This topic may have already been posted before, but I missed it if it has. Do you believe that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe. Those who do tend to believe that because it's so vast, we can't possibly be alone; which is the category I fall into. Plus, it just seems like there's too many unexplained occurrances and sightings to be coincidental. Maybe some of the people who've reported incidents are crazy, but are ALL of them? As for those who don't believe, most that I've talked to usually site religion as a reason for not believing, but I've never been able to ascertain what one has to do with the other. Can you be a Christian and also believe in intelligent life on other planets? Why or Why not?
I'm in the "yes, there's at least other life forms on other planets" camp. Quoting NASA scientist Don Savage: "Life is tenacious, and it completely permeates the surface layer of the planet. We find life beneath the deepest ocean, on the highest mountain, in the driest desert and the coldest glacier, and deep down in the crustal rocks and sediments." The question of how life originally could have arisen from lifeless molecules both here and other planets is of course controversial. My personal belief is intelligent design. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design Coupled together, life's tenacity and intelligent design, it's not hard to imagine that many other planets are populated with some form of life. My guess is that we're likely one the most advanced forms simply b/c we haven't been contacted or detected any distinguishable radio transmissions.
I definately 100% believe that there's 'life' on other planets or elsewhere in the universe. My inquiry was geared more towards the belief in other sentient beings. As for one of the most advanced, I'm not so sure. There is a ton of circumstantial evidence to point to Earth being visited by more advanced civilization. Why they choose not to contact us en masse is the stuff of sci-fi lore. Maybe they're studying us for benign or malcious reason or maybe they think we're not advanced enough for first contact.
I have mixed feelings. It stands to reason that in a universe as vast as ours, the same elements and circumstances that led to intelligent life on earth must have happened a billion times. We'll never find out except in our own galaxy, perhaps. And that is still millions. On the other hand, nature is a chaotic system and the galaxy is also populated with many singular events, solitary mutations, and unique situations. Earth could be one of them. I suspect that there are many others out there. The fact that we have picked up no electronic transmissions from any of these advanced systems indicates that we are among the earliest to develop to this point in our part of the galaxy. Any civilizations that developed earlier have to be a long time ago, and far, far away and their signals haven't gotten here yet. Where is that music coming from . . .
There are billions and billions of galaxies just in 'known' space. Surely among them is a planet similiar to ours that contains or has contained sentient beings, right? This doesn't even count deep space. There's no telling what the hell is out there.
and if so, did our killing of jesus here manage to forgive all planets for their sins or will god need to send alternate jesii to those other planets to be killed for them. perhaps our jesus could just do a tour of the universe and be killed everywhere sinners are. i bet he would get pretty tired of that. as far as life on other planets, i dont see how we can draw any conclusion, so i dont bother. we dont know how rare or unique we are so, we cant really just apply the logic "there are zillions of planets, must be another like us", because that is based on nothing. maybe we are unique. maybe intelligent life is as rare and unique as my DNA is on earth. i am the only one that has it, even though there are billions like me.
Obviously. That's why this is just an opinion poll. That's a fair point. However, the logic is not 'because there's billions of planets or galaxies, there has to be intelligent life'. The logic, at least what I'm using is 'because there are billions of know or unknown galaxies and/or planets, the odds would seem to indicate that there's at least one with similiar conditions to ours that was or is conducive to sustaining life'. It happened here, so why couldn't it happen somewhere else; especially considering that we have no idea how far the universe actually extends or what else is out there. As for your comment about only you having your DNA out of the billions that are on Earth, that's true. Only Martin has Martin's DNA, but you're not the only life form on this planet.
Not exactly, it is based on probabilities. The elements that make up earth are known, as is the type of sun and distance from it that is neccessary to support life. The number of star systems can be calculated as well as the abundance or scarcity of the enabling constituents. From these, statistically valid probabilities can be determined. Of course, statistical probabilities also allow for an aberrant world.
right, but we do not know the relative rarity of life. it could be as rare as martin's dna, or as common as life on earth. the sameple size of one is too small to extrapolate.
