There HAS to be life on other planets..

[Care4all]

The only life our there is God and His spiritual realm, but that's life no one wants to see

Does God tell us in the Bible that He didn't create life elsewhere?

 

[Blues Man]

You also have to look at how rare the development of intelligent life is.
Even under ideal conditions on earth, only one creature evolved into an intelligent creature

How do you know how rare intelligent life is when your sample size is a single planet?

And humans came within a hairs breadth of being just one more extinct species so in a way it was just dumb luck that we are here today crowing about how intelligent we are.

And it's not perfect conditions that foster intelligence. If people didn't have to work extremely hard to survive there would be no need for intelligence.

 

[Blues Man]

We don't know if it is zero or some other number.

We just don't have the facts to say anything.

Until we have another data point we really don't have anything.

The problem we all have (myself included) is we think there just has to be life elsewhere because we have seen it in books, TV and movies. Our evaluation of science when it comes to extraterrestrial life is really tainted by being exposed to science fiction all our lives.

We all think "there has to be life elsewhere" because we see it depicted in movies and TV all the time. The reality is that we can't turn chemistry into biology in a lab and we have not seen any life outside of earth so that means we have nothing of substance to conjecture upon.

Because we cannot do something does not mean it cannot be done.

This is the flaw of thinking that we humans are actually capable of understanding and controlling absolutely everything everywhere.

Arrogance IOW.

 

[Blues Man]

You haven't spoken to the topic at all. You have only spoken about the odds of getting life EXACTLY as it appears on Earth today.

Odds which are impossible to calculate from a sample size of one.

 

[Blues Man]

They face the same physics and chemistry we do

Maybe they understand physics better and have found the unification of the forces that eludes us. Maybe they have found some rare elements we know nothing about. Maybe they have mastered quantum mechanics

You are assuming no one could ever be smarter than us and that we have discovered all there is to discover when it is a fact that all our "vast" knowledge barely explains 5% of the universe.

 

[Blues Man]

Maybe in Quantum Physics, but organisms live in Newtonian Physics

The ones we know of do. Do you actually think that we know every single possibility of where life as we don;t know it could exist?

 

[luiza]

The ones we know of do. Do you actually think that we know every single possibility of where life as we don;t know it could exist?

Exactly .
The vast majority of serious minded people make their pronouncements only from our perspective .
We have had our technological spurt in the last two hundred years , say .
Alien races might have passed through our present stage literally millions of years ago .

 

[ThisIsMe]

Indeed they might. But, by definition, that could never affect us in any way.

That's what "observable universe" means. That is but one definition of "universe", granted. But as far as we can ever tell, it might be the only one that ever matters, to us.

Indeed they might. But, by definition, that could never affect us in any way.

No, but it could affect another possible life form in how they develop, and in how their technology is formed, and in how they travel across space.

 

[Flash]

Because we cannot do something does not mean it cannot be done.

This is the flaw of thinking that we humans are actually capable of understanding and controlling absolutely everything everywhere.

Arrogance IOW.

We only know what we know.

The only thing we know about life in the Universe is that we only have proof of it being on earth.

Maybe one of these days we will know more but that is not today.

Speculation that there is life elsewhere without any proof makes for interesting science fiction but it is not real science without any basis.

 

[Blues Man]

We only know what we know.

The only thing we know about life in the Universe is that we only have proof of it being on earth.

Maybe one of these days we will know more but that is not today.

Speculation that there is life elsewhere without any proof makes for interesting science fiction but it is not real science without any basis.

And there are some, possible many, things we will never know because we are incapable of understanding them.

My dog will never understand algebra. i don't find it too much of a stretch to say that there are things humans can never understand for the very same reasons my dog cannot understand algebra.

 

[the watcher]

Just the age and nature of the universe as we understand it suggests that life is universal. There is life on other worlds, whether or not we bump into each other, and by our current thinking they are racist.

 

[Flash]

Just the age and nature of the universe as we understand it suggests that life is universal. There is life on other worlds, whether or not we bump into each other, and by our current thinking they are racist.

What do you base that belief on?

 

[the watcher]

It's just a feeling you get when you look at the stars and planets, it is the height of narcissism to think we are the only inhabitants. There's nothing that will provide a "link" to anything, but we seem to have an ingrained racial memory of other worlds and peoples, going back to prehistoric times, when we weren't so smug. It's your faith, one way or the other in things you can never know.

 

[rightwinger]

The ones we know of do. Do you actually think that we know every single possibility of where life as we don;t know it could exist?

We do know realistic parameters of life vs Science Fiction

 

[Blues Man]

We do know realistic parameters of life vs Science Fiction

Only life as we know it.

Don't assume our kind of life is the only possible kind

 

[Mashmont]

You lost me on that last part. What a grim worldview you hold. You seem to me to place lower value on human life than I do. You put these tales of the afterlife first and foremost. This life that we have now is just a necessary and very relatively temporary exercise. You believe these things. Okay, fine, believe them.

The thing that atheists miss is preparing for the afterlife is also what makes for the best possible earthly life.
Love, humility, serving others, self-sacrifice, doing right.

 

[Mashmont]

I don’t know. I used to believe it was, but then science suggests the universe is expanding, which would indicate it’s not infinite.

I do not believe the universe is infinite, because for that to be so, there would have to be an infinite number of humans like us.

But I think it is a certainty there is other life in the universe.

 

[Mashmont]

And there are some, possible many, things we will never know because we are incapable of understanding them.

My dog will never understand algebra. i don't find it too much of a stretch to say that there are things humans can never understand for the very same reasons my dog cannot understand algebra.

I agree, but the difference is that humans think about it. Dogs, on the other hand, never give it a thought that there is much they can never know.

 

[Blues Man]

I agree, but the difference is that humans think about it. Dogs, on the other hand, never give it a thought that there is much they can never know.

The difference in the quality of brain matter is not the reason.

It is simply that humans have more of it.

 

[rightwinger]

The thing that atheists miss is preparing for the afterlife is also what makes for the best possible earthly life.
Love, humility, serving others, self-sacrifice, doing right.

What makes you think Atheists don’t have those values?
They embrace them because it is the right thing to do, not because they fear God or expect some reward