Fixing America In 500 Words Or Less Chapter 39 DOES LIFE EXIST BEYOND OUR SOLAR SYSTEM?        What is required for life to exist on our planet is extremely complex, intricately balanced and fine-tuned in relation to the size and position of the earth, sun, moon and other planets, the earth's magnetosphere and various atmospheric layers, the abundance of water, various oceanic and weather patterns and even the temperature, size and properties of the earth's inner core.  And, this is only a small fraction of the balanced complex reality necessary for our existence.        Because of this, some scientists still insist life may be extremely rare in the universe.  But it appears exo-planets may far outnumber the stars and today, many if not most scientists believe life is probably abundant in the cosmos. Perhaps few of us stop to consider how truly different, diverse and complex life in the larger universal reality, may in fact be.        We know life on earth is incredibly complex and diverse, even among microbial kingdoms.  We can only wonder what it might be like to live on a world far less violent and prone to disease, starvation and death than our own. Given the abundance and complexity of life on earth and the size and scope of the universe, we can only marvel and remain in awe of the infinite possibilities.        At least one scientist has proposed life might exist on giant gas planets, hovering in the atmosphere with no need of a solid surface.  We often assume far too much based on our own tiny window of experience, while the experience of intelligent beings on other worlds may be far different than our own.        Most books and films featuring aliens assume beings more intelligent than ourselves would have superior technology and travel in advanced starships, which isn't necessarily true.  They are often portrayed as creatures prone to violence and oppression like ourselves, which also isn't necessarily true.        Human technology arises out of our specific needs for survival.  While other forms of life on earth build webs, nests and some even use sticks as tools, what is called “technology” is essentially viewed as being unique to humans.  If food was easily and readily available and there was no violence or daily struggle to survive, human technology might not have ever arisen on earth.        Where there is no farming or struggle to eat, there may be no concept of a wheel or plow.  Where there's no hunting for food and no war, there may be no concept of a knife, spear, bow and arrow or other basic implements at the root of our technology.        Would beings more intelligent than ourselves necessarily have any concept of science and education?  Would they wear clothing or need to build structures for protection in a perhaps far less hostile environment?  In a world without living beings eating each other, without war and other oppression or struggle for food, shelter and protection, would there be any such thing as "survival of the fittest"?        Does science chain our brains in far too narrow of a box? ¹  You decide. ² NOTES: 1. Today science is aware that all of life on earth is in symbiotic relationship on a grand scale, from viruses and microbes on up to the largest of creatures, dependent on the alignment of the moon, Jupiter and other celestial bodies within our solar system and, life may be dependent for it's existence on various clouds of molecules and other "stuff" encountered as our solar system travels around the larger galactic center.  From the position and size of Jupiter, asteroids, comets, the moon and the sun in relation to earth and, the largest ancient dinosaurs on down to insects and the smallest plants, microbes and viruses, our planet and larger solar system operates as an integrated collective whole in balanced inter-connected synchronization, in an unimaginably large number and variety of ways. All manner of plant and animal living forms and various large-scale atmospheric, weather, microscopic and even sub-atomic processes are interdependent on each other, working together as part of an integrated collective whole very far over our collective heads.  Our existence is very much inter-dependent on the well being of innumerable other animal and plant forms of life, as well as the health of the larger universal environmental whole, tracing far beyond our solar system and galaxy back to the big bang and Who is behind it.  Even if there was no big bang, as a relatively few scientists believe today, Whoever is behind the universal infinity wonder is of unimaginably far greater intelligence than all of us combined could ever possibly begin to imagine. Many both religious and atheistic people today can't admit the obvious, that God creates way, way, way over our collective heads, from the unfathomably large super-clustered in infinity down to the smallest sub-atomic detail, in a grand design unfolding mural cosmic expression of creation art.  Given our own knowledge of very tiny in comparison to us and yet highly complex microbial kingdoms within us and, given the size and scope of just the known universe that we ourselves inhabit, in comparison to us, this is how far above our intelligence and capabilities one would rationally expect our Creator to be.  According to the Bible, God's ways are as far above our own, as high as the heavens are above the earth.  