Superflares and the Origin of Life

You know about the sun, right? Perhaps you've heard of it, it's the greater light that rules the day (Gen. 1:16). By astronomical standards, our sun is well-behaved and quite stable. Other stars tend to be cranky, shooting out solar flares, superflares, and the like on a basis that would be dangerous for life on Earth.

M6.4 class solar flare erupting, image credit: NASA / SDO
(Usage does not imply endorsement of site contents)

Secularists argue from materialistic presuppositions, including deep time. Using the discredited nebular hypothesis, they build a scenario for the origin of the solar system and the planets. Since they presume that life evolved, they commence to building themselves a heap of problems, such as the alleged faint young sun paradox. As scientific knowledge increases, their guesswork becomes increasingly implausible. Interestingly, there are secular scientists who think that superflares may have made goo-to-gambler evolution possible. 

Biblical creationists point out inconsistencies and lack of completeness in research on the ideas of secularists. Creationary scientists use secular science against them. In addition to many problems that materialists concoct for themselves, there are other problems that they have not sufficiently considered. Superflares? Okay. Let's take a look-see at what happens with other stars, and the negative implications for the possibilities of life originating on other planets.

Click for larger ("Tweets" are public domain)

Before I got further, I want to inform you that the article excerpted and linked below is mighty technical. If you don't have a mind to go that route, I'll refer you to an earlier post, "Did Solar Flares from the Faint Young Sun Bring Life to Earth?" For those who want the hard science and physics, y'all can press on.

This paper considers the naturalistic view of the early sun at the time when abiogenesis was supposed to be occurring, and early life was, allegedly, evolving on Earth. Theoreticians have, historically, been concerned about answering the faint young sun paradox, but there is growing realisation that the hypothetical early Earth would have faced a very hostile environment from solar superflares, extreme coronal mass ejections, and very harmful radiation storms. While some have tried to turn this to their advantage, the evidence presented is not compelling. This also has a bearing upon the search for extra-terrestrial life. It turns out that the vast majority of star systems are not conducive to hosting Earth-like planets, but most stars are far more variable in their flare output. The sun–Earth system appears to be unique and optimally designed for organic life.

To read the rest, click on "Superflares and the origin of life on Earth".

Looking for a comment area?
You can start your own conversation by using the buttons below!