Whether you believe in God or not, you have to accept that some uncreated entity, outside our physical universe, resulted in the origin of our universe, over 13.6 billion years ago. Call it God, the multiverse, or whatever, it is the major unsolved scientific mystery.
For decades, astronomers wondered why most nearby galaxies are speeding away from the Milky Way instead of being pulled in by its gravity. New simulations reveal the answer: our galaxy sits in a gigantic, flat sheet of matter surrounded by huge empty voids. This hidden structure—dominated by dark matter—balances gravitational forces and lets neighboring galaxies drift outward. The discovery finally explains the puzzling motions of galaxies just beyond our Local Group.
Humanity may not be extraordinary but rather the natural evolutionary outcome for our planet and likely for many others, according to a new model for how intelligent life developed.
The model, upends the decades-old “hard steps” theory that intelligent life was an incredibly improbable event, suggests that maybe it wasn’t all that hard at all. The new interpretation of humanity’s origin increases the probability of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe.
A team of astronomers led by Abubakar Fadul from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy has discovered complex organic molecules—including the first detection of ethylene glycol and glycolonitrile—in the proto-planetary disk of the outbursting protostar V883 Orionis.
These compounds are considered precursors to the building blocks of life. This suggests that the seeds of life are assembled in space and are widespread. Astronomers have discovered 17 complex organic molecules associated with planet and star formation before. Many of them are considered building blocks of life, such as amino acids and nucleic acids or their precursors.
First developed in1983, the “hard steps” model argues that our evolutionary origin was highly unlikely due to the time it took for humans to evolve on Earth relative to the total lifespan of the sun—and therefore the likelihood of human-like beings beyond Earth is extremely low.
“Humans didn’t evolve ‘early’ or ‘late’ in Earth’s history, but ‘on time,” when the conditions were in place. Maybe other planets are able to achieve these conditions more rapidly than Earth did, while other planets might take even longer.”
In the new study, the researchers proposed that the timing of human origins can be explained by the sequential opening of “windows of habitability” over Earth’s history, driven by changes in nutrient availability, sea surface temperature, ocean salinity levels and the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere.
The Quran describes that Allah “made from water every living thing” (21:30). Another verse states: “Allah created every animal from water. Of them are some that creep on their bellies, some that walk on two legs, and some that walk on four. Allah creates what He wills, for truly Allah has power over all things” (24:45).
The first pre-life and very early life forms evolved over four billion years ago in very deep ocean vents and on ocean shores. Since then different pre-human species have numbered in billions of extinct species, and in 10-20 millions of currently living species.
During Medieval times almost all Christian theologians accepted the Ptolemaic earth centered Greek view of the universe as an absolute universal truth of both nature and religion. The Catholic Inquisition punished those who dared to voice other ideas.
Even in America today, many Christians avoid learning about new scientific discoveries according to a (February 2015) study “Religious Understandings of Science”. Members of non-Christian religions; 42 percent of Jews, and 52 percent of Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus (taken as a group) are more than twice as interested in new scientific discoveries as Protestant evangelicals (22 percent) because about 30 percent of all evangelicals see the world-views of science and religion as being in opposition.
I do not know why so many Christians believe that the rarity of life in our universe proves that God must have created life only on this planet. Perhaps they believed that if intelligent life were found to exist on other planets; it would diminish the miracle of God’s creation of Human Beings.
For me as a Reform Rabbi the opposite is true. That God’s universal creation is filled with life is simply the result of God’s mercy and love of all living things. The Qur’an and the Hebrew Bible both teach that the Living God created the whole universe to be conducive to the universal development and evolution of life.
Now scientists have identified a group of planets outside our solar system with the same chemical conditions that may have led to life on Earth. They found that the chances for life to develop on the surface of a rocky planet like Earth are connected to the type and strength of light given off by its host star.
They propose that stars which give off sufficient ultraviolet (UV) light could kick-start life on their orbiting planets in the same way it likely developed on Earth, where the UV light energizes a series of chemical reactions that produce the building blocks of life.
Carbon from meteorites that slammed into the young Earth interacted with nitrogen in the atmosphere to form hydrogen cyanide. The hydrogen cyanide rained to the surface, where it interacted with other elements in various ways, powered by the UV light from the sun. The chemicals produced from these interactions generated the building blocks of RNA, the close relative of DNA which most biologists believe was the first molecule of life to carry information.
Today very few religious people think that if the earth revolves around the sun, it makes humans less important to God. The value, meaning and importance of a human life is not a scientific issue; it is a religious issue.
So, when before the end of this decade, astronomical evidence of stars with earth-like planets, at the right distance from their star to have liquid water, and an atmosphere with oxygen, is found; there will be no need for Evangelical Christians to deny the evidence and condemn the scientists as anti-religious.
Religious people need to know that the Torah and the Qur’an clearly teach that the Living God created the whole universe to be conducive to the universal evolution of life.
As a Psalm of David says, “Your kingdom is a kingdom of all worlds; and Your dominion is for all generations.” (145:13); and as the Qur’an says, “We have not sent you but as a blessing for all the worlds.” (Al-Anbiya 107). Muslim commentators say this refers to the 18.000 worlds created by Allah. Our world is just one of them. (Mir’at-e-Kainat, vol.1, p.77)
Whether you believe in God or not, you have to accept that some uncreated entity, outside our physical universe, resulted in the origin of our universe, over 13.6 billion years ago. Call it God, the multiverse, or whatever, it is the major unsolved scientific mystery.