And, given our modern 21st Century knowledge of the size and scope of the universe, this is how any remotely honest human being would expect our Creator to be. As an example of the complex inter-connectedness of life on earth, the amount of plankton often found in large "clouds" in the ocean, is critical for the existence of the entire chain of macro-life on up.  Sadly, today it appears that deforestation and pollution is already damaging the critical balance of plankton, which may have severe negative global repercussions in the looming future.  As another example, a type of brine shrimp known as "sea-monkeys", when swimming in large tight formation schools, appears to affect global ocean currents, similar to the power of tides and the wind.  All of plant and animal life on earth is affected in various ways by circulating ocean currents, from the South polar region to the North and back again and, it appears that life within these oceans is influential in driving this global circulation. As a third example, humans are known to be a sort of living "bio-universe" for an estimated 10 trillion microbes inhabiting our bodies.  Not only are we critical for their survival, they are just as critical if not more so for our survival.  Eating the wrong kind of food can significantly damage and otherwise change the symbiotic relationship of microbes living within us, causing numbers of beneficial types to decrease and harmful types to increase, leading to significant long-term health issues.  Recent research demonstrates that unlike evolutionists have long assumed, so-called "random" mutations within macro-species may be induced by microbes harvesting external DNA and incorporating it into their own genome.  Changes caused by microbes living within us are not demonstrably either accidental or random but rather, they are a result of how we ourselves and all of life is created to react, adapt and change, in symbiotic relationship and integration of the larger planetary, solar system, galaxy and universal whole, very far beyond our ability to even remotely begin to fully comprehend. It appears for example that microbes, which life on the surface and within all visible forms of life, routinely recycle DNA from dead organisms outside of themselves and incorporate it into their own genome, which is how microbes are designed to "passively" act.  And, this in turn drives changes within larger host organisms, causing all forms of visible life to adapt and change.  Consider how incredibly different this is than what Darwinian evolutionists have long insisted.  According to one of the scientists making this discovery, "That DNA from dead organisms drives the evolution of living cells is in contradiction with common belief of what drives the evolution of life itself."  That is, it directly contradicts fundamental claims of natural selection theory and so-called "random" mutations, which apparently are either partially or fully not random at all.  For more information, see Bacteria Recycle Broken DNA. Another reason for changes within living forms of life is known as "Biased Gene Conversion". According to Matthew Webster of the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology at Uppsala University: "The research not only increases our understanding of human evolution, but also suggests that many techniques used by evolutionary biologists to detect selection may be flawed."  The article quoting him goes on to conclude: "The results lead to the provocative hypothesis that, rather than being the result of Darwinian selection for new adaptations, many of the genetic changes leading to human-specific characters may be the result of the fixation of harmful mutations.  This contrasts the traditional Darwinistic view that they are the result of natural selection in favour of adaptive mutations." Natural Selection Not Only Process Driving Evolution. Today, many geneticists contend that "survival of the fittest" is only one of many reasons why species adapt and change, rather than it being either the "sole engine" or "primary engine" driving the evolution of species, as has long been misrepresented in high school and college textbooks.  Humans sleeping on the ground for example, rather than on raised bedding, has been demonstrated to have significant long-term consequences either way.  According to a nature video documentary, a choice in a change of diet of a single termite can in the larger picture, change an entire African eco-system environment and every living thing within it. And, it is well established that deliberate choices made by humans in our diet, sexual and other activity can have severe negative repercussions for generations.  Attempting to reconcile deliberate choice with natural selection is a little more risky than it may appear, in particular in light of the known historical evidence of Cortez and the Klondike Gold Rush, which is discussed in more detail in Note 14; Does Science Really Know What is True?. According to biology professor Robert Moss of Wofford College, the answer to the question of how mutations occur "is closely linked to the molecular details of how both DNA and the entire genome are organized."  This statement, which can be found in the Article Linked Here, was published in 2008, prior to knowledge of microbial DNA harvesting.  Numerous articles can be found on the web detailing the incredible mystery of complexity surrounding DNA mutations.  