There's a raging debate between science and religion over whether or not life was created by a higher intelligence or by natural physical phenomenon. Science seems to have the upper hand in the debate at the moment. I'm going to suggest that it's quite possible that somewhere out there in the universe (or in the distant future) there could be a planet upon which the battle is being won by the creationists.
The Rise and Fall of the Creator
Imagine if you will, a planet where the spark of life has taken hold. Over billions of years single-celled organisms give rise to more complex creatures. Eons come and go. Mass extinctions and climate change alter the course of life dramatically. Eventually, the planet is just right for the rise of intelligent life.
These intelligent beings develop agriculture, tools, language, math and eventually advance technologies. They begin burning fossil fuels to drive their industrial revolution. A side effect of their technological prowess is a sudden rise in greenhouse gasses followed by a rise in global temperatures and severe weather disruptions.
Eventually the situation forces them to develop genetic technologies which allow them to design new life forms which are better able to adapt to the fast changing climate - trees that grow faster and store more carbon dioxide, bacteria that eat pollution, marine animals and plants that can survive in increasingly acidic waters, crops that can grow in salt water or with very little water, and so on. Perhaps they even develop a more robust Genetic Code 2.0 that's not found in nature and create hardier lifeforms and less fragile proteins, and perhaps even virtually indestructible life forms that never age.
One day, these industrious beings find themselves in the unfortunate position of having disrupted their global climate to the point where another mass extinction takes place. Thousands or millions of years later things get so bad that oxygen breathing life can no longer survive and they become extinct - snuffed out like a flame in a bottle that has consumed the last of its oxygen supply.
A Resurrection of Intelligence
As the eons pass engineered life forms that were created to adapt to climate change find themselves in a better position than their natural cousins. Natural life cannot compete with this new artificially engineered life and hence becomes totally extinct. Eventually engineered microbes and plants begin to reverse effects of climate disruption and stabilize the atmosphere. Forests of engineered trees and fields of engineered grass begin to cover the planet again. Oxygen fills the air again.
More eons pass and a new race of intelligent beings evolves. They develop culture, religion, technology, and science. In their search for knowledge they discover how biology works. They develop a theory of evolution. They begin to suspect that their religious history is an evolving mythology. A debate arises as to whether or not creation should be taught alongside natural selection.
One evening alone in his lab an astounded scientist looks down at his data analysis which is telling him that there are sections of code in his DNA which simply cannot have been created through natural selection. These sections of DNA contain a written language, mathematics, technical data, and even musical recordings!*
In a press release heard round the world he shares his findings with the media and everyone rejoices that there is a God after all!
(Their elation might be short lived as their technology develops further and they eventually discover the truth - that the creators themselves were the product of natural evolution.)
Now let's imagine that we could seed a planet with engineered life forms and then walk away leaving any evolved intelligence that arises over the eons totally clueless as to how and why their DNA contains literature and music and scientific data. Would their scientists have any choice but to declare the existence of a creator?
Might there be places in the universe where engineered life has edged out naturally evolved life? Might there be planets that were once dead which were seeded with engineered life by intelligent beings? Someday humans could discover or create such an ecology on a distant world. Or It's also quite possible that we're making that world right here on Earth.
*Craig Venter and his team added similar kinds of information to their synthetic life forms.
