January 22, 2025 | Jerry Bergman

Silent Space Negates Abiogenesis

Although scientists widely believe
life exists elsewhere in the universe,
no valid evidence supports this belief

 

Looking For Life on Other Worlds to Prove Abiogenesis Is Possible

by Jerry Bergman, PhD

A common assumption made by evolutionists is that life evolved on Earth eons ago due to the interplay of natural factors. It follows that, if the conditions are right, life must exist elsewhere in the universe.

The importance of finding life elsewhere is that it would support the evolutionary premise that abiogenesis is possible, given enough time. If extraterrestrial life were discovered, they presume, it would remove one of the largest impediments to accepting evolution. They think it would support the secular view that God is not necessary to explain the origin of life.[1] For this reason, some evolutionists have faith that life exists elsewhere in the universe, and remain perennially hopeful that they will find what they believe must be out there. And they are spending billions of tax dollars to find it.

Faith Without Evidence

For example, Professor David Darling wrote in harmony with this claim:

For many people, the main question about extraterrestrial life is whether or not it exists. To much of the scientific community, however, that question has already been answered: It does. And it’s probably within our own solar system.[2]

They just need to find it. They believe scientists will find if they look long enough and search broad enough.

In the twenty-four years since this statement was made, both before and after Professor Darling published his book, many reports have been written detailing the attempts to find evidence of extraterrestrial life. Most of these efforts have focused on Mars. In spite of great hopes, all attempts to find life on the red planet have thus far been a failure.[3]

Silent Mars, Silent Stars

So far no documented evidence has been found to support evidence for life on Mars or anywhere else in our solar system. One summary of the evidence concluded that, although many claims of life elsewhere have been made. For example, Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Davis, astronomer Robert Becker, Ph.D., after a careful and relevant literature review, concluded in 2021 that of the many physical potential specimens found on Mars,

no one has yet proved any of the specimens are alive or biological. It is also questionable, based on terrestrial analogs, if life could survive on the surface as they might quickly die due to gamma rays. Based on a brief review of biogeochemical cycles, atmospheric oxygen and methane and other biosignatures, and thermal anomalies that may be melting subglacial deposits of frozen water, it is probable the Martian subsurface may be habitable and inhabited. Martian life would also have evolved and adapted to the harsh environment. Although reported findings are compelling and provocative, more evidence including extraction and direct physical examination are required. It is concluded there is no conclusive proof of current or past life on Mars.[4]

Nonetheless, other astronomers believe that there is evidence for the existence of past life on Mars because of recent discoveries. Here’s an example from 2008:

More than 30 years after the Viking mission our understanding of the history and evolution of Mars has increased vastly to reveal a wetter Martian past and the occurrence of diverse environments that could have supported microbial life similar to that on Earth for extended periods of time. The discovery of Terran extremophilic microorganisms, adapted to environments previously thought to be prohibitive for life, has greatly expanded the limits of habitability in our Solar System, and has opened new avenues for the search of life on Mars. … Recent evidence for contemporary liquid water on Mars and the detection of methane in the Martian atmosphere further enhance the case for life on Mars. We argue that, given the cumulative evidence provided, life has and is likely to exist on Mars, and we have already found evidence of it. However, to obtain a compelling certainty a new mission is needed, one which is devoted to the detection of life on Mars.[5]

Leaps of Faith

Astrobiologists seek evidence of simple life in physical features of planets are stars, while SETI researchers search for advanced life in signals picked up by radio telescopes. Given the wide variety of views on the existence of extraterrestrial life, Peter Vickers and ten of his colleagues ran four surveys of their peers from February to June 2024. The surveys were designed to determine the views of astrobiologists and scientists in other fields about the likelihood of extraterrestrial life. A total of 521 astrobiologists and 534 non-astrobiologists responded and the results were published this month. Vickers et al. found in the survey results “a significant degree of consensus that extraterrestrial life is likely to exist.”[6] A breakdown of the findings revealed that fully 86.6% of the astrobiologists responded they either “agree” or “strongly agree” that it is likely that extraterrestrial life exists somewhere in the universe. Less than 2% disagreed, with 12% staying neutral.[7]

The surveys found a solid consensus among scientists for the view that some form of extraterrestrial life exists somewhere outside of the Earth. Non-astronomers largely concurred with this conclusion, producing an overall agreement score of 88.4%. The results of the questions on the existence of “complex” extraterrestrial life or “intelligent” aliens, among astrobiologists, was 67.4% agreement. For other scientists, there was 58.2% agreement.

In short, a large percentage of scientists believe that advanced forms of alien life must exist in the universe. Disagreement for all categories was low: only 10.2% of astrobiologists disagreed with the claim that intelligent aliens likely exist.

Implications

Acceptance of biological evolution requires belief in abiogenesis. Why? Because it already happened once, they think. If life evolved by natural means on Earth, given the proper conditions, then abiogenesis probably has evolved elsewhere in the universe.  Even though no one has been able to postulate a plausible set of events that could produce life from non-life, evolutionists believe that it must have occurred, since in secular science a supernatural origin of life is ruled out by definition.

