
Of course, this question largely comes down to a question of technological reach. Will we be able to look far enough to find any existence of life beyond what we have already reached? As NASA has explained, for all the truly profound scientific progress we have made, what we don’t know is exponentially greater than what we do.
5. Are we actually unique, and alone, as a living planet in the universe?
This article, as an explanation of the limits of science, was very good until it got to this last question. Here, the authors make this remarkable statement that seems to contradict everything they just said: “In every way that we know how to look at the Universe, there is nothing about Earth, the solar system, or the galaxy and our place in it that appears to be special and unique.” Really?
How can they conclude that the Earth is not special? Well, they say it right here: “There are no special conditions or properties that we are known to possess, except for the fact that Earth is a living world: the only one known so far.”
They don’t mean this as sarcasm. But being the only planet in the known cosmos that has life sounds pretty dang unique in anyone’s book.
And while science has no definitive answer at present to this question, the Judeo-Christian worldview certainly does. It was God who told us that humanity possesses the unique distinction of being created in His very image and likeness. Scripture, in accord with science, does not say life exists anywhere else. It does say human life is unique.
We should all remember that every belief system has its limits when it comes to human knowledge and our ability to know. Including science.
For the Christian, faith and science go together. To take one at the exclusion of the other is shortsighted for both scientists and Christians.
Additional Resources
No, Science Can’t Answer the Biggest Questions of Life and Existence
