“Our religion will not clash with or contradict the facts of science in any particular.”

“Our religion will not clash with or contradict the facts of science in any particular. You may take geology, for instance, and it is a true science; not that I would say for a moment that all the conclusions and deductions of its professors are true, but its leading principles are; they are facts — they are eternal; and to assert that the Lord made this earth out of nothing is preposterous and impossible. God never made something out of nothing; it is not in the economy or law by which the worlds were, are, or will exist. There is an eternity before us, and it is full of matter; and if we but understand enough of the Lord and his ways, we would say that he took of this matter and organized this earth from it. How long it has been organized it is not for me to say, and I do not care anything about it. As for the Bible account of the creation we may say that the Lord gave it to Moses, or rather Moses obtained the history and traditions of the fathers, and from these picked out what he considered necessary, and that account has been handed down from age to age, and we have got it, no matter whether it is correct or not, and whether the Lord found the earth empty and void, whether he made it out of nothing or out of the rude elements; or whether he made it in six days or in as many millions of years, is and will remain a matter of speculation in the minds of men unless he give revelation on the subject. If we understood the process of creation there would be no mystery about it, it would be all reasonable and plain, for there is no mystery except to the ignorant.”

Brigham Young  (1801-1877)

***

Microbes are, it seems, astoundingly resilient and adaptive, and can survive in very extreme environments.  Could they survive, even thrive, on other planets?  Perhaps on Mars?  A tentative scientific answer may be available right here on earth:

“Could Earth Microbes Survive in a Martian Lake?  Seems unlikely. But we have yet to understand all the possibilities.”

“Microbial Life Discovered 2.4 Km Deep in Canadian Mine: Scientists cultivate sulfate-reducing microbes from some of the oldest-known water on Earth.”