Life on Mars?

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I believe the thinking of some about possible life on Mars is that, if God in
fact created the universe and all life, what possible purpose would He have
had for placing small microbes on Mars.  However, an article I encountered on
the CNN home page may make this a moot discussion. It's partially reprinted
below:

>>ALBUQUERQUE, New
Mexico (AP) -- NASA's claim
that a meteorite harbors evidence
of past life on Mars drew
second-guessing Thursday from a
geochemist who studied the rock
and found it lacked a key sign of
biological activity.
"We concluded in our paper that our measurements give no
evidence for life," said Jim Papike, director of the Institute of
Meteoritics at the University of New Mexico.
Papike and three colleagues began tests last year on the 4
1/2-pound, potato-sized meteorite, examining pyrite, or fool's
gold, that had apparently crystallized in fractures in the rock.

The pyrite samples contain two
sulfur isotopes, sulfur-32 and
sulfur-34, whose ratio changes
on Earth in the presence of
biological activity.
"We wanted to know if these
pyrites in Martian rocks would
show this fingerprint of life that
would be indicated by a specific type of ratio," Papike said.
"When we looked at the ratio, there was no evidence that it was
in a ratio for life forms."
In fact, the ratio points in the opposite direction from the one that
indicates biological activity, he said.<<

--Rich Brown