NASA Announcement

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/...n-news-conference-on-oceans-beyond-earth

For anyone interested in such matters. I can't wait to hear what they've discovered.

I hope this "revelation" actually turns out to be something with some real substance. I've lost count how many public announcements NASA has made over the past 5 years or so which ultimately ended up being no big deal.

+1


I've seen numerous articles over the last week about the discovery of an earthlike planet being discovered "only" 39 light years away that supposedly has water and an atmosphere so if this is what NASA is going to "announce" they've missed the boat.

+1

This is something to do with Jovian and/or Saturnian moons I believe.
Clarke got it right back in the late 70s when he wrote 2010, there is water under Europa's surface. It's just not the only one.


The Jedi Master

So apparently this is the big annoucement.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...iscovery-ocean-worlds-search-alien-life/

Yep, all they found was life producing materials on a distant moon. That's all. Gawd.

PM, you wouldn't be impressed unless nasa found Krycek's (other) hand on Mars.

I hope that they can somehow prove that there is life there, if for no other reason than to quiet down all of the, "Earth is the only place in the universe where life is possible," types. If it is there, on that moon so close to the sun, imagine all the other possibilities out there.
And maybe we are all Martians, after all.

Yep, if they could prove that life happens or happened on two planets out of nine in the same system then I guess the statistical odds for more life in the whole galaxy/universe just skyrocketed...

I often think about what would actually happen if/when life is found. I would think if just microbial then not much of a big deal in the global outlook, but if simple life was found how the world would react. Religion for instance I would think be affected.

And if advanced civilization; wow.

Yep, even a simple living microbe on another planet (bonus points if it could be proven that it didn't originate from earth via meteor or whatever) would put a huge question mark on certain religions.

I remember watching a documentary on YT once ages ago that most governments have contingency plans in relation to how the news would be released, plans for civil disorder. It struck me as odd that one of the first people to be told apart from the head of the relevant country would be the Pope. But I guess it would affect the Catholic faith more than maybe others.

Catholisism has a way of absorbing new ideas into the faith, so they'll probably just work it in somehow. They already accepted evolution, for example.

Yup. Look at all the pagan celebrations that are now christian celebrations.

Either that or NASA finds the alien bounty hunter mothership.


Oh and by the way, my Spidey sense is tingling and telling me that this thread is heading to PWEC real soon!

Just my two cents on religion.

As a Christian my-self, I have yet to come across any place where the Bible states that there is only life here on earth. If Christians say so, that is pure conjecture and not based on any fact.

Also the Bible not only say there is a God; but talk about other intelligent beings (Angels).

Now regardless if any body here believe this or not, this opens a lot of doors of what could possibly be out there.

From my perspective the possibility for life on other planets are endless. This goes for parallel universes as well.

It could very well be everywhere and from the simplest one-celled organism to beings much more intelligent than us.

It's only a problem for the fundamentalists who take the Bible verbatim as absolute truth.

+1

Nope. As one of those " fundamentalists who take the Bible verbatim as absolute truth" there is still, as PP stated, no place in the Bible " where the Bible states that there is only life here on earth".

Agreed. I'm a Christian and I believe that the bible is the word of God. I also look for the day WHEN we do find other life ( whether simple or advanced ). I see nothing in the bible that would lead anyone to think that we are the only life in the universe.

That seems like a mighty big omission for a book concerned about which fabrics we can wear. I wonder if anything else was left out?

The Old Testament fabrics admonishment was because only the high priest was supposed to wear certain fabrics.

The Bible doesn't have list or appendix of things that can never exist. It doesn't mention aircraft or atomic bombs or iPhones or web forums either.

"As a Christian my-self, I have yet to come across any place where the Bible states that there is only life here on earth. If Christians say so, that is pure conjecture and not based on any fact."

Just to make sure that I was not misunderstood, nowhere in my post did I mention religion in my statement. There are armies of individuals, religious or not, that firmly believe that it is ridiculous to consider the fact that life may possibly exist anywhere else. It could only have occurred right here on this third rock from this particular sun.

We all know Al Gore invented the internet. You can't fool me.

They've discovered they're too incompetent to put a man into orbit. oh wait. That is something I'd wish they finally admit to.

The Pluarlities of Worlds was a widespread belief in Christiandom all the way through the 1700's that supposed that the Earth is just one of God's creations, and that on other worlds there are people who also worship God.

IIRC, there wasn't a limit on fabrics one could wear. It was the mixing of fabrics that was forbidden.

[edit]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_pluralism

I was thinking the other day that with the current model of the universe basically being analogous to a balloon with all the stars, gas, planets, etc, on the outside of the balloon, it could be argued that the terra-centric model of the universe that was officially held by the Catholic Church until just a few centuries ago was actually technically correct.

I think this discovery is both under and overrated.

On one hand if we were to discover any form of life at all on Enceladus it WOULD be a pretty big deal.

But as "proof" that "We're not alone in the universe"?

Although I already believe that it is statistically impossible we're alone in the whole universe I wouldn't see a discovery of life on Enceladus as anything mindblowing - it's part of THIS solar system, so the fact that materials and processes that happened on Earth also happened there just doesn't seem all that crazy to me.

It would just be "sibling life" - the "parent" being the materials that made the solar system itself.....

So in terms of the whole universe it technically wouldn't really be proof of anything.....

I'm a Christian and I believe that Scripture is the Word of God and that it absolutely is true. I also believe that it has and has always had an answer to many of these questions. I also believe that God does not and will not tell us everything and that we won't understand it all completely at least for a time. I know and understand that many don't believe this way. I personally do however and I willingly and thankfully put my faith in Jesus Christ the Son of God. He is my Lord and Savior and I place my trust in Him and His Word. The Biblical prophetic narrative is an amazing thing and it continues to be so.

Personally I've always enjoyed and have been fascinated by research done on the powers and principalities and those who kept not their first estate, the divine council and lesser elohim, the Rephaim and nephilim offsprings, different classes of "angels". There's really an unfortunate over use of that word as that is just one class of messenger angel and used to loosely describe all of those entities created by God. The descriptions of Cherubim are actually quite bizarre and creepy.

So riddle me this Batman,


If there are humans on other planets, wouldn't Jesus have had to visit them as well there so they could have had a chance of salvation?


It wouldn't make sense for the Messiah to just had been on Earth right? Unless of course Earth was the only planet where God decided to place intelligent life...

Only if you insist on interpreting poorly translated texts written by Men With Agendas

All paths that lead to the top of the mountain are valid.

Bingo!

The human race alone is created in God's image. Not even angels in all their splendor can claim that privilege and honor. There's also a seed war that started at the fall of man because there is a very real enemy, those who kept not their first estate.

There are very real answers to the questions some of you ask but you will not find them on SimHQ. I won't accommodate the attitude being displayed but If you're truly interested I'll try to point you in the right direction. That being said I don't have all the answers myself. I have more questions than answers but if I can, I'll try my best to tell you about the Gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ and who he Is and what that means for an individual. For some of these other interesting topics and speculations which I find fascinating I can only provide links to others and their studies and research. I can not prove or disprove anything for anyone or to their satisfaction however, if you send me a PM I'll try my best to tell you of Jesus, which I believe is the most important thing, as well as provide some links to interesting research done on ancient history, prophecy or what have you.

So that was some awesomely earth-shattering announcement from NASA huh? Come and gone and forgotten in a couple of days.

Just NASA trying to remain relevant in a world of Musk's and Bezos's.