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Meteorites Brought Ingredients of Life To Earth

Meshach writes "A new analysis of a meteorite found in Antarctica is leading scientists to think that life on Earth may have come from outer space. Chemical analysis of the meteorite shows it to be rich in ammonia and containing the element nitrogen. Nitrogen is found in the proteins and DNA that form the basis of life as we know it. The prevailing theory is that our planet may have been seeded by a comet or asteroid because the formative Earth might not have been able to provide the full inventory of simple molecules needed for the processes which led to primitive life."

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  1. Re:Yes, but.... by presidenteloco · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "the answer for the simplest is God."

    There. Fixed that for you.

    Scientists do not need faith in their theories after they are proven. Scientific theories are verifiable according to a simply describable
    rational process that anyone with skills can carry out without faith. Scientific theories are considered promising explanations of
    parts or aspects of reality if
    a) they are self-consistent,
    b) they are logically consistent with other theories which co-define the same
    terms (symbols for parts or aspects of reality),
    c) they are structured as a mutually supporting set of statements which are particular assertions about the
    presence and state of some things; assertions clearly enough stated in terms of other known/accepted concepts/terms/things that the assertions
    could be falsified by comprehensible experiments carried out to measure the mentioned/described aspects of reality.
    d) they have not been falsified yet, and
    e) they are simpler (contain less information, in their so far unfalsified explanation of the same amount of phenomena) than competing theories.

    "God did it" definitely fails c) in that the explanation does not explain any phenomena in terms of any other known (already explained)
    phenomena/concepts/terms. Instead, it explains just about all phenomena in terms of a completely unknown, undescribed, and unexplained
    posited entity, which might as well just be the concept "null" because it does not differ in description or properties from null except in the
    completely circular and content-free sense in which it is defined as "the entity which is the cause of all these other phenomena".

    God as prime cause stories also fail c) because in form they are generally rambling analogies or vague generalities which are not carefully
    or coherently or specifically enough stated to be falsifiable assertions. Those specifics which are stated in the "God" stories have the
    safety (from falsifiability) of being about alleged episodes lost in the mists of the past.

    Most more detailed description of what this prime cause is like also fail b) in that the stories about God's appearances and works on aspects of reality are not consistent with other verifiable measures of those aspects of reality and also different versions of the God and God-cause stories are inconsistent with each other in many specifics.

    --

    Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?