But even then, new evidence always come to light that requires us to refine our conclusions again. Coming to interim conclusions in the meantime is a natural process as long as one does not get dogmatic about it.
i am geniunely curious to hear about any evidence you have heard. why would we have drawn a conclusion? what wwould it have been based on?
I'm no teacher, but i'll give it a shot. Since the universe is infinite, wouldn't it stand to reason that theres a planet or planets similiar to ours somewhere out there? If so and life happened here, couldn't if have also happened there as well? I'll admit that my logic may be flawed or its not an accurate depiction of statistics/probablities, but since there' are unknown factor involved (size of the universe, number of planets that could sustain life, etc) , it's all I have to go on.
I don't think we'll ever know if we are alone in the universe. I suspect Earth will be destroyed before we ever find the answer. There may be life out there somewhere, but I don't believe all those stories of visitors to Earth. Just b/c we can't explain what we see doesn't lead me to conclude it's life from another planet. Too far fetched for me.
i will stop you there because the universe isnt necessarily infinite. maybe i suppose it could, but that doesnt mean it has. why do you accept that these factors are unknown, but do not accept that your conclusion is not known? earlier you were calling me out for not putting faith in statistics and probabilities. weird.
I know that some people maintain that the universe is finite and I'm sure you will cite one of them. But it's very simple to me. u·ni·verse –noun The totality of known or supposed objects and phenomena throughout space. Totality. The universe, by definition, encompasses everything that we know or suppose. In order for there to be a finite universe, there would have to be some place that is outside the universe. By definition there is no such place.
if the universe is infinite, as you suppose, and it is expanding, which is pretty well accepted, where is it expanding to? areas we presiously described as non-areas? if your definition includes everything that we "suppose", that still doesnt make it infinite, because there could be places we havent supposed or even conceived of. incomprehensible dimensions or something. actually i think this is a little beyond both of us. anyways, defining the universe as infinite doesnt make it infinite. anyways, for the purposes of this discussion, the number of possible planets and galaxies and whatever may or may not be infinite. we cant suppose that there are infinite planets out there. there might be, there might not be. i certainly do not dispute that intelligent aliens might exist, and of course that would be awesome if they did. all i really dispute is that any opinion about it is any more than a guess, or wishful thinking, which is fine, but not reality. and of course also i greatly dispute the logic that fanatic had about so many people making sightings that some of them must be true. and technically i would classify jesus as an intelligent alien. god too, depending on whether they are two dofferent people. 3 aliens if you throw in the holy spirit. looking at it that way, the vast majority of earthlings believe wholeheatedly in intelligent aliens.
:hihi: I think I may have found something I can finally agree with you on. All of this is conjecture anyway and what you yourself believe. That's ok. However, my main point about existance was not that so many people have had sightings; which I did say and you are correct to point out. MY main reason for believing is vastness of the universe theory; even though you're opposing view correctly points out that there's just as much of a chance of nothing being out there. Are you saying you now believe in Jesus. :hihi: I know the anwser. I'm only kidding
The matter and energy from the Big Bang is expanding into the previously void areas of the infinite universe. First of all it isn't my definition its the dictionary definition. Just because there may be places we haven't conceived of doesn't force any finiteness on the universe, since the definition encompases that as well. Nor does suggesting that the universe is finite make it finite. I'm just saying that, as defined, the universe must be infinite. Do you have no evidence to offer that the universe is finite? If not, then it must be some religious belief of yours.
i didnt say it was finite. i specifically said it wasnt necessarily infinite. i use words for a reason. i dunno if it infinite or not. neither does anyone. i think scientists are more specific than the dictionary permits (because the dictionary must be somewhat succinct and some topics are incredibly complex). they describe the "known" universe, as well as your all encompassing everything-by-definition universe. i think this statement exposes how inadequate your unsophisticated dictionary definition is. clearly the previously void areas not count as part of the universe as you have defined it, yet they are there, you just called them "areas". we are using the word in two different contexts. you rely too much on the dictionary. some topics are too complicated and require more complex definitions than the dictionary can practically provide. this should help: "Stephen Hawking in 'A Brief History of Time' (1989 page 44) describes the universe as being "finite but unbounded". The simplest answer is that as the universe is known to be expanding, it cannot possibly be infinite. To be precise, the dictionary definition of the word universe is "all that is. The whole system of things." In this sense the universe is not expanding into anything other than itself, for whatever it is expanding into is part of the universe, there being nothing else but the universe. However, for the sake of simplicity, I am referring only to our Big Bang expanding universe as 'the universe'. (Even if you happen to disagree with the Big Bang theory, the term 'universe' will still have the same meaning here, as it refers to 'our' universe only, and does not include whatever may or may not exist outside of it.)" it is worthy of note that this is the most interesting topic red and i have discussed in years.
