There is an article that has just started doing the rounds, which was originally published in the Journal of Cosmology. What is so hilarious about it is secular humanists seem to be moving further away from the standard Darwinian model of the spontaneous generation of life on earth from inorganic matter, and clutching evermore at the straws of little green men being involved – or at least an extraterrestrial origin to life.
To the rational and scientific among us, that is simply postponing the problem; for how did life generate by itself on Planet Z, or indeed anywhere in the vast and lifeless universe? But rather than to point out the fact that more and more secularists are running scared from Darwinism for the complete lack of evidence, I would like to clear up things with the truth on this article.
Basically, a team from Sheffield University had nothing better to do than send a balloon up into the stratosphere during the recent Perseid meteor shower. What they got (it is not stated whether living or fossilised) were some diatoms (single-celled algae) mixed in the dust that collected on the microscope studs protruding from the balloon. Professor Wainwright, who was involved in the study, boldly stated “…we can only conclude that the biological entities originated from space”. He said there is no mechanism that could have got them up there, and his conclusion is that life is continually arriving from space and certainly did not originate on Earth; “New textbooks will have to be written!” he emphatically added.
Poor old Charlie. I guess Darwinism will be replaced with Wainwrightism or whoever can plagiarise Wainwright’s paper first. The truth is, secular humanists never had an special allegiance to Darwin, it was his theory they liked. Now Darwinism has been more shot down than a suicidal duck in hunting season they are looking for another idol that they can sacrifice their reason, and a generation of school children to.
Problem is, we know exactly how the same diatoms we find in seas, lakes and rivers can get into the atmosphere – through volcanic eruptions. A team in New Zealand studied this and found both fossilized and living diatoms can be blasted into the atmosphere when a lake formed in an inactive volcano gets a rude awakening during an eruption. Mount Pinatubo erupting in the Philippines in 1991 sent ash 45km into the stratosphere! That is a lot higher than the maximum of 27km that the diatoms found their way onto the balloon at.
With 60 volcanoes erupting a year, you can bet that if people sent balloons up at anytime and were analysing what they collected they would find these stratospheric diatoms. Not from space, not proving a thing apart from the power of volcanism. You can read about the study below, and find the main article referred to on any tabloid website. Sigh!
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-09/gsoa-obh091013.php
