Thread: We are not alone!

"Life" may well be a much more common occurrence in the universe than previously thought.

How does this challenge the religions and their claims?
It seems to fit well enough with Hinduism and Buddhism, but what about the cosmology of other religions?

Astronomers have detected a building block of RNA floating within the hot, compact core of a massive star-forming region in the Milky Way. The molecule appears to have formed with all of the other stuff that makes up planets, suggesting that many other worlds are seeded with some of life's ingredients right from birth.

Two of the greatest questions of existence--Are we alone? and How did we get here?--remain unanswered. Clues keep coming, and they are tantalizing. Over the past decade, astronomers have detected organic molecules inside meteorites and even in space (ScienceNOW, 28 March). But these latter substances have not been found in the clouds of dust and gas around new stars that can form planets, making their link to life tenuous.

The new find, described this week in the journal Astro-ph, is stronger. Using the IRAM radio dish array in France, a team of European astronomers has detected glycolaldehyde--a simple sugar that makes up ribose, one of the constituents of RNA--within the core of what appears to be a coalescing disk of dust and gas in a star-forming region called G31.41+0.31, about 26,000 light-years away. The sugar molecule can apparently form in a simple reaction between carbon monoxide molecules and dust grains.

The discovery is significant for two reasons. First, G31.41+0.31 lies far away from the radiation-filled center of the Milky Way, so if any biological processes start up there, they will have a chance to establish themselves. Second, the abundance of glycolaldehyde in the G31.41+0.31 cloud suggests that the molecule is "common throughout star-forming regions," says astrophysicist and co-author Serena Viti of University College London. The implication is that wherever there is starmaking and planet formation going on, organic building blocks could be assembling as well.

Most Planets May Be Seeded With Life -- Berardelli 2008 (1126): 2 -- ScienceNOW

We could discover the answer to the first question, but unlikely ever to know the second if it's not connected with the first.

Challenging their claims? Doesn't science tend to contradict those religious doctrines? Most exclusively, the Judaic-Christian world......

Originally Posted by spiff

How does this challenge the religions and their claims?

For religions that actually have a few scholars capable of understanding the implication, should any conflict be found between religious "teachings" and this discovery, a simple "readjustment" of truth according to the church will be made.

The religions will merely expand their spheres of influence simultaneously in a glorious cataclysm of revelation that will mimic the understanding of space, DNA, and gravity.

Originally Posted by Rural Surin

Challenging their claims? Doesn't science tend to contradict those religious doctrines? Most exclusively, the Judaic-Christian world......

If one adheres to the literal word of the bible, there are indeed conflicts, not to say direct contradictions, such as assertions concerning the age of this planet and the universe.

On the other hand, mainstream religions have reconciled differences by way of interpretation. For example, the biblical flood may have been a regional event in the world as known at the time. Archaeological and geohistorical finds can be taken as clues rather than evidence to prove the biblical story to be 'false'.

There's only one thing for it, send missionaries into space.

All of them.

So there's a few bits of RNA floating around in space. God creating life is prolly a bit like me putting together some of those kit set shelves. There's always a few pieces left over.

It could possibly read like this......

Book of Genesis.....
'And on the seventh day God rested from all his work....(then in small print)
oops missed a little bit of sugar in that recipe..... right, there we go... it's
good everyone.....

perhaps every religion is a transparent template for one's own interpretations.
Inherently human beings have an amazing imagination and where gaps exist
their bountiful imagination just simply fills in the empty spaces. Then if it sounds
good the masses follow, maybe as a group we share amongst other things, the power experienced in 'believe' and the need to feel safe sharing that believe with
others........ Just a thought

i don't believe in religion n stuff .

Crup Crup Crup Lol


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We are not alone!

of course not ,

statistical probability of another lifeform is a far better bet than any you'll find elsewhere .

In life there are so many imponderables that I dunno how people can adhere to dogma, believing that 'their way' explains everything.

Buddhism's a bit more flexible, but there still seems to be plenty of unprovable mumbo jumbo to it. Eg reincarnation, and some freaky story about Buddha's mother being impregnated by an elephant (I might have imagined / made up the latter one?).

Originally Posted by kwai73

Buddha's mother being impregnated by an elephant (I might have imagined / made up the latter one?).

Think you're confusing her with Bubba's mother.

I might have been thinking of a diss I heard (*) once in the hood -

"Yo mama so fat, she can take an elephant's cock".

* (well I did once live in a fairly grimey part of London anyway)



Sorry, just like that icon!

I am not alone! She is still there, alongside me! Fast asleep. Time to wake her up to put kettle on.

you are born alone and die alone!

NO NO NO Mother was there