NASA officials gushed like a school girl, as if a graveyard had been discovered, but no, it was only "microfossil remains," similar to ordinary bacteria! But their spin was that life at one time existed on Mars! Obviously, they didn't heed Carl Sagan's advice: "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence!"

When NASA scientists came down from their "high," they confessed, "There is no evidence or suggestion that any higher life forms ever existed on Mars." But we knew that, didn't we? We have spent trillions sending orbiters and landers into space only to have the "Scientific American" confess, "None of these encounters has yielded compelling, or even strongly suggestive indications of extraterrestrial life."

NASA sent two Viking landers to Mars in 1976 equipped with super sensitive instruments to detect microscopic life (up to one part per billion!) without finding life. "The Scientific American," Oct. 1994, admitted failure even though scientists first thought they had positive results; but an additional experiment looking for organic molecules in Martian soil found none. No life!

Although space technology for defense purposes is probably worthwhile, space probes seeking other civilizations are wasted money for one simple reason: They "ain't" out there! Looking for life in space is like a blind man in a dark basement looking for a black cat - that isn't there.

Carl Sagan asked, "If 100 million years is enough for the origin of life on earth, could 1,000 years be enough for it on Titan?" Sagan made an unwarranted, unscientific and unproveable assumption-that life evolved on Earth. Some people may be intimidated and impressed by charlatans with Ph.Ds who spout scientific jargon to bolster their philosophic theory (that does not, can not, and must not include the supernatural). But - as Queen Victoria said - "we are not impressed" with the soothsayers of science.

Science means "knowledge" and speculation and supposition are not science. Same with possibilities and predictions. The scientific method requires observation, experimentation and a possibility for falsification and origins aren't taking place today! So origins can't be proved scientifically and only fools, frauds or fakers say otherwise! Creationists admit this fact, but many scientists don't.

This recent excitement is "much ado about nothing." MIT Professor Klaus Biemann said it was "nonsense" to link magnetite in a meteor and theories of life on Mars. Other scientists affirm the meteorite did not indicate signs of life - even extremely simple forms - but only evidenced naturally occurring chemical reactions!

Permit me to get theological - after all, everything basically comes down to theology. Life originated on Earth with God as the Architect, Originator, etc. He did not choose Mars or Venus but Earth and it is Earth that should be our focus. Even if there were life - only microscopic life - in space, what would it prove other than God did that also? And if advanced civilizations are out there (created by God), why would they want to be involved with us? Look at the mess men have made of Earth after our auspicious beginning in Eden.

Rather than spending astronomical sums of money looking for life in space, let's use all our technology, time, talent and taxes making Earth a safe, sane, and secure habitat for people created in the image of God.

Copyright 1997, Don Boys, Ph.D.