{"id":63205,"date":"2018-07-23T23:01:42","date_gmt":"2018-07-24T05:01:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=63205"},"modified":"2018-09-05T09:52:58","modified_gmt":"2018-09-05T15:52:58","slug":"hell-on-earth-and-its-aftermath","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/07\/hell-on-earth-and-its-aftermath.html","title":{"rendered":"Hell on Earth, and Its Aftermath"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Bertelink's<\/a>
An artist\u2019s impression of the Hadean period of Earth\u2019s history, by Tim Bertelink
(Wikimedia Commons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Current estimates put the age of the Earth at roughly\u00a04.543 billion years, which means that my memories of its formation are probably just reflections of what my parents told me about it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Earth was formed out of debris surrounding what is called the solar\u00a0protoplanetary disk. \u00a0There was, of course, no life at the very beginning. Temperatures were extremely hot, with frequent volcanic activity and a hellish environment. \u00a0(This period of Earth\u2019s history, until 4 billion years ago, is actually called the \u201cHadean Eon.\u201d) \u00a0The Moon was formed around this time, perhaps due to a planetoid\u2019s or a protoplanet\u2019s collision with the Earth.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Standard theories have suggested that prokaryotic life, the first form of life, emerged around 4 billion years before the present. \u00a0But conditions were still pretty rough. \u00a0For instance, the\u00a0Late Heavy Bombardment<\/a>\u00a0occurred approximately\u00a04,100\u00a0to\u00a03,800\u00a0million years ago<\/span>, during which a large number of impact craters are believed to have formed on the Moon \u2014 and, it seems reasonable to assume, also on the primitive Earth. \u00a0According to many specialists, a more advanced form of life,\u00a0eukaryotic life \u2014 including some very early types of\u00a0multicellular organisms \u2014 appeared roughly 2.5 billion years ago. \u00a0It\u2019s typically been thought that the first living organisms on Earth developed in the sea.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the timetables may need to be revised. \u00a0Evidence suggests that life emerged on Earth at a remarkably early point, and new research indicates that simple life forms were flourishing on land much earlier than scientists had thought:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOldest Evidence of Terrestrial Life on a Young Earth: Microbes were living on land as early as 3.22 billion years ago, fossilized rocks show, 500 million years earlier than previously documented.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Moreover (I point out) we have no strong reason to believe that we happen to have found the earliest specimens of such life, and we have no particular reason to assume that evidence of the absolutely earliest organisms has survived in the first place. \u00a0What are the odds that we happen to have stumbled upon remains of the very earliest living organisms that ever existed? \u00a0And if, by astonishing coincidence, we have, how would we know<\/em> that we have?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a somewhat related article:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEarth\u2019s Moon Could Have Been Habitable 3.5 Billion Years Ago: \u00a0And the best way to find out is to step up the pace of lunar exploration.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

My wife and I spent a substantial portion of today at the very fine Royal British Columbia Museum<\/a>, where we took in a good temporary exhibit called \u201cEgypt: The Time of the Pharaohs\u201d<\/a>\u00a0and watched a pair of IMAX movies, America\u2019s Musical Journey<\/a> and the 1998 Mysteries of Egypt<\/em>, with Omar Sharif. \u00a0The latter film had a strong Utah\/Mormon connection, with Scott Swofford<\/a> as producer, music composed by Sam Cardon<\/a> and conducted by Kurt Bestor<\/a>, Reed Smoot<\/a> as director of photography, and so forth.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Posted from Victoria, British Columbia<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 Current estimates put the age of the Earth at roughly\u00a04.543 billion years, which means that my memories of its formation are probably just reflections of what my parents told me about it. \u00a0 The Earth was formed out of debris surrounding what is called the solar\u00a0protoplanetary disk. \u00a0There was, of course, no life […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nHell on Earth, and Its Aftermath<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    Current estimates put the age of the Earth at roughly\u00a04.543 billion years, which means that my memories of its formation are probably just\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/07\/hell-on-earth-and-its-aftermath.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hell on Earth, and Its Aftermath\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"    Current estimates put the age of the Earth at roughly\u00a04.543 billion years, which means that my memories of its formation are probably just\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/07\/hell-on-earth-and-its-aftermath.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sic et Non\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-07-24T05:01:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-09-05T15:52:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/files\/2016\/08\/Hadean.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/07\/hell-on-earth-and-its-aftermath.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/07\/hell-on-earth-and-its-aftermath.html\",\"name\":\"Hell on Earth, and Its Aftermath\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-07-24T05:01:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-09-05T15:52:58+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\"},\"description\":\"    Current estimates put the age of the Earth at roughly\u00a04.543 billion years, which means that my memories of its formation are probably just\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/07\/hell-on-earth-and-its-aftermath.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/07\/hell-on-earth-and-its-aftermath.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/07\/hell-on-earth-and-its-aftermath.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Hell on Earth, and Its Aftermath\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/\",\"name\":\"Sic et Non\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\",\"name\":\"Dan Peterson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dan Peterson\"},\"description\":\"\\\"Life was very unsatisfying until I discovered Dan's blog, which gave me a reason to live.\\\" (gemli, 7 November 2019)\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/author\/danpeterson\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Hell on Earth, and Its Aftermath","description":"    Current estimates put the age of the Earth at roughly\u00a04.543 billion years, which means that my memories of its formation are probably just","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/07\/hell-on-earth-and-its-aftermath.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Hell on Earth, and Its Aftermath","og_description":"    Current estimates put the age of the Earth at roughly\u00a04.543 billion years, which means that my memories of its formation are probably just","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/07\/hell-on-earth-and-its-aftermath.html","og_site_name":"Sic et Non","article_published_time":"2018-07-24T05:01:42+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-09-05T15:52:58+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/files\/2016\/08\/Hadean.png"}],"author":"Dan Peterson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dan Peterson","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/07\/hell-on-earth-and-its-aftermath.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/07\/hell-on-earth-and-its-aftermath.html","name":"Hell on Earth, and Its Aftermath","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website"},"datePublished":"2018-07-24T05:01:42+00:00","dateModified":"2018-09-05T15:52:58+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045"},"description":"    Current estimates put the age of the Earth at roughly\u00a04.543 billion years, which means that my memories of its formation are probably just","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/07\/hell-on-earth-and-its-aftermath.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/07\/hell-on-earth-and-its-aftermath.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/07\/hell-on-earth-and-its-aftermath.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hell on Earth, and Its Aftermath"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/","name":"Sic et Non","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045","name":"Dan Peterson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dan Peterson"},"description":"\"Life was very unsatisfying until I discovered Dan's blog, which gave me a reason to live.\" (gemli, 7 November 2019)","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/author\/danpeterson"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1019"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63205\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}