Eternal Questions

[Myrddraal]

Data points of known life is 1. Thus it's impossible to draw any mathematical conclusions, since some of the starting defintions are unknown.

I couldn't agree more. It's impossible to draw mathematical conclusions. We can however theorise about what is necessary for life to come into existence, and try to get a rough idea of the probability of each of those stages completing successfully. RND/DNA universe and all that. The bit I struggle with is how either of those two, the RNA universe of the DNA universe, could ever spontaneously come into existence. I'm not saying they couldn't, it just boggles the mind.

As for the creator question, isn't it a little bit redundant? If God created the universe, then he created the laws of physics. If God created the universe, then he created those mighty forces that brought together dust clouds into stars and planets. If God created the universe, perhaps he designed those laws of physics, the distributions of mass in the universe, everything we know, precisely so that it would form life?

An analogy (a poor one, but hopefully it illustrates the point):
Is creation is like a river carving a valley, simply a product of forces of nature?
Is creation God making the river source, which then goes on to carve a valley?
Is creation God making the river source & the rock and earth so that a valley would be carved?

Personally I believe that if the ultimate creator of the universe created everything then saying "God didn't make earth, gravity did" is a self contradiction.

[Ironside]

I couldn't agree more. It's impossible to draw mathematical conclusions. We can however theorise about what is necessary for life to come into existence, and try to get a rough idea of the probability of each of those stages completing successfully. RND/DNA universe and all that. The bit I struggle with is how either of those two, the RNA universe of the DNA universe, could ever spontaneously come into existence. I'm not saying they couldn't, it just boggles the mind.

The irony is that multicelluar life is mindboggingly hard (probably harder than creating life itself, based on the current insufficient data) yet for us it doesn't seem that hard to cooperate.
Also remember that modern life has had billions of years to develop to the current life forms. Any primitive cell structure would not survive until today, or survive for long if created today.

Drone, the significant advantage coal have is that it can easily bind to 4 different atoms and also easily form double bonds or higher. Silica for example doesn't form double bonds as easy. So while non-carbon life cannot be ruled out, carbon is definitly the most flexible molecule when it comes to create chains and advanced molecules.

[gaelic cowboy]

Somewhere around 13 or 14 billion years ago our universe was made or made it self that much we do know or at least think we know. So thats a fair length of time for complex elements and even more complex lifeforms.

I just dug up some old science books these figures coulds be out of date but the figures quoted are that our solar system by mass terms is made of around

70.13% Hydrogen
27.87% Helium
0.91% Oxygen

Straight away water can be formed which is a building block of our lifecycle water has some very important features.

1 As a liquid it can protect it from destructive ultraviolet radiation.
2 Waters ability to exist as both a gas, solid and a liquid allow it to spread all over the planet.
3 The ability of ice to float also means our oceans don't freeze solid very important.

Taking undersea vents and solar energy into account and a 4.5 billion year old earth its plenty time for me to be here typing on a computer.