There may be evidence of life in space, BBC News Online trumpeted to its readers in a Sept. 30, 2002 news story, "Boost for Life on Jupiter Moon."

The research discussed in the BBC article went like this: Data obtained from the Galileo space probe is leading to conjectures that underneath the layers of ice that cover the surface of Europa, a moon of Jupiter, there could be oceans. Evolutionists, who claim that life can spring up on its own in every puddle and are impatiently seeking evidence that life also began on other worlds all on its own, are hoping to stumble on living organisms in these oceans assumed to exist beneath Europa's surface. However, all this is nothing but conjecture and wishful thinking, and the evidence that would support the evolutionists' expectations is lacking.

Lake Vostok and Europa

Lake Vostok, which lies beneath polar Antarctica right here on Earth, is the reason why some evolutionary scientists are so very interested in this ocean that they hope exists on Europa. If they can find living organisms in Vostok, which is made up of the world's coldest water, these scientists are hoping that they might also be able find traces of life in the chill waters of Europa. (We should point out that finding living organisms in Lake Vostok wouldn't show that these organisms sprung up on their own through chance. Evolutionists, even in the most favorable situations, have failed to prove that life came about on its own, purely by accident. You can find more detailed information on this subject in the archive of this site, harunyahya.com.) Notwithstanding this line of thinking, some scientists believe that the comparison is flawed, because Lake Vostok is on a planet where life already exists, and organisms might have come into this lake from any number of places or means. For example, ABC News science writer Lee Dye makes the following observation:

There are, however, enormous differences between the two bodies. If these microbes [the microbes which scientists hope to find in Lake Vostok] are even several million years old, as some scientists believe, they originated on a planet that was covered with biological activity, not a barren rock like Europa. i

Moreover, the BBC article describing the research stresses that scientists are only making conjectures that there could be life on Europa, and that they are still waiting for data coming from NASA's Europa Orbiter due to be launched in 2003. In an article on the ABC News website, Dye reports by quoting from Richard Greenberg of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona-Tucson:

"We don't know what that stuff is. But it sure looks delicious," Greenberg said with a smile, adding in a serious aside that it was far too early to suggest that the residue might be some sort of organic material. In 2003, NASA's Europa Orbiter is due to visit the moon to look for closer evidence of an ocean. ii

Some scientists reject the claims that Europa has conditions favorable for life. For instance, Dr. Mark Burchell, a space scientist at the University of Kent in Canterbury, UK, says that assertions which suggest that the condition and environment of Europa are suitable for life are mere informed speculation. iii

Jack J. Lissauer from NASA's Ames Research Center, in an article in Nature magazine, had this to say about suppositions regarding the existence of extraterrestrial life:

But it would be piling speculation on speculation to foresee the discovery of life elsewhere. iv

However certain groups never tire of "piling speculation on speculation," as here with the theory of evolution and extraterrestrial life. Their only purpose or goal in doing so is to foist on their readers the idea that life got its start through accident in some corner of space, rather than being the purposeful design of a Creator.

However, a handful of amino acids which scientists hope to turn up on a distant world would fail to account for the irreducible and marvelously complex design and construction of a single living thing. This goes for ants and spiders, bees and tigers, zebras and birds, horses and rabbits, and also violets and people. No theory that denies the existence of God has so far been able to explain the origin of life, nor will it ever be able to do so.