Life Discovered on Mars

MARCH 3, 2004
By GREGORY J. RUMMO

     IF YOU MISSED the news accounts in early March of NASA’s recent discovery of evidence that water was once abundant on the planet Mars, here’s a brief recap:

The Associated Press reported on March 2, that NASA scientists concluded upon examination of the images from the Mars rover Opportunity that the Red Planet was “once soaked with water, enough to support life in a good, habitable environment.”

“Opportunity has landed in an area of Mars where liquid water once drenched the surface,” said Edward Weiler, associate NASA administrator for space science, at a news conference. “This area would have been a good, habitable environment.”

NASA scientists were quick to point out that this evidence did not mean life once existed on Mars—a little too quick it turns out. 

Today, every major newspaper in the world is reporting on its front page, “LIFE DISCOVERED ON MARS.” Opportunity came across pools of melted water in a temperate zone in a region straddling the day and night sides of Mars in what was once believed to be a barren desert with sub-zero temperatures and raging windstorms. 

In one such “micro-lagoon” cells have been isolated by one of Opportunity’s sampling arms and examined under its 100-power microscope. The video feed on NASA’s website shows the cells are undergoing mitosis.

Only teasing.

But imagine just for a minute if this were not science fiction. Would there be any doubt that scientists from around the world would be heralding the discovery of life on another planet?

All of the major networks and cable news channels would have uninterrupted, 24-7 coverage of the event.  And we wouldn’t just be hearing from the scientific community.

There would be an endless parade of pundits from every discipline imaginable.

Darwinists would have a heyday. Philosophers, psychologists, priests, pastors and rabbis would be interviewed non-stop.

Politicians from both sides of the aisle would be muscling each other out of the way to get a sound bite in at the nearest microphone and their faces in front of the camera. 

Wait a minute.

Aren’t some scientists trying to convince us about issues such as cloning, arguing that it should be allowed to go ahead because cells really aren’t life? What’s going on here?

It’s a case of familiarity breeding contempt—literally.

We are surrounded by life on planet Earth in all forms, from the microscopic level all the way up to Homo sapiens.

We just take it for granted.

Think about how many living cells you pass on your commute to work every morning.  Spring is just around the corner and it won’t be long before the trees begin to leaf out. The average tree has over 100,000 leaves and each leaf contains hundreds of cells. Throw in a few birds and insects and a couple of million blades of grass and—well—you get the idea.

We have become spoiled by the abundance of life all around us.  We debate the issue of when life begins as if we had the power to create it ourselves. But this is a process reserved for God and God alone.

Our best attempts have met with abysmal failure.

In the 1950s a chemist named Stanley Miller refluxed water, methane and ammonia, in an enclosed glass vessel through which an electric spark was passed, supposedly simulating early conditions on the earth. When trace amounts of amino acids were formed, this was trumpeted as the creation of life.

But this wasn’t even close. A few simple amino acids, even though they are believed to be the rudimentary building blocks of life, is a far cry from the proteins, enzymes and the other complex biochemical molecules necessary for living systems.

We probe the heavens with our spacecraft, hoping that somewhere out there we’ll discover life—a few single-celled organisms perhaps—and hence we’ll uncover the meaning of the universe.

We are probing in the right place, just with the wrong tools.

We must probe “The Heavens” with our hearts, not our minds, asking The Creator for His guidance in understanding these matters.  God asked Job the rhetorical question: “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?”

When we come to understand the answer to this question, only then will we see clearly the abundance of life all around us and how truly blessed we are. Only then will we learn to respect life—all life—as something sacred. n

Gregory J. Rummo is a syndicated columnist. Read all of his columns on his homepage, www.GregRummo.com. E-Mail Rummo at  [email protected]