For decades, astronomers wondered why most nearby galaxies are speeding away from the Milky Way instead of being pulled in by its gravity. New simulations reveal the answer: our galaxy sits in a gigantic, flat sheet of matter surrounded by huge empty voids. This hidden structure—dominated by dark matter—balances gravitational forces and lets neighboring galaxies drift outward. The discovery finally explains the puzzling motions of galaxies just beyond our Local Group.
Humanity may not be extraordinary but rather the natural evolutionary outcome for our planet and likely for many others, according to a new model for how intelligent life developed.
The model, upends the decades-old “hard steps” theory that intelligent life was an incredibly improbable event, suggests that maybe it wasn’t all that hard at all. The new interpretation of humanity’s origin increases the probability of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe.
A team of astronomers led by Abubakar Fadul from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy has discovered complex organic molecules—including the first detection of ethylene glycol and glycolonitrile—in the proto-planetary disk of the outbursting protostar V883 Orionis.
These compounds are considered precursors to the building blocks of life. This suggests that the seeds of life are assembled in space and are widespread. Astronomers have discovered 17 complex organic molecules associated with planet and star formation before. Many of them are considered building blocks of life, such as amino acids and nucleic acids or their precursors.
First developed in1983, the “hard steps” model argues that our evolutionary origin was highly unlikely due to the time it took for humans to evolve on Earth relative to the total lifespan of the sun—and therefore the likelihood of human-like beings beyond Earth is extremely low.
“Humans didn’t evolve ‘early’ or ‘late’ in Earth’s history, but ‘on time,” when the conditions were in place. Maybe other planets are able to achieve these conditions more rapidly than Earth did, while other planets might take even longer.”
In the new study, the researchers proposed that the timing of human origins can be explained by the sequential opening of “windows of habitability” over Earth’s history, driven by changes in nutrient availability, sea surface temperature, ocean salinity levels and the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere.
The Quran describes that Allah “made from water every living thing” (21:30). Another verse states: “Allah created every animal from water. Of them are some that creep on their bellies, some that walk on two legs, and some that walk on four. Allah creates what He wills, for truly Allah has power over all things” (24:45).
The first pre-life and very early life forms evolved over four billion years ago in very deep ocean vents and on ocean shores. Since then different pre-human species have numbered in billions of extinct species, and in 10-20 millions of currently living species.
During Medieval times almost all Christian theologians accepted the Ptolemaic earth centered Greek view of the universe as an absolute universal truth of both nature and religion. The Catholic Inquisition punished those who dared to voice other ideas.
Even in America today, many Christians avoid learning about new scientific discoveries according to a (February 2015) study “Religious Understandings of Science”. Members of non-Christian religions; 42 percent of Jews, and 52 percent of Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus (taken as a group) are more than twice as interested in new scientific discoveries as Protestant evangelicals (22 percent) because about 30 percent of all evangelicals see the world-views of science and religion as being in opposition.
I do not know why so many Christians believe that the rarity of life in our universe proves that God must have created life only on this planet. Perhaps they believed that if intelligent life were found to exist on other planets; it would diminish the miracle of God’s creation of Human Beings.
For me as a Reform Rabbi the opposite is true. That God’s universal creation is filled with life is simply the result of God’s mercy and love of all living things. The Qur’an and the Hebrew Bible both teach that the Living God created the whole universe to be conducive to the universal development and evolution of life.
Now scientists have identified a group of planets outside our solar system with the same chemical conditions that may have led to life on Earth. They found that the chances for life to develop on the surface of a rocky planet like Earth are connected to the type and strength of light given off by its host star.
They propose that stars which give off sufficient ultraviolet (UV) light could kick-start life on their orbiting planets in the same way it likely developed on Earth, where the UV light energizes a series of chemical reactions that produce the building blocks of life.
Carbon from meteorites that slammed into the young Earth interacted with nitrogen in the atmosphere to form hydrogen cyanide. The hydrogen cyanide rained to the surface, where it interacted with other elements in various ways, powered by the UV light from the sun.
The chemicals produced from these interactions generated the building blocks of RNA, the close relative of DNA which most biologists believe was the first molecule of life to carry information.
Today very few religious people think that if the earth revolves around the sun, it makes humans less important to God. The value, meaning and importance of a human life is not a scientific issue; it is a religious issue.
So, when before the end of this decade, astronomical evidence of stars with earth-like planets, at the right distance from their star to have liquid water, and an atmosphere with oxygen, is found; there will be no need for Evangelical Christians to deny the evidence and condemn the scientists as anti-religious.
Religious people need to know that the Torah and the Qur’an clearly teach that the Living God created the whole universe to be conducive to the universal evolution of life.
As a Psalm of David says, “Your kingdom is a kingdom of all worlds; and Your dominion is for all generations.” (145:13); and as the Qur’an says, “We have not sent you but as a blessing for all the worlds.” (Al-Anbiya 107). Muslim commentators say this refers to the 18.000 worlds created by Allah. Our world is just one of them. (Mir’at-e-Kainat, vol.1, p.77)