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What If There _Is_ Life on Venus?
- matthewfelgate 6y agoLife on Venus may suggest life in the universe is common rather than rare or unique? Unless life there came from the same sources as Earth? I hope in my lifetime we explore Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, and Europa, a moon of Jupiter (and other moons of the solar system) as much as we do mars; they have more chance of having life.
- _Nat_ 6y ago[A study](https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.09761 https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.09761) posted 2020-10-19 challenges the claim that phosphine was detected in Venus's atmosphere. [The original claim](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-020-1174-4 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-020-1174-4), posted 2020-10-14.
- pachico 6y agoWell, if there is life in Venus lots of religious zealots will be pissed.
- englishrookie 6y agoI'm not so sure. All major religions survived the Copernican Turn.
- Mr_T_ 6y agoThey were pissed nonetheless.
- kzzzznot 6y agoI expect there is much to be discovered that could piss off religious zealots.
- pachico 6y agoWell, somehow I got downvoted for this, which kinda proves my point.
- andrewflnr 6y agoThink harder, and maybe you'll come up with an alternate hypothesis.
- BorisTheBrave 6y agoBefore commenting about the implications of life on Venus by using the Drake equations, please read https://slatestarcodex.com/2018/07/03/ssc-journal-club-dissolving-the-fermi-paradox/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2018/07/03/ssc-journal-club-disso... which explains why it's not the correct way of reasoning about the existence of civilizations.
- guiambros 6y agoWhat a fascinating read; thanks for sharing. Too bad it didn't get much traction when it was posted to HN [1] a few weeks ago. @dang, if you're around, maybe give the post a second chance? [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24772587 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24772587
- hackeraccount 6y agoProkaryotes popped up just about as soon as it was possible for them to do so; eukaryotes didn't show up for a billion or so years.
- question000 6y agoThis is the type of question that doesn't really effect me as an Atheist. Even if there was intelligent life on Venus, how would my life be changed as an individual?
- diegoholiveira 6y agoAs a catholic, it doesn't affect me either :)
- question000 6y agoWell I'll take the bait, is there like a second god for other planets and species? Would non-human intelligent life have souls? Why wasn't this mentioned in the Bible? Doesn't this mean that both creation stories are inconvertibly false? I understand that Catholics usually believe in evolution, but how could they square away the fact the vast majority of all life could exist without knowing salvation via Christ? Being ignorant of Christ doesn't automatically mean you are damned, but this now means belief in Christ is optional and kind of just a localized thing some humans choose to do. It really should effect you, if for example aliens claimed their savior was the "real" messiah, how could you dismiss that? I get that these are just dogmatic questions that arise everytime two religions become aware of each other, but it metaphysically pretty difficult too, like events the Rapture essentially cease to make sense or will have to be radically re-imagined. Questions about whether biblical commands apply to ET life are going to be difficult as well, let alone missionary work. Upon reflection ET life isn't necessarily bad for the logical consistency of religion as I initially thought, but is more organizationally difficult.
- roenxi 6y ago> Why wasn't this mentioned in the Bible? The universe is quite large and the bible is a fairly small book. It is difficult to see how it could cover everything. If the prophets were adding interesting technical details on how the universe fits together hopefully some P = NP tips or guides to fission or somesuch would be further up on the priority list than the state of salvation of alien souls. I'm not religious at all, but I don't see why the Catholic worldview would have problems with the idea that aliens exist and God has made some sort of arrangement for them. Maybe god just compartmentalises civilisations really well, god has many talents.
- andreskytt 6y agoWhat is this european-american worldview the article mentions? In most ancient mythologies of Europe from Greece to Scandinavia, humans are but a sidenote in the vast complex menagerie of weird creatures inhabiting the universe. Show up late, too. Christianity, yes, is very human-centric but it is weird for an anthropologist to ignore this complexity
- coldtea 6y ago>Christianity, yes, is very human-centric but it is weird for an anthropologist to ignore this complexity Well, Christianity, aside from angels, has a whole load of non-human creatures itself - cherubims, seraphims, etc. And the case for aliens proper have also been considered for centuries. An example: In a 2008 statement, José Gabriel Funes, head of the Vatican Observatory, said "Just as there is a multiplicity of creatures on earth, there can be other beings, even intelligent, created by God. This is not in contrast with our faith because we can't put limits on God's creative freedom".
- TheDesolate0 6y agoI too can make up infinite imaginary shit.
- biggestlou 6y agoI’m still looking for intelligent life on this planet!
- TheDesolate0 6y agoIt's commin' right fer us!
- TheDesolate0 6y agoWe should bring it democrassy and jeebus.