FortKnox's Journal: Life on Mars and Evolution

I was watching a show on my TiVo yesterday (from the Discovery channel, which is one of the trifecta channels... discovery, history, tlc), and it had a VERY interesting theory about Mars.

If we prove that life once existed on Mars, it is proof that evolution may not work (or else the life would have evolved into something to survive Mars' harsh atmosphere). But this means that life existed somewhere besides earth. So you have proof of extraterrestrial life, but proof that evolution may not be right.

Talk about a monkey wrench. Anyway, its just a theory I thought was interesting enough to share.

Oh, and don't get into a flamewar about evolution vs creationism, so flame off.

Hmm

[JMZero]

Evolution works good when something kills 99% of a population - all but the strongest. Evolution works really rather less good when something kills 100% of a population.

Re:Hmm

[daoine]

*snarf*

That's precisely what I wanted to say, but your way is funnier.

Although, technically, evolution doesn't have to necessarily be Darwinian. The dumbest/weakest/lamest could survive just by luck, and the species would look differently...

Um

[baldass_newbie]

I wouldn't accept that since some species/life forms can't/don't adapt that evolution is a failure.
Evolution works when there are favorable circumstances to evolve.
If this planet had lost its atmosphere, all of our evolution wouldn't have been worth a wit.
I won't touch creationism either. What's frightening is the traction it's getting. Personally, I'd like to think God 1.) would want to make it so realistic that we have to find out the entire 6 Trillion year prehistory and 2.) he's got a sense of humor or he wouldn't have given us Life of Brian. [imdb.com]

evolution doesn't guarantee success

[banky]

There's nothing in modern theories that supports that idea. Speaking broadly, yes, it should be able to evolve. However, you have to have a complete understanding of what it's "pushing against". Maybe there was an event of some sort that caused a radical change, which life was unable to adapt quickly to. Maybe the process of natural selection just didn't work! Perhaps the environment wasn't diverse enough. The universe is a harsh place and is bound to be full of failed "experiments" with life. Not every evolutionary path leads to digital watches... Sometimes you're going to get bupkis.

It's obvious

[Xaoswolf]

I have no clue what you are talking about, I mean, we've never sent anything into space. It's all a hoax, face it, your round eart propoganda will lose out in the end and the world will know that the earth is FLAT [lhup.edu].