To survey creation scientists would have been invaluable. Ideally, Vickers et al. should have included the category of supernatural origin on their survey. From my knowledge, recognizing that abiogenesis is not a viable option for the origin of life on Earth, most creationists reject the existence of exobiological life. Unless God created life elsewhere in the Solar System or universe, life would not be expected anywhere except on Earth.

A common belief of evolutionists is that, given enough time, anything is possible. This rationale is also used to justify abiogenesis.[8] They reason that assuming there are more than 100 billion galaxies and 100 billion-billion habitable worlds (planets or moons) in the universe, even if abiogenesis on any given habitable world is a one in a billion-billion chance, it would still be very likely that alien life exists in the universe.

Summary

Belief in exobiology is strongly correlated with the belief in evolution from molecules to man. At this time, no credible empirical evidence supports the existence of extraterrestrial life beyond Earth, either on Mars or anywhere else in the universe. Belief in exobiology, therefore, is a form of evidence-free faith.

Recommended Resources: To understand the unfathomably low improbability of life by chance, see our online book, and this Illustra Media short video. The video playlist Long Story Short from Discovery Institute offers many scientific reasons to reject abiogenesis; select the ones on the Origin of Life.

References

[1] Bergman, J., The Three Pillars of Evolution Demolished: Why Darwin Was Wrong, WestBow Division of Thomas Nelson and Zondervan, Bloomington, IN, 2022.

[2] Darling, D., Life Everywhere: The Maverick Science of Astrobiology, Basic Books, New York, NY, 2001.

[3] Cooper, H., The Search for Life on Mars: The Evolution of an Idea, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, NY, Walter. M., The Search for Life on Mars, Perseus Books, Cambridge, MA, 1980; Goldsmith, D., The Hunt for Life on Mars, Putnam, New York, NY,1997. These resources are some of the popular examples.

[4] Becker, R., “Is There Life on Mars? Where is the Proof?,” Journal of Astrobiology  7:38-75; emphasis added.

[5] Schulze-Makuch, D., et al., “The case for life on Mars,” International Journal of Astrobiology, 7(2):117-141. doi:10.1017/S1473550408004175, 2008.

[6] Vickers, P., E. Gardiner, C. Gillen, et al., “Surveys of the scientific community on the existence of extraterrestrial life,” Nature Astronomyhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-024-02451-0, January 2025.

[7] Vickers. P., et al., “Do aliens exist? We studied what scientists really think,” The Conversation,

https://theconversation.com/do-aliens-exist-we-studied-what-scientists-really-think-241505, 14 January 2025.

[8] Albert, D.Z., Time and Chance, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 2003.


Dr. Jerry Bergman has taught biology, genetics, chemistry, biochemistry, anthropology, geology, and microbiology for over 40 years at several colleges and universities including Bowling Green State University, Medical College of Ohio where he was a research associate in experimental pathology, and The University of Toledo. He is a graduate of the Medical College of Ohio, Wayne State University in Detroit, the University of Toledo, and Bowling Green State University. He has over 1,900 publications in 14 languages and 40 books and monographs. His books and textbooks that include chapters that he authored are in over 1,800 college libraries in 27 countries. So far over 80,000 copies of the 60 books and monographs that he has authored or co-authored are in print. For more articles by Dr Bergman, see his Author Profile.

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Comments

  • EberPelegJoktan says:

    I argue with my dad about life on other planets. I tell him there is zero evidence to support life. His response, “that we know of.” From a biblical perspective, life is limited to earth and earth alone. The planets and moons cannot, could not, do not and will not support life due to factors (lack of or little atmosphere, no magnetic fields, poisonous or toxic conditions, meteor strikes, radiation, etc.). I often think of a story Dr. Kent Hovind told once. He was asked what he thought of intelligent life on other planets. His response was he doesn’t find much intelligent life on Earth.

  • DaBump says:

    Of course, finding life elsewhere would be scientifically exciting apart from the theory of abiogenesis, but the standard belief (“model”) about how easily (relatively speaking) life arose here almost demands that it happened elsewhere, and if found on a more “hostile” world like Mars, so much the better. It is hard to say, though, how long we can go without finding life or receiving visitors from a distant star system before the believers will show signs of strain, although the whole affair is a matter of grasping at straws.

    Some have said that finding life on other planets is contrary to the Bible; or at least intelligent life would be. I think it is not impossible for God to have created intelligent life elsewhere, if a soul is not necessary for intelligence. The lack of contact from any such life certainly is more in harmony with the possibility that God only needed to create life on Earth, and all the rest of the universe merely shows the glory of His power and His focus on us.

    It should also be noted that microbial or microscopic life might travel to the Moon or Mars from Earth. It’s been demonstrated that sterilization procedures are not perfect every time, and organisms from bacteria to tardigrades have shown amazing abilities to survive harsh conditions. Even if it appeared that intelligent aliens landed on the White House lawn and asked to see the President, there are various ways it could be some form of deception, especially with the aid of demons. Personally, I would love to know that somehow God included such beings in His creation, but I don’t think it is at all likely and I would be very suspicious of such an event. Some have posited that something of that nature, or an apparent threat from alien spacecraft, might play into the development of the Anti-Christ’s one-world government.

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