Ice -- Life on Mars?

It will be interesting if it does turn out to be water ice. People have speculated about the Martian polar ice caps since the days of Percival Lowell. This amazing Phoenix craft could answer many long-held questions about the red planet. Whether or not Mars harbors life, this exploration should yield interesting results.

 

Organic compounds necessary for life, is not life. Is that all we are, organic compounds? Will these organic compounds necessary for life eventually make life? What about God and Him as creator? I didn't see organic compounds in the bible, He spoke and His creation was there, no organic compounds necessary. God doesn't need something to make something living out of.
(and I am speaking of all of the living creatures, so don't jump on me about God speaking His creation into being, I am fully aware He did not speak man into being but made him Himself.)

 

They should go ahead and study the global warming taking place on Mars as well. Actually they can save some money and just go ahead and say what they want. Martian global warming is mans fault.:laugh:

 

Yet we find the common building blocks on all living things here on Earth...from bacteria to trees to human beings. Certainly one can conceive of lifeforms that are not carbon-based, that would be structured differently. But the fact remains that life as we know it here is all based on the same organic components. At this point in history, the only planet we know for sure to harbor life is our own. Still, that doesn't mean that we will not find other lifeforms on other worlds. I would not be one bit surprised to find living things elsewhere in our own planetary system, or in systems around other stars than the Sun.

Does this thinking by its very nature result in a non-theistic view? Of course not. I would not presume to limit God's creative power to one tiny speck in an vast universe of many trillion stars and worlds.

 

God created and on the 7th day rested, He was done, He completed His creation, no where in scripture do we see another completely different creation story that happened at a different time. If martian people aren't already walking around mars they aren't going too be. If God didn't create life already there isn't going to be life there. It just isn't scriptural.
Life just does not appear on it's own because of organic compounds. Organic compounds on their own do not create life, only God creates life.

 

So does this mean that if life is discovered elsewhere, you will have to discard the Bible? Actually, the Bible makes no claim for or against extraterrestrial lifeforms. Does it say that God didn't create life on Titan? Or on the fourth planet orbiting Betelgeuse? It's a big universe and a big God. You make the mistake of limiting him because something isn't explicitly listed. I figure that all the books in the world couldn't describe the things God has done.

 

God placed the limitation when He created for 6 days and then rested from His creation.

 

So he could not have created alien life at the same time? How do you account for the ongoing creation of new stars? You were formed after those supposed six days...by your logic, you cannot exist, yet here you are.

 

I have 2 comments to make here.

First, I see no reason why this has to be an "either / or" kind of situation. In other words, why can we not have God using organic compounds as the means to build living beings. I suggest that to be closed to the possibility that God used organic compounds to create life is to repeat an error modern Christians often make - to see the "physicality" of our universe as somehow "bad". It is true that all of creation is fallen, but the earth is still full of the glory of God (Isaiah 6).

Matter matters. The physical cosmos was created by God and declared to be very good. We should not relativize the physical domain as if it is an aspect of reality that is of a lesser order than the "spiritual" domain (I do not like the "physical / spiritual" distinction to begin with and it is a misreading of the Scriptures).

Someone posted that "no where in scripture do we see another completely different creation story that happened at a different time". I do not agree with this and think that we need to realize that God indeed has "begun a new round of creation". This may not be directly relevant to the issue at hand, but in the raising of Jesus, God renewed the covenant and he renewed the creation itself.

It is no accident that Jesus is raised on the first day of the new week (eliciting echoes of the first day of the creation account in Genesis 1). And it is no accident that Mary mistakes him for the gardener. In a sense, He is the gardener, raised to life to initiate a new round of creative work whose primary goal is the redemption of all creation (not just human beings).

 

Genesis also says God rested on the 7th day, not that he would continue to rest for all eternity. How much rest does an omnipotent being require? It appears you are limiting God by leaning on your own undertanding og scripture. Our minds cannot comprehend all that God did or can do. Do you honestly believe everything God ever did throughout eternity is in one small compilation of books? I think scripture itself refutes this in the passage I allude to earlier.

 

Agreed. And further to my previous post, there are even more reasons to see Jesus' resurrection as indicating that God has initiated a new round of creative activity in the world.

On day 6 in the Genesis account, man is created.

On day 6 in Holy Week, Pilate brings forth the bloodied Jesus and presents Him to the crowd with "Behold the man". The echoes to Adam are clear - Jesus is a second Adam (in a sense that needs to be carefully qualified, but I will not do so here). On day 7 of the Genesis account, God rests. On day 6 of Holy Week, Jesus declares "It is accomplished" and dies - and on day 7, Jesus rests in the dark tomb.

But on the first day of a new week, Jesus is raised - indicating a new round of creation by God.

I find it hard to believe that all these parallels are coincidences.

 

I find it hard to believe that you took the resurrection story and made it relate to life on Mars! Are you saying that since the resurrection God has been creating new species?

 

Does the bible ever give another source for Godly knowledge, other than it'self ? What does the bible say about extra-biblical inspiration ?

 

Fair enough, what I am saying probably has no relation to the OP. I was responding to some more general statments that other posters had made.

So you're right - my posts are not really related to the OP.

 

They won't find any life whatsoever, outside earth IMHO.

 

I happen to think you are right, specifically in respect to advanced life forms.

 

...and that man is George W. Bush :laugh:

 

Aren't y'all forgetting just who has already discovered life on Mars?