Panspermia..
I think the idea of panspermia is a very likely possibility of being able to happen in the universe. It very well may have happened here on Earth, but we just don't have the evidence for that yet. I actually think it has happened, is happening, and will happen in the universe.. but I don't see the support for it happening here, yet.
Thing is, I've been seeing a growing number of people reject abiogenesis while embracing panspermia for where life on Earth came from.. and I just don't get that. Unless you believe in a creator or some form of intelligent design, you can't get away from abiogenesis. If life on Earth was seeded by bacteria from another world, the life on that world would have had to appear through abiogenesis. If life on that planet was seeded as well, the seed life would have began with abiogenesis.
Has anyone else seen anyone completely reject abiogenesis in favor of panspermia? Or are you someone who believes panspermia is how life on Earth began while rejecting the concept of abiogenesis? If so, why?
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button."Has anyone else seen anyone completely reject abiogenesis in favor of panspermia?"
Perhaps the most famous example is that of Nobel Laureate, Sir Fred Hoyle, who gave the backers of intelligent design some welcome ammunition with this quote:
"If one proceeds directly and straightforwardly in this matter, without being deflected by a fear of incurring the wrath of scientific opinion, one arrives at the conclusion that biomaterials with their amazing measure of order must be the outcome of intelligent design."
Hoyle and his student, and later colleague, Chandra Wickramasinghe have advanced the idea that outbreaks of disease (influenza, polio, mad cow disease, etc.) are caused by extraterrestrial microbes carried by comet dust.
p-nullifidian
Level 8
Oct 4, 2018
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Never heard of him before, so I looked a lil bit. I just think it's weird to believe in intelligent design and panspermia. Like if there was a force or entity around designing life, why make it so life has to be seeded by other life? It's illogical to not design the life on the planet.
The only thing I liked from him is his rejection of the big bang due to it being too supernatural, which is a stance I have. So I'm thinking he didn't believe in God and the intelligent design he is talking about is aliens or something similar.
I've heard a good many people talk about disease and fungi coming from outer space as well, just as silly without there being evidence.
@FatherOfNyx Your intuitions are correct, Hoyle was an atheist, so his intelligent design statement and panspermia beliefs referenced an advanced civilization.
@p-nullifidian I wonder if he ever asked himself how that advanced civilization came to be..
I dunno.
I agree with Lloyd Pye and his book "Intervention Theory Essentials (Everything You Know Is Wrong Essentials)" which debunks abiogenesis as being too slow to account for the evolutionary leaps that took place on earth.
birdingnut
Level 8
Oct 4, 2018
0
I dunno, if someone claimed to have a skull of a human/alien hybrid, I'd be extremely skeptical of all their other claims.
Either way, abiogenesis and evolution, while related, are technically 2 different concepts. Abiogenesis is the natural formation of life from nonlife and evolution is what happens after life appears. I'm not sure which leaps he was referring to in evolution, but I am sure there have been plenty of reasonable explanations that he ignored.
I am curious though, if not abiogenesis, then what? If abiogenesis is not how life appears, then all you are left with is an unnatural or supernatural cause. I know some people try to get around the supernatural aspect by claiming aliens, but when questioning where the aliens came from, you're once again left with a natural (abiogenesis) cause or an unnatural/supernatural cause.
There are huge clouds of organic molecules in space itself. Possibly a starting point there so you don't need a planet?
starwatcher-al
Level 7
Oct 4, 2018
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Well again, if any life formed there, the process would be abiogenesis. There is soft panspermia, where building blocks of life came from space which is very likely. Then there is hard panspermia, where fully formed life seeds a planet. Thing is, that life would have had to undergo the natural formation of life from nonlife, abiogenesis.
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