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However, if we start with a Biblical Judeo-Christian perspective, we see that the chance of life originating from non-life is zero percent (0.0000....%) That is to say, it is impossible. This is because (1) according to the Biblical record (God’s Word) life has never originated from non-life in any place ever, and (2) only God can create life.
Sure! According to John 1:1–3, process preceded form. That makes sense to me.
Depends on what we mean by “life”, of course. If we mean all kinds of processes, then yeah. All life we know of has resulted from processes.
If we go by the Wikipedia version of “life”:
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energy transformation, and reproduction.
In that case no; then it does seem like “biological life” has resulted from “non-biological processes”. That goes for the scientific perspective (where abiogenesis is well understood), but also for the YEC perspective: If The Creator is non-life, then life (humans and frogs and such) resulted from non-life (from the Creator). If, on the other hand, the Creator is life (as per John 14:6), then life (the Creator) existed without resulting from life.
But that’s why I try very carefully to avoid semantics. Words like “life”, “processes”, “biological” are tricky to nail down (since language is fractured, as recorded in Genesis 11:1–9). Ultimately what matters is not what we call it, but what’s there.
Speaking of the Gospel of John, it’s a wonderful example of Answers Firmly Outside Of Genesis (since it was written after). We have a living, breathing God, not a closed book.
That’s why science is so exciting! We wanna know what’s out there, on God’s Green Earth and in God’s Big Universe.
But according to the Biblical record of the creation of the universe, only the Earth was designed to be inhabited, not Mars or any other planets. The purpose of the Sun, Moon, and stars (which would include the planets) created on Day 4 of the creation week, was not to be a habitation for life, but rather to give light to the earth, provide some time-keeping functions, and also to display God’s glory (Genesis 1:14-19; Psalm 19).
Hold on; it says the greater light is to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. (That last part is “ הַגָּדֹל֙ לְמֶמְשֶׁ֣לֶת הַיֹּ֔ום וְאֶת־הַמָּאֹ֤ור הַקָּטֹן֙ לְמֶמְשֶׁ֣לֶת הַלַּ֔יְלָה ”.) Nothing about Earth-only. So don’t worry about that.
You mentioned Psalm 19, and last week I also brought up Psalm 104. God’s glory isn’t diminished from life on other planets. Not one bit. It would only be even more awesome.
I don’t like the term “secular” because it can be taken to mean that some people approach scientific and other issues without any theological underpinnings.
OK! I’ll drop it. I only used the phrase “secular scientists” in my previous reply to you:
Re: The Amazing Hypothetical Moon of Saturn
since I thought it was part of your vocab.
People who are more honest about it tend to accept some kind of pantheistic view in which the Universe itself is some kind of collective being or consciousness.
Yeah, that’s probably the shortest way to describe my position. Spinoza style.
(I’m reordering the quotes a li’l bit here for clarity.)
E.g., the person who believes in the evolution of the cosmos from a Big Bang, has to believe that there is some Force, Power, or Intelligence that starts the process and drives the self-organization of the universe.
Ah, that’s not a good fit for how I see things. I’ve messed around enough with emergent systems to not presuppose a pre-existing blueprint or fully formed Intelligence. Great things can grow out of simple things, as you might remember from Luke 13:18–19 (and in the parallel gospels). In the legendary book, we saw a story about God coming to Earth as a human form and learning things, experiencing things from a new point-of-view. (Hebrews 5 for an explicit example.)
There’s no reason to diminish and shrink down God to a particular image or icon, to this one-week, one-planet, static, unyielding picture frame, when our own senses and hearts and minds show us aeons and galaxies and this unfolding, learning, teaching, listening resounding symphony.