Adapted from Creation Answer Book by Hank Hanegraaff 

While panspermia is dispensed in different varieties, the basic notion is that life came to earth via aliens (directed) or meteorites (undirected). No less an authority than Darwinist Richard Dawkins considers the notion “an intriguing possibility.” In reality, panspermia—literally, “seeds everywhere”—does little to solve the naturalistic conundrum concerning the origin of life.

First, while Dawkins is moving in the right direction by entertaining intelligent design*, he has not yet arrived at an answer for the origin of life. If life originated on earth via aliens (directed panspermia), the next question is: “How did alien life come to be?” Infinite regress* does not answer the question of source; it merely multiplies the effects.

Furthermore, even swallowing the desperate notion that life miraculously originated somewhere else in the universe, the odds that it would survive such lethal threats as ultraviolet radiation on a meteoritic journey to the surface of the earth (undirected panspermia) is effectively nonexistent.

Finally, philosophical naturalism* can no more account for the origin of life on earth than it can for the origin of life elsewhere in the universe. The biological organization of life is simply too complex for formation apart from the intentional design of an intelligent Designer. In sum, panspermia—directed or otherwise—does not plausibly account for the origin of life.

[He is] the Maker of heaven and earth,
the sea, and everything in them.

Psalm 146:6

 


For further study, see Fazale Rana and Hugh Ross, Origins of Life: Biblical and Evolutionary Models Face Off (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2004).