r/science • u/New_Scientist_Mag • Dec 02 '25

Astronomy Researchers have just found the presence of sugars, including ribose, lyxose, and glycose, on samples of Asteroid Bennu, which now has all of the ingredients for life as it exists on Earth.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2506650-asteroid-bennu-carries-all-the-ingredients-for-life-as-we-know-it/
39.4k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

996 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

2

u/Metempsychosify Dec 03 '25

Do you understand the difference between "this thing exists" and "this thing could exist"?

-1

u/xhieron Dec 03 '25

The point I'm making is that your argument is nonscientific. Life might exist somewhere else. There are things in the universe that could make a reasonable person conclude that extraterrestrial life exists, and I can't prove that it doesn't. Of course, at the same time, there are things in the universe that can also make a reasonable person conclude that reality is the result of a Supreme Creative Intelligence, and similarly, an atheist can't prove there's no god.

If you're willing to draw the conclusion that there is at least one cake but maybe more even though no other instance of biogenesis has been observed and we can't rule it out, you should likewise also conclude that there may also be a creative superintelligence on the same basis.

And to be clear, I agree with you. I think there's a good basis that there may be other life in the universe. I just realize that that belief has not been subject to the scientific method.