Later today (or early tomorrow morning depending on your current time zone), the Phoenix probe lands on Mars to investigate if life, or traces of ancient life, exists in Mars’ polar wastes. There is a fascinating video on APOD today showing the probe entering Mars’ atmosphere and unfurling its instruments.
It is possible that today may mark one of the greatest discoveries in human history – finding life on another planet. But what are the repercussions, really?
From a religious perspective, there appears to be two possibilities: many of the moderate religions would be relatively open to the idea that the universe is teeming with life, a view bolstered by the Vatican astronomer recently. The fundamentalist religions would appear to have a problem, having accepted that the Earth is the ultimate focus of God’s work. It’s unlikely though that any of them will collapse, inoculated as they are against logic and evidence-based thinking. A bit of word-smithing will usually suffice for most of their congregations and to hell with those throwing stones from the outside. In other words: business as usual.
From a scientific perspective, the discovery on life should not come as a surprise. Over the last 400 years, a stong body of evidence has been built up that we are not so important, or unique, in the greater scheme of things. Given the vastness of the universe, and the ability of life forms to survive even in the most inhospitable of conditions on Earth, the discovery of extraterrestrial life would only bolster this viewpoint. Philosophically, the existence of life would be uncontroversial enough. What’s far more interesting would be the questions that this discovery would pose. What is the composition of the DNA? Would the chemical composition be different? What are the origins of life on Mars? Where else might we look for life? What would the implications be were we to bring samples back to earth? What would this tell us about the creation of artificial life in the lab? To put it mildly, the discovery would have the effect of reshaping and redirecting the research agenda in the 21st Century.
From a man-in-the-street perspective, it would be enlightening, a topic of conversation. I’m not sure if it would change anyone’s life irreperably, as we have now become so used to the announcement of impressive scientific discoveries in our lives. It would be a flitting moment of celebrity, until the media find something else to absorb their attention.
Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe this is moot and the more probable event of life not being found will be the result. In any case I’d welcome any views you might have.
Passive Impressions 
I’m so excited by this. Not really sure why – I’m not a big space geek – but Mars just fascinates me.
But I find myself eager to hear/see what the probe finds at the martian poles! Even finding ice or water would thrill me, I think – regardless of whether any actual sign of life is found.
I’m kind of hoping I can persuade the Powers That Be here at the publishing company I work for to do a book on Mars this year. We’ve just done two on the Moon (one for kids based on the Apollo missions and one for adults which is more general).
Mars… as a kid I was totally in to astronomy and Sci-Fi (which I to some extent still am) and read gazillion of books about life on Mars. Robert Heinlein. HG Wells and Ray Bradbury are some authors that pop into my mind.
But honestly, I don’t know how excited the kid in me would be of some bacterial skeleton found in the icy soil. Admit it would be way cooler with canals filled with boats steered by yellow eyed Martians…