[meteorite-list] Alien Contact Predicted

[Darren Garrison]

On Fri, 28 Aug 2009 14:13:40 -0400, you wrote:

>nothing but conjecture based on beliefs.  Your belief in alien life forms 
>sounds religious to me, like you have faith in something you know ain't so. 

I don't have "belief in alien life forms"-- I simply do not have a conviction
that the conditions under which life can form are so utterly rare that there
will not be more than one example in all of the universe.

>
>The probabality of life popping into existence out of non living matter is 
>the smallest unit of measure above zero. Just think about it,  it's not 
>alive, poof!, it's alive.  

This only proves the profound depth of your ignorance.  Are you really
suggesting that people think a full, living cell spontaneously generated?  More
than ever, I'm thinking you are a creationist.  You sure use plenty of their
retoric.

"Life" is a fuzzy term-- it is easy to look at extremes and pick if they are
alive or they are not.  An elephant?  Alive.  A brick?  Not alive.  But there is
not a sharp transition between life and non-life.  Is a virus alive, or not?
There are well educated scientists who argue on both sides of that.  What about
a prion?  It is capable of converting other proteins to it's own malformed
shape.  Is a prion alive?  You want to understand what scientists think about
the origin of life?  Stop your own mental masturbating and pick up a few books,
because you are sorely ignorant in the area.

I will ask you point blank, and if you don't answer, then you have answered it
with your silence:

Do you think life began naturally on Earth, or do you believe it was "created?"
Because, if the latter, there is no longer room for science-based discussion.