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Privileged planet

One theory about why we don’t see extraterrestrials provides support for Earth as a privileged planet

If intelligent life forms are trapped in the interior oceans of rocky moons and planets, Earth is a special planet—much better suited to space exploration. Read More ›

It is time for ID to provide real leadership in rethinking origins across the board

The opportunity is open and it is time to seize the day. So, I think a comment in a discussion with GP and Dionisio should be headlined: >>My observation is those who are closed minded, indoctrinated and hostile will simply flare up in anger at anything that threatens their favoured evolutionary materialistic scientism or their comfortable fellow-traveller views calibrated not to get them in hot water with the domineering atheists. The issue then is, how well cultured they are. The cultured play at subtle rhetorical games pivoting on evasions and how could you concern trolling which provide more or less respectable “good cop” cover. Then come the “bad cops” who try to run riot, bully, intimidate, slander and stalk. I Read More ›

“Alien Megastructure Is Not The Cause Of The Dimming Of Tabby’s Star ” (Design Inference filter in action; Sci Fi Fans disappointed)

According to SciTech Daily in a January 3, 2018 article, Tabby’s star, aka KIC 8462852, has had a mysterious brightening and dimming cycle.  (Such a cycle, of course raises the interesting thought of the erection of a Dyson Sphere or a similar megastructure.) As the article reports: >>A team of more than 200 researchers, including Penn State Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics Assistant Professor Jason Wright and led by Louisiana State University’s Tabetha Boyajian, is one step closer to solving the mystery behind the “most mysterious star in the universe.” KIC 8462852, or “Tabby’s Star,” nicknamed after Boyajian, is otherwise an ordinary star, about 50 percent bigger and 1,000 degrees hotter than the Sun, and about than 1,000 light years Read More ›

Forbes: Our solar system is like waterfront property

It’s scarce, and they’re not making any more of it. From Bruce Dorminey at Forbes: As Robert Wittenmyer, an astronomer at the University of New South Wales in Sydney and the paper’s lead author told me, NASA ’s Kepler space telescope has shown us that small planets appear to be ubiquitous. But he says very few observers are looking at what he terms the other half of the question, the long-period gas giants. The findings are important because conventional theories of planet formation have usually dictated that gas giants like Jupiter parked in a stable, rather distant, orbit from its parent star were thought to be key to the onset of life on closer-in Earth-like planets. … “You could certainly Read More ›

Our Moon formed in collision with embryo planet?

A new moon formation theory, from ScienceDaily: The moon was formed from a violent, head-on collision between the early Earth and a ‘planetary embryo’ called Theia approximately 100 million years after the Earth formed, almost 4.5 billion years ago. … Scientists had already known about this high-speed crash, which occurred almost 4.5 billion years ago, but many thought the Earth collided with Theia (pronounced THAY-eh) at an angle of 45 degrees or more — a powerful side-swipe (simulated in this 2012 YouTube video). New evidence reported Jan. 29 in the journal Science substantially strengthens the case for a head-on assault. … The fact that oxygen in rocks on the Earth and our moon share chemical signatures was very telling, Young Read More ›

Implications of the Privileged Planet Hypothesis

Over on the other thread we’ve had a brief discussion of the recent initiative to find extraterrestrial intelligence. In response to a couple of the comments I thought it might be instructive to look at the logic behind the privileged planet hypothesis, as it relates to the search for life beyond Earth. To that end, I pose the following: What is the implication of the Earth being a Privileged Planet, assuming we subscribe to that view? Does it mean: (a) that Earth (with all of its various characteristics) is unlikely to have come about by purely natural means; and/or (b) that Earth is unique (or nearly unique) in the galaxy or the cosmos? —– The reason I pose the question Read More ›

Nature makes an ID-friendly report on the Solar System (officially it’s not YEC friendly)

At the scandalous premiere of Privileged Planet at the Smithsonian Institution several years ago, astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez said something to the effect “not only are we in the right place in the universe, we’re alive at the right time!” Dr. Gonzalez, normally unexpressive and soft spoken, was uncharacteristically emphatic about being alive at the right time in cosmic history, suggesting the window of arrival of homo sapiens and modern technology happened within an exceedingly narrow time frame. He was so emphatic that one would surmise he was seeing a miracle, as if whatever was the source of the universe specially ordained this time and place in the fabric of reality. From the prestigious scientific journal Nature: Caught in the Act Read More ›

Boldly going where no man has gone before — will we find ET’s or are we alone?

[ HT: KRock] The aim of this essay is to set the record straight on behalf of Norm Geisler in the landmark creation-evolution case Mclean vs. Arkansas as well exploring a few connections of ID/creation/evolution with Extra Terrestrials (ETs) and certain religious ideas. Ironically, the Uncommon Descent weblog owes much of its existence to an advocate of Extra Terrestrial (ET) origins of life on Earth, namely DaveScot Springer who built up the UD blog for several years before getting separated from it. I have promoted the work of another ET-ID fan, Dr. Andras Pellionisz. And last but not least, UD’s very own Rob Sheldon offered his hypothesis that comets throughout the universe participated in a massive coherent computation that created Read More ›

Creationist RA Herrmann’s ID theory — the last magic on steroids!

First, an excerpt from Dr. Herrmann’s personal history: I was associated with the occult from birth, but in 1946 when I was 12 years old, I suddenly became extremely interested in occult manifestations and simultaneously became, what is sometimes called, a “mental giant” – indeed, a child scientist. I delved into any aspect of the occult that had any meaning for a child of my age. For two or three months, I was a superior telepathist. I once telepathically identified more than forty-five cards out of fifty-two cards from an ordinary deck of playing cards. However, suddenly I lost this particular telepathic ability, I lost the “key” so to speak. Obviously, I was brokenhearted over this state of affairs and Read More ›

Is Earth the center of the universe or are quasar redshift groupings the product of chance?

It is amusing to note that the way many scientists promote a novel theory is to argue that their theory is true because the alternative is to accept the hypothesis that the Earth is in a very privileged position in the universe. For those bored with my rejection of the chance hypothesis in 500 fair coins being heads, here is a far more technical question as to whether chance can create clustering of redshifts by quasars. If quasar redshift grouping is not the product of chance, this implies either the Earth is in a privileged position (which has all sorts of unacceptable metaphysical implications to materialists), or quasar redshifts are not due to expanding space of the Big Bang, or Read More ›

Cocktail! The Fingers of God are pointing at you

In further commemoration of Halton Christian “Chip” Arp, Chip pointed out many star clusters are aligned in such a way that they point toward us. So severe has been the unease over this that some have called the phenomenon “The Fingers of God”. 😯 Quoting Chip’s website: What do they think this cluster is? In fact they are forced to say it is a structure that I would compare to a great sausage stretching out from us toward the outer reaches of the Universe. The miraculous aspect is that this sausage is pointing directly at us, the observer. But perhaps an even stranger aspect is that the far end would be receding from us at an appreciable fraction of the Read More ›