I Always Look On The Black Side

A Permanent Base On Mars Would Have A Number Of Advantages Beyond Being A Bonanza For Planetary Science And Geology. If, As Some Evidence Suggests, Exotic Micro-organisms Have Arisen Independently Of Terrestrial Life, Studying Them Could Revolutionise Biology, Medicine And Biotechnology.

For Millennia Mankind Has Believed That Nothing Can Come Out Of Nothing. Today We Can Argue That Everything Has Come Out Of Nothing. Nobody Has To Pay For The Universe. It Is The Ultimate Free Lunch.

Traditionally, Scientists Have Treated The Laws Of Physics As Simply 'given,' Elegant Mathematical Relationships That Were Somehow Imprinted On The Universe At Its Birth, And Fixed Thereafter. Inquiry Into The Origin And Nature Of The Laws Was Not Regarded As A Proper Part Of Science.

An Argument Often Given For Why Earth Couldn't Host Another Form Of Life Is That Once The Life We Know Became Established, It Would Have Eliminated Any Competition Through Natural Selection. But If Another Form Of Life Were Confined To Its Own Niche, There Would Be Little Direct Competition With Regular Life.

No Attempt To Explain The World, Either Scientifically Or Theologically, Can Be Considered Successful Until It Accounts For The Paradoxical Conjunction Of The Temporal And The Atemporal, Of Being And Becoming. And No Subject Conforms This Paradoical Conjuction More Starkly Than The Origin Of The Universe.