This is the fifth and final excerpt from Steve Meyer’s chapter, “What is the evidence for intelligent design?” in The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith: Exploring the Ultimate Questions About Life and the Cosmos (2021):
Could intelligent extraterrestrials have created life on Earth?:
Of course, some scientists, such as Francis Crick, Fred Hoyle, and even Richard Dawkins, have postulated that an intelligence elsewhere within the cosmos might explain the origin of the first life on Earth. Crick proposed this idea after candidly acknowledging the prohibitively long odds against life arising spontaneously here on Earth.4 He consequently proposed that life first arose by some undirected process of chemical evolution somewhere else in the universe and then continued to evolve, eventually producing an intelligent form of alien life. This immanent intelligence — an extraterrestrial agent rather than a transcendent God — designed and then “seeded” a simpler form of life on Earth. Hence, the term panspermia (from the Greek pan, “all,” and sperma, “seed”).
Satisfied by Panspermia?
Though logically possible, I’ve never found this explanation for the origin of life or the origin of biological information satisfying. For one thing, any theory of the origin of life, whether purporting to explain the origin of the first life here on Earth or elsewhere in the cosmos, must account for the origin of the specified information necessary to configure matter into a self-replicating system — something that most biologists take as a sine qua non of a genuinely living organism. Yet those who propose panspermia have not explained, or even seriously grappled with, the problem of the origin of specified biological information.
Stephen C. Meyer, “Intelligent Design: Theistic Implications?” at Evolution News and Science Today (March 29, 2022)
“Yet those who propose panspermia have not explained, or even seriously grappled with, the problem of the origin of specified biological information.” – Meyer No, but they don’t need to, do they? Their seamless blend of science fiction and non-fiction would be rudely interrupted by needless complexities in the plot…
The whole series is here.