Life has been in the news lately. It should be. I'm glad. Because life matters. You matter!
We are tremendously interested in Mars. We have spent several billion dollars to take a look. Some say that we need Mars as a place to escape earth. (Because an average temp of minus 81 degrees along with 96% carbon dioxide with only about 0.1% oxygen sounds so inviting. I guess.)
One huge interest in Mars has to do with the question of life. Is there life on Mars? NASA's Mars Perseverance Rover has taken dozens of core samples from what is believed to be the bottom of an ancient Martian lakebed.
There is great hope that ancient fossilized life might be discovered. Several tubes of samples from Mars will be returned to Earth to be examined. Perhaps evidence of ancient life will be found.
What exactly will be found? I don't know. But I know this. The surface of Mars is not teaming with life. Not one plant. Not one animal. The surface appears to be completely barren, even sterile. I think it's hard for us to imagine almost 56 million square miles of a landmass that is exceedingly more sterile than the most sterile surgical suite on earth. On our earth home, life is everywhere. I recently read an article about sea life that was discovered on a boulder beneath an Antarctic ice shelf!
(Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2267737-life-found-beneath-antarctic-ice-sheet-shouldnt-be-there/#ixzz6nQL0hQBo)The NASA scientists and engineers are so excited. You can hear in their voices. The big question will finally be answered in 10 years with future missions returning the samples to earth to be studied in laboratories around the Earth. "Are we alone?" "Has there ever been any kind of life on Mars?"
Let me say what we all know, life is miraculous. How does life happen? Is it possible for something that is not alive to spontaneously become alive? And then begin to reproduce? It is a huge question.
It is clear to me that LIFE doesn't just happen. Lifeless elements don't transform into life. If there is evidence for the existence of even a single cell of life that may have existed in the distant past on Mars I will be equally amazed.
Life has also been in the news because of the pandemic. In the past twelve months, over 500,000 Americans have died. Human beings. I could write for a very long time about those two words. But let me just say that over half a million people were alive and now they are dead. I am not talking about single-cell life. I'm talking about an estimated 30 trillion cells of amazingly wonderful complexity in each.
I hope that we value human life more than possible ancient astrobiological life. It is exceedingly important that we must value life, especially, persons if we want to thrive.
Every once in a while someone will say of those who have died as a result of Covid 19, "well, most already had some kind of health issue already." I guess they are saying, if someone would most likely die in the next few years then it's really not as big a deal if they died a little sooner of Covid.
With one day to live or one decade, or more, human life is precious, infinitely more valuable than possible biosignatures from a distant barren planet. To discount human life is dangerous. Horribly and fatally dangerous.
I was watching a NASA report about the Perseverance mission and someone wrote, "people... imagine the impact on society and religions, philosophies after ancient traces of life is discovered... Interesting times."
I hope I'm wrong, but I can't help but wonder if this comment, along with many others that have been made, suggests a hope that for once and for all, if biosignatures are discovered on Mars, we can conclude that life happens easily. It not only just happened on Earth, it happens anywhere where elements and environments that support life are found. And. If life just happens spontaneously, then God is not needed. God doesn't exist. We are all just a result of natural biological processes that are common throughout the universe.
Even though, all the right elements for life are present on Mars doesn't mean there has ever been life on Mars. I don't know what will eventually be concluded, but I know that life does not spontaneously arise. Not anywhere. Life is miraculous. The last thing anyone needs to hear these days is that life is no big deal.
Devaluing life is suicidal. As the Psalmist wisely concluded, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made." That kind of life value is needed for life on Earth to survive.
Many of our children are getting the opposite message. And it's deadly. It is no wonder that such heinous and previously unthinkable murderous crimes have taken place over the past years. It is no wonder that suicide continues to be a huge problem.
Listen to the person kindly serving at a suicide hotline as they share with the distressed individual who is considering ending their own life, "you matter! You are important. Your life is valuable."
That is an awesome massage! But it needs to be believed and shared and celebrated not just at the end, on a suicide hotline. It needs to be shared with every single human being throughout their lifetime.
In speaking about how we use the words that roll off our tongues the half-brother of Jesus wrote, "With it, we bless our Lord and Father, and with it, we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so." (James 3:9–10 ESV)
After a generation full of abortions at a rate the same or greater than this present pandemic, many have come to the wrong conclusion. The truth we need to return to, which can save our culture from self-destruction, is that people are made in the likeness of God. Our value comes from our creator. All people are created equal.
Don't get me wrong. I would love to be one of the ones chosen to be on the next Space X, or NASA trip to Mars, or the moon for that matter. But, as exciting as such a journey would be, along with all kinds of awesome discoveries, I honestly would rather spend the evening with Rhonda. She is wonderful, "fearfully and wonderfully made." After 42 years she is more wonderful to me than ever.
Truly valuing one another is what makes life possible. Loving one another is what makes life a joy.
