DNA, there is NO scientific answer for random processes to create DNA. In my journey through life I always wondered why pretty much every science fiction series or books always seemed to have in it that life on earth was seeded by aliens. It was a very common theme throughout science fiction. I was curious as to why. If it was settled that DNA evolved from nothing then why all the stories about aliens? Even as a young man it didn't make sense to me. As I got older and started asking questions and studying science it became clear there is nothing natural about DNA. There is no process in nature that could create a code like DNA. Random chance processes? Really? It seems completely silly. And it dawned on me that despite being an acolyte of the cult of science and intractable that the very idea that DNA came from nothing is hard to justify for anyone that is smart enough to write or truly appreciate good science fiction. So all the stories about the earth being seeded from space. It has come into the mainstream a little bit despite there being ZERO evidence DNA started in space or was seeded by aliens.
So that is a major one that science has no good answer for. There are hopes and dreams and wishes but no hard science that suggests you can take a rocky earth 4 billion years ago and from natural processes at work end up with DNA.
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In my journey through life I always wondered why pretty much every science fiction series or books always seemed to have in it that life on earth was seeded by aliens. It was a very common theme throughout science fiction.
1. I have read many SF books and watched even more SF movies and series and very few have had the idea that life was seeded here by aliens in them.
2. ”pretty much every [SF work] always seemed to have” =/= ” a very common theme throughout science fiction” . Congratulations, you managed to contradict yourself within two sentences.
If it was settled that DNA evolved from nothing
Yeah, “if”. As no scientist says that it is “settled”, your whole bullshit falls apart.
In my works, Intelligent Design is a fact. Do you know why? Because it's a cool idea, not because I believe it. It's not reality...it's a role-playing game. The gods in my D&D games weren't real either.
Alien or divine designers are cool writing and dramatic tools, nothing more.
I even made fun of the so-called Controversy by having the evidence vanish, and a war start between Believers and Non-Believers. Again, because that's dramatic.
As for real science... it has many more questions than answers... that's the point of science.
Aliens is a very common theme in science fiction, silly.
DNA evolved from earlier DNA. Scientists are pretty sure how life might have emerged on Earth. They have several possible hypotheses.
Argument from incredulity; just because YOU don't understand it, doesn't mean it's aliens or gods.
In my journey through life I've always wondered why all the fun stuff is either illegal, immoral, illogical or fattening, but there you go.
DNA, there is NO scientific answer for random processes to create DNA.
Well then , it's a good thing that chemistry isn't random.
Sounds like a really crappy interpretation of Prometheus, itself a really crappy movie.
Look, walkingtall, there are several texts we might use to examine evolution, but the most absolutely basic is Kenneth Kardong's "Introduction to Biological Evolution"
It is the easiest text available for first year university students. Given the crap you've written above, it might be a bit of a struggle for you, but keep at it.
The reason for the 'seeded by aliens' trope is the 'apes or angels but not men' problem. Or put simply considering the vanishingly small length of time your average civilization has between the invention of fire and the point at which their technology makes them too advanced to be understood or emphasized with by the reader is, in comparison to the age of the universe, so narrow that our chances of discovering an alien race in the same phase of their civilizations life cycle is pretty much nil.
Seeding gets around that by saying most alien races were started around the same time by a mysterious agency thus explaining why they're all in the same phase of civilization. It also is used as an excuse why there's so many bumpy foreheaded aliens and why captain cant keep it in his pants making whoopy with the green alien chicks can result in viable offspring.
Or put simply, its a narrative excuse, it has nothing to do with justifying the intelligent design position outside the fictional universe in which it is employed.
I like how they ignore scientific theories because, well, it sounds silly! (to them)
OK, quantum doesn't exist because it sounds silly, and there is no speed of light because once I turn the light on it appears to instantly be on the opposite side of the room!
Anyways, in all seriousness, he's just an idiot who didn't do the research and believes the drivel that spews from his mouth like explosive diarrhoea. (Yes. You can believe science is a cult all you want, but it won't get you anywhere.)
"It was a very common theme throughout science fiction. I was curious as to why. If it was settled that DNA evolved from nothing then why all the stories about aliens?"
Because the more hacky sci-fi writers like using the same boring and stupid clichés over and over (see the "film" Prometheus) and some of them might even have as poor an understanding of Science and genetics as you do.
"If it was settled that DNA evolved from nothing then why all the stories about aliens?"
Uhh...you DO realize that DNA is a molecule, not a living organism? Molecules don't evolve.
"Even as a young man it didn't make sense to me."
Effing magnets! How do they work?
Yeah, that's almost entirely to explain why they look like humans with prosthetics on their foreheads.
it became clear there is nothing natural about DNA. There is no process in nature that could create a code like DNA.
It's just a polymer. There's nothing magic about it. It happens to have convenient properties that make it useful for cells to store data. If it hadn't developed, something else, less durable or reliable or easily duplicated, would perform the same role.
"no hard science that suggests you can take a rocky earth 4 billion years ago and from natural processes at work end up with DNA"
Wrong. Here is a rough description of how it happened.
Meteorites contain many precursors of DNA including sugars and nucleosides.
Meteorites also contain soluble phosphate.
Sunlight contains ultraviolet light.
Ultraviolet light polymerizes soluble phosphate into soluble polyphosphate.
Polyphosphate acts to synthesize many complex organic chemicals from simple precursors. In particular, it will polymerize organic monomer molecules by dehydration, converting (among other things) nucleosides into nucleotides, the building blocks of DNA. These building blocks are then linked to each other to form long chains of nucleic acids.
So long as polyphosphate is re-generated by sunlight, synthesis and polymerization will continue.
Take the World Ocean. Continue for a few hundred million years to add new organic materials from meteorites, with sunlight (via polyphosphate) pushing the results away from equilibrium, and what happens is that life comes into existence.
DFM
In my journey through life I always wondered why pretty much every science fiction series or books always seemed to have in it that life on earth was seeded by aliens
It's nowhere near "pretty much every" but it's a fairly common theme, yes.
I was curious as to why
Usually, it's to play with the idea of the children outgrowing the parents. Babylon 5 did it especially well.
If it was settled that DNA evolved from nothing then why all the stories about aliens?
Um, you do realise that fiction doesn't have to conform to reality, right?
The rest is the usual god-of-the-gaps.
"DNA, there is NO scientific answer for random processes to create DNA. "
Thanks very much for confirming that evolution is NOT RANDOM.
Now go convince all of the other moronic fundies of that for us, will you?
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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