Martian Lake Still Won't Lead to Life | The Institute for Creation Research
Martian Lake Still Won't Lead to Life

Evolutionary belief holds as a central tenet that life emerged and developed “naturally,” even though mere natural laws of chemistry and physics are insufficient causes. If life occurred spontaneously on earth, then the emergence and development of life should be taking place elsewhere, perhaps in many places in the universe.

Though Mars is about 38 million miles away when it is closest to earth, scientific spacecraft have been used to establish the presence of polar ice caps on the red planet.1 And recently, a University of Colorado research team found images of the shoreline of an ancient 400-square-mile lake in the Shalbatana Vallis valley.2

Liquid water is essential for life. Thus, evidence of water on Mars is intensely interesting to those desperate to find the conditions for life somewhere other than earth, since such a discovery would be seen as bolstering evolutionary belief.

But water is only one of dozens of necessary preconditions for sustaining life, including “a hydrologic cycle coexisting with land,… a strong magnetic field;”3 a system for balancing carbon dioxide, oxygen, ethane, and methane;4 specified radioactive decay rates; continents to mix marine nutrients; just the right size and mass for the planet; and a satellite very much like the moon that can stabilize the earth’s tilt and support vital marine algal oxygen production by causing tides.

Thus, even if water were found below the icy Martian surface, the other conditions required for life are not available on Mars. The likelihood of finding even the tiniest bacterial life there is near zero. A dry lake bed on a cold planet is too thin a thread to weave a blanket of belief in “Mars’ biological past.”2

Considering the scientific evidence from Mars, and especially considering the record of origins passed down to mankind from the Creator in the Bible, it is clear that life was, is, and will remain earth-dependent.

References

  1. Snelling, A. A. 2007. Water Activity on Mars: Landscapes and Sedimentary Strata. Acts & Facts. 36 (2). Ice beneath Martian surface was also experimentally confirmed: See NASA Spacecraft Confirms Martian Water, Mission Extended. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory press release, July 31, 2008.
  2. CU Researchers Find First Definitive Evidence for Ancient Lake on Mars. University of Colorado at Boulder press release, June 17, 2009.
  3. Wiker, B. The Privilege of Life on Earth. The Catholic World Report. Posted via the Access Research Network on arn.org November 22, 2001, accessed June 24, 2009.
  4. Thomas, B. Does Earth Balance Carbon Dioxide Levels Automatically? ICR News. Posted on icr.org January 12, 2009, accessed June 24, 2009.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/JHUAPL/MSSS/Brown University

* Mr. Thomas is Science Writer at the Institute for Creation Research.

Article posted on July 10, 2009.

The Latest
ACTS & FACTS
Continuous Environmental Tracking : An Engineering-Based Model...
Purpose The Institute for Creation Research is engaged in our biggest science initiative in the last two decades, and it could be our most important...

ACTS & FACTS
CET: Testing the Cavefish Model
Staff Writer Purpose The Institute for Creation Research (ICR) is testing an engineering- based model of rapid biological adaptation called...

ACTS & FACTS
Original Biochemistry in Fossils
Purpose In 1997, paleontologist Dr. Mary Schweitzer accidentally stumbled upon what appeared to be blood vessels and blood cells from a T. rex...

ACTS & FACTS
Debunking an Iconic Uniformitarian Ice Age Theory
Purpose The Milankovitch, or astronomical, theory holds that the timing of Ice Ages is controlled by slow changes in Earth’s orbital and...

ACTS & FACTS
ICR and Explaining the Ice Age
by Larry Vardiman, Ph.D., and Michael J. Oard, M.S.* Purpose There is strong geological evidence for an Ice Age, so the Institute for Creation...

ACTS & FACTS
Planetary Magnetism
Purpose In 1971, Dr. Thomas Barnes publicized a then “trade secret” of scientists studying the earth’s magnetic field, which...

ACTS & FACTS
Cosmology Research
Purpose Taking the Hebrew text of Scripture at face value without inserting gaps or revising the meanings, the universe is only about 6,000 years...

ACTS & FACTS
The Coconino Sandstone: Water, not Wind
Purpose The Coconino Sandstone is one of the most well-known formations in Grand Canyon. The blond-colored sandstone, just three layers down from...

ACTS & FACTS
Global Stratigraphy Supports a Progressive Worldwide Flood
Purpose Is there geological evidence for a global flood? Is there evidence that the waters rose and peaked on Day 150 as recorded in Genesis 8?...

ACTS & FACTS
Human-Chimp DNA Similarity Research Refutes Evolution
Purpose An oft-repeated claim of evolutionary propaganda is that the DNA of chimpanzees and humans is 98.5% identical. This high level of DNA...