While I fully accept the Theory of Evolution, I do find it astonishing that there is apparently only 1 Tree of Life on this planet.
Did life really start from scratch on only 1 occasion, relatively early in the Earth’s history, and never again since?
If the Earth is in this so-called Goldilocks Zone, where it is not too hot and not too cold, where there is plenty of water, where conditions are so perfect for life to exist, it seems extraordinary that life has not started on many occasions over the past few billion years. The Earth clearly is a perfect place for life as we know it to flourish once it gets started.
I wondered if anyone with a good technical knowledge of biology or chemistry had any ideas on whether or not it would be difficult for a 2nd Tree of Life to get started on this planet, even if it had exactly the same DNA basis as the 1st Tree of Life. Or would it be indistinguishable from the 1st Tree of Life (I.E. could there already be more than 1 Tree of Life but it would be impossible to tell)?
If there really is only 1 Tree of Life and no technical reason why other Trees of Life couldn’t easily flourish once they got started, my conclusion would be that it must have been in the region of a trillions-to-one chance that life ever got started on this planet (otherwise it would have happened many times), and therefore even if there are trillions other planets similar to the Earth, the chance of there being any life on any of them is virtually zero.