Neil deGrasse Tyson seems to just ignore the idea of panspermia and probably is completely rejecting the theory of directed panspermia.
Panspermia is the idea that DNA didn’t just poof into existence on earth, instead many scientists theorize that DNA arrived on earth, perhaps on an astroid or comet.
Who put the theory out initially? Just one of the two people who discovered DNA, Francis Crick. After understanding the complexity of DNA, Crick felt that DNA must’ve been seeded here on earth by a greater intelligence.
Therefore, DNA might be the universal foundation for life. Universal as in, every life form in the galaxy is based on similar DNA. Therefore life forms from around the universe would end up resembling each other as they all evolved on similar planets that could host life (planets with moderate gravity, moderate temperatures, gaseous atmospheres, carbon and water).
One of the problems with the idea that DNA came into existence on earth is the “membrane-DNA anomaly”. “What is that?”, you ask.
DNA cannot function correctly unless it is surrounded by a protective cellular membrane. However, cellular membranes are generated by DNA instructions residing within the DNA. So how was the first membrane generated, if it’s generation required properly functioning DNA? This anomaly is much more difficult to overcome than the chicken-egg anomaly.
There are some theories but there are no experiments that demonstrate exactly how DNA could spontaneously generate complex membrane structures that assist it in functioning correctly.
Finally, besides the “life began on earth by accident“ theory and the Panspermia theory there is one more possible explanation for the universality of DNA based life. That would be the existence of some kind of universe wide “information field” unaffected by distance. This information field would communicate the instructions for building DNA across the entire universe to any planet capable of hosting life. Most scientists don’t like this theory because it sounds like “God created Life” teachings from most religions.
How did most religions get this idea? Well, if that information field does exist, perhaps it communicates spiritual ideas to living beings. This is what “God consciousness” is.
Yes Neil, someday science will prove that God exists. Thanks for playing dumb-ass.
Neil is a scientist. You're not allowed to question, challenge or disagree with scientists. They know everything and unless you're also a scientist, you know nothing. Hopefully that clears things up. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go binge-watch 17 straight hours of delta variant fear porn.
If you like "Delta Variant", you're gonna love the sequel ... "Delta Variant Variant"
unless you're also a scientist and you agree with everything they say
Yeah. That.
Neil is a body snatcher
Neil DeGrasse the Science Ass.
Neil is a glorified kindergarten science teacher
He hasnt gotten the latest notice from his overlords
Neil is simply applying the principles of parsimony along with Occam's Razor. One of the problems with reporting these days, is there are all kinds of hidden assumptions and context made during a statement that are left out of any article. Yes, if you assume panspermia is the most likely reason for our existence, then Neil's argument becomes mute, because you are using an unstated assumption. Assuming intelligent design of any kind also renders his argument mute.
So it is important to always acknowledge the context of a statement.
In truth, when you follow Occam's Razor to it's logical conclusions, under certain assumptions it is much more likely we are a simulation in some handheld computer game by an evil alien child hanging out in his basement than anything real. Neil is even on record agreeing with this. Does any of this matter?
Not really, because it is all unfalsifiable and therefore solidly outside the field of science. Until we can identify which of our assumptions are correct and which are invalid, we can't really prove anything about the origin and patterns of life one way or the other. Those assumptions and beliefs properly belong in the field of religion, not science. And you can no more prove Neil's assumptions are invalid than you can prove yours are valid.
Do keep in mind, all theories of evolution right now rely on some kind of "magic" to establish life, panspermia or otherwise. We can easily produce organic amino acids and proteins in a lab with the right chemicals and conditions. But the complexity of life is so far beyond the complexity of a protein that we can't even formulate a credible theory of how to get from one to the other, let alone an experiment to test if it really happened.
So all I can do is ask the evil alien controlling this game to enter a cheat code and place a million dollars in my bank account. That would really help me out right now...
My problem with scientists is that they always want to rely on some type of experiment in order to produce statements about the world. Yet when they’re unable to use an experiment to prove their understanding of the world they still stick to that understanding which is based on incomplete evidence. Also, when they see evidence and testimony of billions of people having spiritual experiences, they label it as anecdotal.
Despite the fact that thousands of people have come forth with various types of encounters with UFOs or advanced intelligent life, people like Neil Degrasse Tyson assume that 100% of those people are experiencing some kind of cognitive defect, hallucination or logical fallacy and so they label large groups of people as fools, non-experts or liars.
Myself, I trust the human mind and body to perceive not just this planet but the entire universe. We are biological, chemical and physical beings (physical in the sense that we interact with the universe at the level of physics). What this means that is that our minds and bodies are interacting with the universe at quantum levels. Even if there are still forces that are yet to be confirmed by science as, evolution dictates that life would try to interact with those forces.
This is based on the “life-energy principle” which is: “Life forms naturally seek out all energy and information encoded in energies that can enhance their survival.”
For example, with birds, despite their inability to intellectually understand the many of the forces of nature, birds have an instinctual understanding of physical things like gravity, the motion of gases, light, sound, chemical concentrations of gases and the magnetic field of the earth.
If I asked a scientist, “Do humans possess any senses that we are unaware of?”, they would laugh at me and say, “How can I possess senses that I’m not aware of?”
Yet, only about about two years ago did cognitive scientists confirm that parts of the human brain do respond to the earth’s magnetic field. I’m guessing that thanks to our reliance on cognitive mapping processes, actual maps and navigational tools that most modern humans have lost touch with that natural sense.
Because my mind is open, I’ve seen hundreds of cases of anecdotal evidence where it seems that animals of completely different species are communicating at a level that most humans are not aware of (eg. a video of a cat and dolphin playing together). It’s not possible that each and every species of animal on earth understands the verbal or gestural language of each and every others species, yet different species of animal seem to be communicating with each other as they either decide to compete or cooperate with each other.
Is animal communication a channel of communication that most non-psychic humans are just not connected to anymore? Why is it that humans are particularly disconnected from nature?
Because most scientists claim there is no peer approved evidence of psychic or spiritual phenomenon, most of them will avoid any further examining these types of phenomenon, even when there are scientific ways to evaluate things like the spiritual impact of psychedelic drugs on human behavior and happiness. Recently only a few scientists have had the courage to look into this incredible topic. People walking around on serotonin reuptake inhibitor‘s trying to cure their depression, don’t even know that the illegal drug DMT is actually a neurotransmitter produced in the brains of mammals, including humans. If you don’t believe me, go find the article about that topic published in the journal Nature.
It’s sad to say that today, at times, the scientific method has become a dead end for actually understanding ourselves, our world and our universe.
Panspermia is one possibility. Another is simple evolution. If a life form is successful in one ecosystem it will likely exist with a similar physical form in any other similar ecosystem. Look at cars today. They mostly look the same. Certain laws (regulations) were put in place along with other criteria ( price point, market forces) that drastically limited the possible forms (physical characteristics) a modern car could take.
neil is a fraud, science is a lie.