Do Your Homework

        The title of a recent article on scitechdaily.com matter-of-factly proclaimed: “Kepler Space Telescope Reveals as Many as Six Billion Earth-Like Planets in Our Galaxy.”*  Amazing, right?  The advances of modern science are truly breath-taking as astronomers are able to gaze deeper and deeper into the dark recesses of our corner of the universe.  But be careful before sharing this particular headline as an established fact.
As you read the article, you find that those involved in the project aren’t nearly as certain as the title of the article assumes.  In fact, the very first sentence doesn’t sound nearly as confident: “There MAY (emphasis mine, MJA) be as many as one Earth-like planet for every five Sun-like stars in the Milky Way Galaxy, according to new ESTIMATES (emphasis mine, MJA) by University of British Columbia astronomers using data from NASA’s Kepler mission.”  Here’s another example: “According to UBC astronomer Jaymie Matthews: “Our Milky Way has as many as 400 billion stars, with seven percent of them being G-type. That means less than six billion stars MAY HAVE (emphasis mine, MJA) Earth-like planets in our Galaxy.”
What’s my point?  Take the time to do your research.  Be very careful about grabbing a headline and running with it.  This is especially so in the Internet age.  Bold statements are made and, often, we swallow them without checking the facts.  And this is true in every area of life, not only science.  Believers can be susceptible to this in religion as well.  We can be quick to grab the latest “amazing” headline that seems to bolster our case and then get embarrassed because we didn’t do our homework.  Sometimes, if we had just taken the time to investigate the claim, we could avoid ending up with egg on our faces.
I’m not anti-science.  If it turns out there are “...as Many as Six Billion Earth-Like Planets in Our Galaxy,” I’m fine with that.  But at this point, if I do my homework, I know it is just a theory, not a fact.

God loves you!
Mike
*https://scitechdaily.com/kepler-space-telescope-reveals-as-many-as-six-billion-earth-like-planets-in-our-galaxy/