Astrobiologists at Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute argue in a recent paper that alien life must be very rare if we assume classic, essentially Darwinian, evolution as the only possible history. But what if the universe is fine-tuned to produce life, as biochemist Michael Denton argues? Then it may be common:
In short, the Oxford group’s basic contention is that, in a universe that is a bit over 13 billion years old, on a planet that is roughly 4.5 billion years old, it took all this time for random processes of evolution to result in life forms like ourselves that scan the skies for other civilizations. Then the likelihood of such a favorable series of chance events happening often—or maybe ever again— is slim.
But wait. What if evolution is not random? In Miracle of the Cell (2020), biochemist Michael Denton argues that even the elements that make up our universe are fine-tuned to produce life. If he is right, life could, of course, have gotten started in many other parts of our universe, using the same elements and following the same general patterns and laws. Here’s a free excerpt from the book.
News, “Does the slow pace of evolution mean that extraterrestrial life is rare?” at Mind Matters News
It would make a lot of sense for astrobiologists to be fans of intelligent design theory. Eventually, they will fall and hit their heads and realize that.
See also: New sky catalog reveals most likely sites for alien technology. Exotica lists phenomena for which conventional natural explanations don’t seem to work well. Advanced extraterrestrials might leave a “technosignature,” visible only as a strange phenomenon in space.