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From: jho@ihu1m.UUCP (Yosi Hoshen)
Newsgroups: net.origins
Subject: Re: Another shot at creationism.
Message-ID: <640@ihu1m.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 24-Aug-85 10:44:27 EDT
Article-I.D.: ihu1m.640
Posted: Sat Aug 24 10:44:27 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 25-Aug-85 02:11:18 EDT
References: <412@baylor.UUCP> <214@cylixd.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 25

> I suspect most creationists would say that, if there is life on
> other planets, it was created there in the same manner that it was
> here.
> 
> What do evolutionists say about life on other planets?  (If it
> evolved there, it evolved in the same manner that it did here.)
> 
> 		Charli

If life, which is identical to the life found on earth, would be found
in another planet, it would destroy the foundation of evolution theory
and possibly all of science.  Since the universe is finite, the probability 
of forming identical life elsewhere can be taken to be zero or very
close to it.  When dealing with the probability of formation of life,
we have to distinguish between the probability of the formation of life
and the probability of the formation of a specific life (most creationists
do not seem to understand or ignore this distinction).  It is quite
clear that the formation of a specific life forms is very small.
On the other hand, the formation of any life forms may not be a rare
event given the age and the size of the universe.  In this context,
the formation of specific life forms is viewed as one of many possible
outcomes.
-- 
Yosi Hoshen, AT&T Bell Laboratories
Naperville, Illinois,  Mail: ihnp4!ihu1m!jho