As demonstrated by ongoing significant discoveries since the decoding of the human genome, genetics as a science today has only began to barely scratch the surface, compared to what is yet left to be learned. As far as human science knows or has any way of knowing, life is created with the ability to adapt and change within an ever-changing universal environment, so that life itself can survive within a constantly changing reality, stretching back beyond the existence of our own sun and solar system to the dawn of the universe itself.  To pretend that such changes are all "unguided" and "random" rather than part of a larger grand cosmic design, requires an enormous Grand Canyon-sized leap of blind faith scientists often accuse others of having. The obvious fact that creation is way over our collective heads does not equate to "random", nor will the observable universal reality or the life contained therein, ever logically or rationally equate to randomness, as if we somehow either would or could know. See Symbiotic Relationship Between Plants and Bacteria and Sea-Monkeys Affecting Ocean Currents.  Also, see Does Science Really Know What is True? for more information. 2. The author of this book was once an atheist.  Thus, while this book attacks atheism and agnosticism in several places, there is no intention of condemning them or implying that atheists and agnostics are any worse than the rest of us.   Many atheists spend a lot of time talking about religion and, someone claiming to be an atheist or agnostic is generally someone angry about religion.  Equating religion with God is an obvious and serious mistake, as regardless of what people claim about God, what is true about God remains the same.  To equate religion with God, to blame God for religion or, to otherwise assume because religions are wrong, therefore there is no God, is to be a victim of religion.  No one wants to be a victim of the lies of other people and, like Pete Seeger said, we should strive to "separate true from false".  Like Jesus implied, if we don't know what is true, we have no hope of being free. What human beings can observe or otherwise detect, including in the quantum reality, is a “result” of a theoretical big bang and thus by definition, what we can observe and otherwise detect is not random.  What may appear to be random from our view within the universal fishbowl, is not necessarily random from a larger universal and beyond view.  For example, seemingly 'random' sparks and dust particles, if observed by a being the size of an atom, perched on a spark plug inside of an automobile engine as the car is being driven down the road, would not in reality be random, as they would have a cause attributable to a larger reality that the atomic-sized being is not aware of. It may well be true, as leading scientist Francis Collins has suggested, that our Creator deliberately constructed a universal reality that in turn, can perform many functions on it's own and, that can within itself generate randomness.  After all, we humans can create computers and robotic machines that in turn perform many functions on their own and, we humans can create lottery machines which can theoretically generate randomness.  And, it is a very safe bet our Creator can do at least as well as we can do.  For a detailed discussion on randomness, cause and effect, see Note 21; Does Science Really Know What is True?. Because we cannot see God and are otherwise trapped within three dimensions plus time inside of a much larger theoretical reality consisting of several more dimensions, there is no way of knowing with any certainty how much or how little our Creator interacts with creation behind the veil of our observable reality.  No scientist or other human being can fairly claim there is no God, probably no God or might be no God, any more than one can fairly claim energy, light and motion can self-generate and exist unto themselves or that the sun will disappear from the heavens tomorrow, while pretending the burden of proof remains on those who believe otherwise. What religions and religious people claim may be irrational, but belief in God is based on evidence.  All of the known evidence demonstrates Primary Cause,  There is no evidence for the existence of energy, light, motion, universal or any other "laws", biological or any other processes, quad-zillions of parts within parts, conscience awareness, intelligence or the existence of life, perception, coloration or even something as rudimentary as human mathematics, without Primary Cause.  Atheism and agnosticism represent the greatest of all known human superstitions, having no foundation in evidence.  What is not based on evidence has no value to the human race.  See also, Is Atheism Scientific? for more information. Click Here to Go Back to Contents Click Here to eMail the Author Copyright © December 10th, 2019 by Richard Aberdeen. Copyright © December 10th, 2019 by Freedom Tracks Records. ( including from several earlier copyrights ) No part of this material may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including printing, photocopying, recording or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher and signed by the author. For inquiries, please contact Freedom Tracks Records.  The essays entitled Revolution and Revolution ~ Side B are open copyright and may be reproduced and distributed as desired.