do you think aliens are real?

[rebelcowboysnb]

Quote:
I always got a kick out of the circular logic used with fossils. This fossil is so many million years old. How do you know? Because of the layer it was found in. How do you know that layer is that old? Because of the fossils found in it.

 

[MamaRoo]

Quote:
This is very clear.

 

[sourland]

Quote:
This is very clear.

Some things are self evident!

 

[mom'sfolly]

I guess it depends on the definition you use as alien. If you mean visitors from other planets, buzzing the earth, and checking things out, then no. If you mean the possibility of life existing in places other than our small planet, then yes I believe in aliens.

They have found "goldilocks" planets, but they are too far away to really tell anything about them other than they fit the Earth's "just right" orbit around the sun. Evidently, solar systems that look like ours are rare, at least as far as we can tell. The standard model seems to be gas giants in closer orbits, eliminating the possibility of an Earth or Venus type planet with an atmosphere. This assumes that life would be similar to what is found on Earth.

Other ideas say that gas giants can support life, and there may be life systems that are very different from what is found on earth, either on very hot or very cold planets.

 

[mlward]

Of course! It would be extremely arrogant of us, as a species, to think we were the only ones. After all, it is VERY big out there....

 

[chickened]

Taken a little out of context here my quote that is

but then again what passes for science these days is self absorbing to say the least. Mamaroo I am pleased something is finally clear to you.

(other posts where you expressed a failure to grasp what was being said).
Quote:
This is very clear.

 

[MamaRoo]

Quote:
Humorous, but not really informative. Sadly she doesn't really understand evolution or biology and tries to make huge assumptions from tiny details.

Instead of just reading someone else's rambling rant why don't you take some time to do your own research and draw your own conclusions?


An advanced apology for hijacking the alien thread.

Quotes from chickened's url. non quotes are from me.

Mutations in DNA happen fairly often, but most are repaired or destroyed by mechanisms in animals and plants. All known mutations in animal and plant germ cells are neutral, harmful, or fatal.

Not even remotely. There are more than 1 million polymorphisms in the human genome, and we're still around. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymorphism_(biology)
http://hapmap.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ the project to genotype the human genome.

Believing in beneficial mutations is like believing a short-circuit in the motherboard of your computer could improve its performance.

Not at all a factual statement. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080222101547.htm http://www.gate.net/~rwms/EvoHumBenMutations.html http://www.pnas.org/content/97/11/5960.full

There are two versions of evolution theory. The main version proposes that many tiny changes over millions of years made new creatures. It is called the Modern Synthesis or Neo-Darwinian evolution.

But "major transitions in biological evolution show the same pattern of sudden emergence of diverse forms at a new level of complexity." "The principal 'types' seem to appear rapidly and fully equipped with the signature features of the respective new level of biological organization. No intermediate 'grades' or intermediate forms between different types are detectable."20

read the article they quote. It's a long speculation. http://www.biology-direct.com/content/2/1/21

I'm only 1/3 through and I'm already pretty bored with the whole thing. Look things up, separate the fact from fiction and make your own decision. All science is a process, and not a conclusion. The media may say "bacteria found on Mars", but if you read the original report you'll find that scientists reported indentations on asteroids that hit the earth that looked like the could have been the fossilized remains of methane utilizing bacteria. Science said one thing, the media totally changed it. Science will never tell you that something is true, it will only tell you if something can't be called untrue.


And with regard to aliens, I'm pretty sure there is insufficient evidence to reject the null hypothesis of "if it happened here, why not elsewhere".

 

[MamaRoo]

Quote:
This is very clear.


I do have that expectation of a logical train of thought coming from an adult. I just need to remember that this site has a LOT of kids on it that haven't yet learned to think through a concept before posting something. I need some sort of pre-teen --> adultspeak translator.

 

[Beekissed]

Having been in the medical field for the past 18 years, I've learned that what people call "science" is not entirely factual, that scientists are constantly "finding" facts that refute other scientific studies and it just goes round and round. Anyone placing their faith in the findings of science is not a realist, they are just placing faith in fallible, human hands.

And...if you wait long enough, what you thought you knew, you didn't really know because some other so-called scientist will devise a study or theory that will refute the earlier study on which you based your earlier truth.

 

[MamaRoo]

Having been in the science field for the last 25 years, I'll say again, a scientist will never tell you something is true, they will only tell you that they've failed to prove something false. How it is interpreted by those not involved in research is something else entirely.