Astrobiology simply presumes that a planet in the…

““Astrobiology simply presumes that a planet in the Goldilocks zone containing liquid water will somehow produce life. This leads to the “follow-the-water” strategy in the search for ETs. It is a good place to start, as it is widely recognized that the properties of liquid water are exquisitely suited for carbon-based life. These properties include the ability to dissolve and transport the chemical nutrients vital to living organisms and its unmatched capacity to absorb heat from the sun—a process critical for regulating a planet’s temperature. However, the mere presence of water, while necessary, is not sufficient, because there is no known mechanism explaining how life came from nonlife. If it is a still a mystery on Earth, where we are certain that life exists, what warrant is there to assume it occurs by chance elsewhere? The answer is that there is none; it is simply taken on blind faith. Theologian David Allen Lewis contends, “The same mentality that leads one to accept an origin of life apart from the Creator also leads to the unsupported conclusion that other intelligent life forms must have evolved on other worlds.”[305] Of course, that mentality is atheistic naturalism: the worldview behind astrobiological logic. A colorful illustration can be derived from””

— Cris Putnam