NASA scientists now believe they have discovered water on Mars. Since water is necessary for life, they are claiming that this discovery means there were conditions on Mars in the past to have supported life.

Now I am not opposed to the idea of life on Mars now or sometime in the past but...

It is a giant leap from water to life.

That is like discovering crude oil and concluding their must have been automobiles, filling stations and Texico road maps in the past.

True - water is (as far as we know ("It's life, Jim, but not as we know it!")) a necessary but not a sufficient condition for life. It would certainly be very intriguing if evidence of past or present life was found on Mars.

I believe God created life all across the universe. Was there ever life on Mars? Probably. If there wasn't, I think God planned on putting it there at sometime. I think God intended all planets to have life on them. Of course, life may well exist in a form that we cannot yet comprehend. The conditions we think are required for life may not be required for all life forms. I think we only know a little sliver of the knowledge that is out there in the universe.

Yes, this is certainly going to be interesting to follow.

Like Shane says, though, the idea that since there is water, there must be life, is something of a stretch. Just because one or two preconditions of life are present doesn't mean that there must be life. Life doesn't arise from water. Life arises from a life-giver, and there is only one ultimate life-Giver.

My understanding of the Bible and Ellen White would lead me to conclude that they won't find evidence of either past or present life on Mars.

However, there's the whole question of what exactly constitutes "life," and there's also the fact that we frankly just don't know a whole lot about the past of Mars or of other planets in our solar system.

I think the more cautious scientists, unlike the media, would only say that the fact that there is water means life is not ruled out, not that it is definite or probable.