NASA is expected to announce later today that they have discovered arsenic-based bacterial life in Mono Lake, California. This is the first discovery of a possible “second origin” life, that is, life not evolved from the same original organic molecules from which all other known life arose.
This discovery is potentially very damaging to the heart of the religious worldview: the origin (and perhaps purpose) of life. Though current theories on the formation of RNA, DNA and other basics of life have been around for decades, a confirmed second origin would introduce a particularly striking validation to those theories. The discovery of arsenic-based life also greatly widens the search parameters when looking for life on other planets.
We’ll certainly be tuned into what the religious community has to say about this fantastic new piece of human knowledge.
This is so exciting!