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On closer reading, the evidence for the "discovery" was far from overwhelming. A team of scientists from Lockheed Martin, Johnson Space Center and several universities had indeed discovered some interesting shapes on a chip of meteorite found in Antarctica. This chip of meteorite apparently was dislodged from Mars by a massive collision.
And, in fact, the claim of the team is not that life exists on Mars. Rather, it is that there is a possibility that there may have been a form of life on Mars 4.5 billion years ago. Further, the life that may have existed may not even have been visible to the human eye. If it even existed, it was only a germ.
Did life really exist on Mars 4.5 billion years ago? The appropriate conclusion to be drawn from the discovery of the rock in Antarctica will be debated for some time to come. The question of the existence of biological life beyond the reaches of our solar system will likely remain unanswered for decades and possibly centuries.
Far more fascinating, however, is the excitement which this "finding" generated. Since H.G. Wells and Jules Verne began to toy with the idea that life might exist on other planets, we have not ceased being bombarded by visions of extra-terrestrial beings swarming through space. One might be forgiven if one concluded that the existence of not only life but intelligent beings similar to man was a fact beyond any serious doubt. Why then should the mere possibility that a germ lived on Mars 4.5 billion years ago give birth to headlines?
The answer to that question goes back to the beginnings of time when people first looked into the heavens on a clear moonless night only to be overwhelmed by the dizzy majesty of the panorama before them. Those early astronomers soon discovered that, except for the notable exceptions of the planets, the map of the Cosmos was far more fixed than anything on earth. Even the mountains would be worn down by ceaseless action of wind and rain--but the Cosmos never changed.
They also realized that the Cosmos spanned distances unknown by earth dwellers. The sun, whose rays cover the whole Earth, roars like a chariot across the heavens. Its relative speed and size assured everyone who gave pause to consider, that the Cosmos was more vast than anything the human mind could grasp.
And so it is that in the blackest hour of the night--when we are most likely to be alone and afraid--the Cosmos confronts us with our deepest fears, the deepest questions of our existence. It reminds us of our twin terrors: first, that our life is shorter than the blinking of an eye, and second, that the most pretentious of us are no more significant than a puff of dust blowing across the sand.
Is it any wonder that when men have looked to the heavens, they have been driven to cry out, "Is there anyone out there?" The desperation of that search is only highlighted by the enthusiasm that the potential discovery of a 4.5-billion-year-old germ evokes. It is a tiny straw, but a drowning man seizes every fragment in a death grip.
The promise of life on space debris is not everyone's hope. For many, the existence of other life in space is nothing more than a wonderful mystery whose day of discovery will come in time.
It was a man like this who, 3000 years ago, being enthralled by the same Cosmos we scan, commented, "When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place, what is man that You are mindful of him, the son of man that You care for him?" (Psalm 8:3-4, the Bible).
Is there anyone out there? You bet there is! And, unlike the fossilized germs on Mars, this Someone has both the answers to our deepest questions and the desire to communicate those answers to us. In fact, He has already sent a message to mankind from somewhere beyond time and space--a message to which everyone has access.
That discovery is worth a few headlines.
James Toews lives in Nanaimo, B.C. This article first appeared in the Nanaimo Daily Free Press.
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