NASA's Far-Out Search for Life



How close do the known exoplanets really bring us to discovering extraterrestrial life? In short, the vast majority of exoplanets are gaseous, and with a small handful of exceptions, the few solid ones do not orbit their stars either close enough or far enough for liquid water to exist on the planet’s surface.2 But far more conditions than simply the existence of liquid water are required to sustain biological life.



Despite these difficulties, NASA wrote, “Many scientists believe we are not alone in the universe. It’s probable, they say, that life could have arisen on at least some of the billions of planets thought to exist in our galaxy alone—just as it did here on planet Earth.”1

This exposes the real foundation for belief in exoplanetary life—the assumption that life somehow arose by natural processes here on Earth. By definition, secularists make this assumption into a fact, but science clearly refutes it.3 If belief in evolution underpins the search for life in outer space, then does NASA’s search stem more from faith in evolution than from solid science?

At first blush, the chances that certain conditions spawned life from non-life might appear somewhat favorable given billions of years on trillions of planets, but those chances actually approach zero if there are no such conditions. For example, origin research has so far revealed that the odds of the spontaneous generation of life lie far beneath the odds of the spontaneous generation of aircraft carriers.



  1. Finding Life Beyond Earth is Within Reach. NASA News. Posted on July 14, 2014, accessed July 15, 2014.
  2. Thomas, B. 2010. Doubts Raised about the “Goldilocks” Planet. Acts & Facts. 39 (12): 17.
  3. Only God Could Have Made Cells. Institute for Creation Research. Fact sheet, accessed July 15, 2014.
  4. “Who among all these does not know / That the hand of the Lord has done this, / In whose hand is the life of every living thing, / And the breath of all mankind?” Job 12:9-10.


Article posted on July 23, 2014.