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all 15 comments

[–]beatles910 2 points3 points ago

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I've always been puzzled by the notion that life "started" just once and expanded to all life today.

In other words, who's to say that life didn't start many times and thus we don't all have one common ancestor, but rather all life could have several common ancestors?

[–]katushka 1 point2 points ago

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It is certainly possible, but the evidence we have suggests that this is not the way it happened. You can test for this possibility by comparing the DNA and protein sequences of different organisms - the results of such analyses always point to one common ancestor to all life, and not to different biogenesis events.

[–]beatles910 0 points1 point ago

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Doesn't it seem odd then that out of all the billions of years the earth has existed, life was sparked only once? That would lead to the assumption that had that one single special event not happened, this would currently be a completely lifeless planet today. If that is the case, it sure makes me wonder if there could be a purpose to it all.

[–]katushka 1 point2 points ago

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Well, the atmosphere of the earth billions of years ago was quite different than it is now - perhaps that environment was necessary for life to start. Subsequently, the actions of that life (respiration) changed the atmosphere, maybe to one that doesn't promote new life? There are also theories that early life arrived here from an extraterrestrial source, like a meteorite.

But, another thing to understand about chance and probability is that even an event that is highly improbable will still happen at least once in an infinite universe. It could be true that a given event that was key to the creation of life was infinitesimally unlikely, but it would have happened somewhere, sometime in an infinite universe, and here is where it happened to happen, so here we are to wonder about it. I personally don't believe there is a purpose to it all, but that is for each of us to figure out, I suppose. The wikipedia article on the subject is very informative.

[–]liberalwhackjob 0 points1 point ago

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good point, but the scarcity (apparent) of life outside earth suggests that it is a very rare occurrence (if you will let me play devil's advocate).

[–]beatles910 -2 points-1 points ago*

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But we are talking about Earth, and billions of years. I wonder how likely spontaneous life is on an earth-like planet given billions of years? If it truly is that rare, it could offer a whole new perspective on intelligent design. (intelligent design meaning that the first spark of life (assuming only one spark) was done on purpose somehow by someone.)

[–]liberalwhackjob 1 point2 points ago*

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Well i am an agnostic, so you would have no hard fight getting me to believe that is possible, but if it DOES just happen by happenstance you wouldn't be conscious on another planet where you hadn't sponatneously become conscious to ponder why you aren't conscious... or something..

Edit: like.. what i'm trying to say is if it is so rare that it only happened once in the entire known universe (that which is observable in 13+/-billion light years [and as far as i know we are deciding the universe is infinite]) then uhh.. .where was i going with this?...

edit 2: i think... uh... the capability of pondering our uniqueness is dependent on us having developed our uniqueness (in this case rational thought)... It doesn't matter how rare.. if it happened 2 billion light years from here it wouldn't matter cuase then we would be on that "earth" contemplating the same thing... i can't remember what my/our original point was.

[–]obsius 0 points1 point ago

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Meh, it would make more sense if that "spark" was done at the beginning of the universe. Chances are, life is a natural phenomenon, a result of the laws of the universe. I think the more puzzling question is why does the universe have these laws and types of matter? If I was arguing intelligent design, that's where I'd put the "spark".

[–]ragafen 1 point2 points ago

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the spark occurs at the end of time and is made by us (or equivalent) (:

since the cosmos is 'circular' (or rather fractal) this spark IS right now

boy it sure is fun thinking in fractals... everything is fractal... galaxies, mountain ranges, trees...

a planet or star system without any critters crawling on it is VERY much alive, it's just that certain conditions make entropy go poop and you reach 'life' on a certain size and timescale (:

[–]obsius 0 points1 point ago

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True story. There's too much emphasis on life being some sort of great culmination/mystery. I don't think it's any more impressive than a planet revolving around a star. The whole universe is alive, and the same patterns are everywhere.

[–]Bojan6089 1 point2 points ago

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I'd love to be able to zoom into the pic a bit more.

[–]liberalwhackjob 0 points1 point ago

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This... i would use this chart so fucking much if possible zoom/click.

[–]willee 0 points1 point ago

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I thought the same thing, found the source site: http://evogeneao.com/images/Evo_large.gif

[–]liberalwhackjob 0 points1 point ago

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Earth Birth sounds like the new single from der antwoord.

[–]luhjan 0 points1 point ago

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Doesn't matter, Religious freaks will always believe in magic -- no matter how you put it.