{"id":3074,"date":"2025-06-03T15:08:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T15:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/?p=3074"},"modified":"2025-06-03T15:08:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T15:08:10","slug":"astrobilogy-and-a-profound-waste-of-money-and-research-smarts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/?p=3074","title":{"rendered":"Astrobilogy and a profound waste of money and research smarts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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article on astrobiology <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I just re-read an article on astrobiology in this edition of National Geographic. I like to think of my political orientation as “commonsenstrist.” (*My spell check is saying that’s not a word. But it is. Anyway…) Scientists, astronomers, et. al., are spending millions and millions of dollars on research on earth, in places where (frozen arctic lakes, steamy tropical caves…) they believe conditions might match the atmospheric and geological conditions on other planets in order — to prepare for going to these planets and looking for “life.” And the “life” they are zeroed in on? Exhibit A. Hydrothermal vents on some of these planets, might “…nourish a rich ecosystem of bacteria.” SO, WHAT! In the face of “life” (read: billions of people) on this planet living in deplorable slum conditions, without access to clean drinking water, with little food… and we’re spending millions and millions of dollars (and research smarts) hoping to find bacteria on the planet Europa, or wherever? Insane! Absolutely <\/em>insane! I recently heard a modern-day Catholic theologian, Daniel O’Conner, say that, based on scripture, the teachings of the Church Fathers, and divine revelations to some Catholic saints… There is no life on other planets, we’re it. What’s more, he continued, the reason for the vastness of the universe, etc., is to give man some concept of the vastness, and wonder, of infinity. Now, that<\/em> made sense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

article on astrobiology I just re-read an article on astrobiology in this edition of National Geographic. I like to think of my political orientation as “commonsenstrist.” (*My spell check is saying that’s not a word. But it is. Anyway…) Scientists, …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3074"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3076,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3074\/revisions\/3076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}