Seriously, rationality and comprehension of science are not incompatible with religious faith. The Bible does not say that the universe is six thousand years old. A problematically overliteral interpretation does, but since the Bible is rife with metaphor and literary devices wherein complex concepts are expressed in simple terms for the benefit of uneducated nomads, not to put too fine a point on it, sensible people do not take the Bible literally. (And no-one at all ACTUALLY takes the Bible literally, start to finish, even if they claim they do. See the much-mocked proscriptions in Leviticus on things like mixed-fibre clothing.)

I’m really not comfortable with going into the explanations, though - I just sort of want to remind you that, no, intelligent Christians who also believe in science do exist. If nothing else, religion is rewarding, fulfilling, soul-satisfying and all that, but physics is just plain sexy.

Or something like that.

The former means that proto-life chemistry could be very common in the Solar system (and, why not, the galaxy) if they show up here and in space. Is there complex chemistry going on on Mars, Venus (once upon a time), maybe Jupiter or Saturn or some of their moons?

The latter means that, if there’s life out there, we’re sorta related, however distantly. I can’t wait to go visit cousin ℑ℘∗≈ on Europa!

Of course, if the critical materials for the formation of life derive from meteorites, then presumably they’re core-material type stuff, from a planetary perspective, or there’d be no reason for it to have to come from space; it’d just be there. It simultaneously makes the existence of life more likely in general, given that it exists in this form, and the existence of life in this form at all even more strange and wonderful.

The universe rules.

outrageous.

e

The absolute coolness of this knows no bounds.