Cave Art and God's Image | Life on Titan? How Much?

Join biochemist Fazale “Fuz” Rana and astrophysicist Jeff Zweerink as they discuss new discoveries with theological and philosophical implications that point to the reality of God’s existence.

Many anthropologists believe that the earliest modern humans’ production and interaction with cave art was a deeply spiritual experience. Interestingly, anthropologists often find children’s footprints and handprints associated with ancient cave art. But why? Archaeologists from the University of Tel Aviv argue that the earliest modern humans regarded children as liminal (transitional) agents between the physical and spiritual realms. In this episode, biochemist Fuz Rana explains how this insight can be marshaled to make a scientific case that human beings bear the image of God.

Life’s abundance on Earth raises the question of whether other bodies in our solar system might host life. Besides Mars, proposed candidates include the moons Europa, Enceladus, and Titan because they have a large ocean underneath a surface layer of ice. Recently, scientists applied a model for life that considers metabolic pathways, moon conditions, and available chemical compounds to assess how much life Titan might host. Given reasonable values for these parameters, astrophysicist Jeff Zweerink explains how this model demonstrates that Titan might host a few kilograms of life in its ocean and what it means.

LINKS & RESOURCES:

• Child in Time: Children as Liminal Agents in Upper Paleolithic Decorated Caves
• Saturn’s Moon Titan Could Harbor Life, but Only a Tiny Amount, Study Finds
• The Viability of Glycine Fermentation in Titan’s Subsurface Ocean