Oldest fossil ever found on Earth dating back 4.2bn years shows alien life on Mars is likely

originally posted by: projectvxn
a reply to: Breakthestreak

You're spot on man. It's a complete lack of understanding of the scientific method.

Exactly. An intelligent person should believe in "A" . Then, when someone comes along and says "look, "A" isn't actually real, here's evidence of "B". The intelligent person WILL say "I no longer believe in "A" due to the Evidence of "B".

A THICK person will say " you're not intelligent because you don't stick to your beliefs, you change your mind, you flip-flop "

Like you say, complete lack of understanding.

a reply to: Christosterone

But religion says that it was 5,000 years ago and God created everything we see and so, non of this can be true. The book says bible on it and so proves that it is true and factual. Other books too, the Quaran says similar things and well, that cannot be lying can it?

I mean come on, life, living and thirving on its own. You mental?






.... Jokes.

Amazing find. Sure opens the mind up even more to the possibility that is life as you put it, was created fairly quickly upon creation of its formation then, this would deem life elsewhere could exist.

Can you imagine a science fiction fish living at boiling temperatures in a sulfuric acid environment? If you do not, you must know that scientists from University of Victoria, Canada, have found a new species of tonguefish (Symphurus) that lives in these conditions. The fish were recorded on three expeditions to undersea volcanoes in the western Pacific. Huge numbers were seen to gather around the sulfur ponds which well up from beneath the seafloor. "There are a lot of toxic heavy metals coming out of these active volcanoes," explained Dr John Dower, a fisheries oceanographer. "The water is very warm, and it can be very acidic, the pH can be as low as two like sulphuric acid," he said. "And yet here we've got a group that has not previously been seen in this type of environment and they're doing very well - they're actually thriving."

Far as I know there is more fish like this on our planet. Which is amazing, considering even science would leave most to believe that life could not exist without perfect circumstances of oxygen and just the right distance from the sun. However this clearly is not true. So the game is still open to huge debate on what building blocks we really need to create life. It seems, anything and everything.

originally posted by: Snarl
People have little idea of how old the Earth is. Common sense would dictate it is far far older than the 4-or-so billion years science postulates. Somebody found a way to date it beyond 4B years. The number was big. People latched onto it and the rest is legend. Since then ... they've been playing it safe ... but it continues to age.

Cool thread, brother Chris. S&F

They say the "surface" (entire crust including ocean floor) of the Earth "recycles" itself, with older pieces continuously being pushed down into the hot mantle to become magma, while new crust is continuously formed from recently cooled magma from deep below.

It might be near impossible to estimate Earths true age if, for example, everything older than around 4.5 billion years has long since been pushed on through the conveyer belt system, the evidence of its existence pulverized and molten back down to become new "source" material for new lands/ocean floors.


I guess at one point as the earth was forming, it was entirely liquid magma. I don't know if there is any reliable way to know how long this condition persisted for, or how many times the entire surface were sterilized & re-liquid magma-ized...due to sizeable impacts thought to be commonplace during/soon after the formation of the solar system. Of course, the stat mostly interesting to most, is how much time has passed since the most recent solidification...

But, for all we know, some form of intelligent life and civilization(s) could have evolved before total obliteration. Maybe?

originally posted by: Vasa Croe
There are simply too many options out there to not believe in other intelligence in the universe.

I think "absolutely no evidence to prove it" pretty much nullifies all those other options.

originally posted by: Blue Shift

originally posted by: Vasa Croe
There are simply too many options out there to not believe in other intelligence in the universe.

I think "absolutely no evidence to prove it" pretty much nullifies all those other options.

"We have never set foot on another planet so therefor, other planets don't exist"

Low IQ anyone??

originally posted by: Blue Shift

originally posted by: Vasa Croe
There are simply too many options out there to not believe in other intelligence in the universe.

I think "absolutely no evidence to prove it" pretty much nullifies all those other options.

There IS evidence , there's a small insignificant planet, orbiting a small insignificant star and its TEEMING with intelligent life. You're standing on it.

But hey, it MUST be the only one right? Out of INFINITE other solar systems in the universe, this MUST be the ONLY one with life on it.

That's what intelligent people would believe anyway.


The universe is so enormous that will likely NEVER be able to see beyond a few dozen billion light years, therefore , according to the low IQ's, anything beyond what we can physically see, does not exist.

a reply to: Christosterone

This is stupid. We all know the earth is only 6000 years old...

Some old book written by multiple people over different periods of time said so.

originally posted by: Christosterone

It’s life, but not as we know it. The oldest fossil ever discovered on Earth shows that organisms were thriving 4.2 billion years ago, hundreds of millions of years earlier than previously thought.

