What is life?

If you ask me that question professionally, I’ll tell you that “life” is a state of being.  Ask me personally, and I’ll tell you it’s the inevitable result of the mechanics of the universe.  We are all star stuff (as Sagan pointed out).  Life is present in almost all environments on Earth, and we may find that it’s present in almost all environments in the cosmos.  And the cosmos is a big, big place.

The Hubble Space Telescope showed us just how big the cosmos really is

There are many theories for the origin of life on Earth.  We know it wasn’t always here; as far as we can tell, for a long time after the Earth formed it was sterile.  It started out molten, remember, and molten lava is one environment where we have not yet found life.  Then, almost as soon as the Earth becomes capable of supporting life, there it is.  Within a very short time (all things considered), the fossil record explodes with diverse life forms.  There are mass extinctions, but life holds on… and then comes surging back with greater diversity.  It’s incredible, tenacious, and magnificent.

As people interested in the strange wonder of the universe, I know you give more than a passing thought to the ‘question’ of life.  Where did it come from?  Was the young Earth seeded with bacteria from asteroid impacts?  That’s a very promising hypothesis, by the way.  Did it develop in a primordial soup of amino acids?  Experiments with that idea have also shown some promising results lately.

critters

Before I go on, lets none of us get cocky or condescending about bacterial life.  You look at a critter under a nice, strong microscope and you’ll see yourself in miniature.  They have everything we have, only we call them “organelles” instead of “organs”.  Remember, there IS a microbiologist present, and we do love our critters.

I would be very interested in hearing your opinions.  How do you think life started on Earth?  Do you think life was planned and placed by a creator?  Do you think it just happened in the primordial ooze?  Was it seeded here from space?  Maybe a combination of all three?  Whatever you think, tell me why you believe it.  Scientifically.  For instance, if you believe the universe was created by design, tell me why scientifically.  The Bible is not a science source, so don’t use that as your reference.

Plato says, "Do not argue science with philosophy."

This is a completely open field.  We are at the point where nobody knows what happened, but we have some great ideas.  I believe that Tom and I have the best readers on the net, and I respect your opinions.  I’d like to hear them.