But, but, but earth is only 6000 years old, the bible tells me so...

...I jest, this is an incredible discovery. Of course this means that we are an even smaller blip on the evolutionary timeline than we first thought...

Apparently, Martin van Kranendonk, who was part of discovering the till now oldest fossils, claims those recent findings are not really fossils. Before making it a fact, we should wait what for other experts opinion.

originally posted by: muzzleflash

originally posted by: jjkenobi
Guess they better re-write all those history books, and update all those scientific timelines. Again.

And that's why people who buy into this stuff without really questioning it at all are gullible fools.

When someone's story changes consistently again and again, believing them blindly is not pragmatic nor wise.

Of course, consistency doesn't automatically relate truth nor does inconsistency preclude validity, but when people are in the habit of just believing what they are told immediately - you know there's a problem.

Although the "Scientific Method" is sound, the average person has made "Science" into just another mindless religion full of dogma and unreasonable superstitions. This thread and it's vast credulity are perfect examples of that. I concede that it's not quite as bad as something like Scientology but this "Science" mythology is almost there in terms of how it's followers operate psychologically and how the 'cult' conducts itself.

Science is an ongoing process. The book is never closed because there are no absolutes. New developments emerge every day basically because of improved technology. Humans on this planet are limited in what they can observe directly. With every new telescope we learn more, modify previous theories, throw out old ones and develop new ones. Same thing in medicine and every other science. So in the case of science, frequent change is a GOOD thing and shouldn't be frowned upon.

And science is not about "truth" in the colloquial sense of the word. Science is about discovery and evidence. That's it.

a reply to: Phantom423

I agree with what you just posted.

My rant was about how people take whatever the current headline claims and will argue that it is the 'Ultimate Truth' to the extent they will ruin a friendship over it. It's treated exactly like religious dogma by most of the population.

When they see a new article the response is "so this is the Truth afterall!?", rather than "Ok interesting, I'll take it with a grain of salt and keep it in mind".

I wish they could remember your words everyday when they are consuming this information.

originally posted by: TrueBrit
a reply to: Christosterone

This is astounding, groundbreaking news!

A fossil of that age is simply game changing in scientific terms, because it shows clearly that extremophiles were indeed among the first living things here on Earth, that life on this planet has been thriving since before the crust of the world actually fully cooled, meaning that the critters that have been discovered would have been living in some of the most trying circumstances that any creature in history has ever survived, and not just surviving in those circumstances, but thriving by the sounds of things.

I am absolutely awash with glee at this discovery. I can only hope that this revelation leads to even more astounding breakthroughs. This is the sort of discovery that could easily drive an enormous evolution of understanding, which would be quite synergistic really!

The conclusion to this and the fact that the earth has wiped life away a couple of times too just to see it come back in full force is life just happens anytime the conditions are right. As fundamental as any other chemical reaction it is safe to say that life is most likely a common event throughout the universe.

I think the issue is humans have labeled organic matter as life and deemed it some kind of special event, where it is a very common event. I would bet that we will find conditions of past or present life on at least two other planets and multiple moons in the near future. I would find it a lot of curious to find a case where life didn't happen when the conditions were right.

originally posted by: Breakthestreak
"We have never set foot on another planet so therefor, other planets don't exist"
Low IQ anyone??

Are you applying for the job?

a reply to: Xtrozero

And that's just the planets and moons of our own solar system.

Exoplanet research and observation is coming on leaps and bounds, and with the coming advent of the James Webb Telescope program, we will be able to make observations detailed enough to suggest whether or not exoplanets we have discovered so far, have atmospheres capable of supporting life.

Its an exciting time to be alive!

originally posted by: TrueBrit
a reply to: Xtrozero

And that's just the planets and moons of our own solar system.

Exoplanet research and observation is coming on leaps and bounds, and with the coming advent of the James Webb Telescope program, we will be able to make observations detailed enough to suggest whether or not exoplanets we have discovered so far, have atmospheres capable of supporting life.

Its an exciting time to be alive!

I think we finally are realizing that life in general is just a fundamental nature of the universe. I say this with little faith that aliens have ever come to earth though.

a reply to: Xtrozero

I think that is the biggest problem with the idea that alien life has visited this planet... the fact that it requires faith in order to believe it.

I have no problem with faith, but it has its place and in my view it should not be necessary in order to work out whether or not alien life has visited this Earth, to establish the credibility of reports and sightings. These things ought to be the sole territory of reason, logic and science.

I remain open, therefore, to the idea that we may have been visited, but I do not believe that we have. When someone shows good evidence for it (which is yet to have been discovered, if the dearth of it is anything to go by), I will adjust my position accordingly!