Are we alone?

nate95366 · 09-15-2006, 03:05 PM

The odds are incomprehensibly small - however the universe is incomprehensibly large. There are probability/statistics models that have been studied about this very thing, and (this is from an Astronomy Textbook dated 2000). It states that, in our Galaxy, there is probably 1 potentially habitable planetary system out of every 10 planetary systems, with good reason to believe that most stars have planetary systems. If life were to evolve on all of those, and evolved life were to develop intelligence on all of those, and each civilization of developed intelligent life were to last for "x" number of years, the Drake equation would predict that there would also be about "x" number of intelligent civilizations existing in our Galaxy at any one time.

Personally, I think its a lot less than that, but that it is still remotely possible for us to have "neighbors."

I just don't expect them to visit anytime soon.

Nate

goldenchild · 09-29-2006, 01:33 AM

Do I think there are any creatures of any intelligence out there? No I don't. Is it possible that there is some form of life out there? Maybe in the form of plant life or something, possibly. But I doubt it because I believe all things are created for God's glory (of course) but also for the use and care of mankind.

JerryLove · 09-29-2006, 02:52 AM

So angels were created for the use and care of mankind?

How about those bacteria that grow inside hydrothemal vents?

How about smallpox. Would you say that was more for our use (we did use it as a weapon) or for our care?

How about Pluto?

I wonder how much your posititon holds up to scrutiny.

goldenchild · 09-29-2006, 03:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JerryLove

So angels were created for the use and care of mankind?

Most definitely.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JerryLove

How about those bacteria that grow inside hydrothemal vents?

Well not completely sure about them haha. But who knows, maybe we'll find a purpose for them at some point.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JerryLove

How about smallpox. Would you say that was more for our use (we did use it as a weapon) or for our care?

Isn't smallpox a disease? Technically then it isn't a created entity at all. Is a Cold a created being?

Quote:

Originally Posted by JerryLove

How about Pluto?

Possibly sure. There needs to be a balance to the cosmos somehow. I don't think the planets serve no purpose. I think they are there in order to keep the Universe in balance. Without them who knows, everything might be completely different for earth than it is.

[quote=JerryLove;2634766I wonder how much your posititon holds up to scrutiny. [/QUOTE]

Probably not very good. Then again would that be a surprise to you? I'm guessing not

Piano_man7 · 10-16-2006, 03:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by goldenchild

Do I think there are any creatures of any intelligence out there? No I don't. Is it possible that there is some form of life out there? Maybe in the form of plant life or something, possibly. But I doubt it because I believe all things are created for God's glory (of course) but also for the use and care of mankind.

I don't totally agree with this... while you could say that everything on earth was created for the use and care of mankind, there could be any nmber of things out there that He created for another purpose. as for pluto keeping the universe in balance, the universe is infinate, so it really is unable to have any balance if it streches on forever (right?) actually i think that it's extremely possible that God created other life forms, not necesarrily in his image, but possibly that too. Somewhere infinately far from here He could have created another Eden where man (or whatever) never fell and everything is perfect. or even and infinite number other infinate universes

so that even if we explored the whole universe (which we couldn't because it's infinate) then we wouldn't find them anyway because they're somewhere else completely. God isn't constrained by the physical limits of our world: really there could be anything out there.

Well, i really don't know it that made any sense at all...

steve_562 · 10-16-2006, 08:24 PM

Well, I'm not going to throw out all of the "sightings" and "abductions" people claimed to have happened to them. I mean, sure, there are some people who are just lying there face off, but, I doub't all of them. I watched a documentery on this and a possible explination of people wha are sure the've been abducted. It has something to do with dreams... But, anyone considered that the "aliens" could be something from the supernatural world? Angles or demons?

strathero · 04-05-2007, 03:24 PM

It's a possibilty. If I were God, I'm not, but if I were, I would have created life on more than one planet to see the truest nature of sin... if all "Adams" could be deceived by their "Eves."

But No, I don't think God created life on any other planet other than our own.

jrb4him · 04-08-2007, 07:01 PM

oh a deeper note....there's nothing that says God didn't create a whole new separate world that is maybe the same idea as this or totally different. Why would he have to reveal it to us if it was a totally different universe type deal in the middle of wherever he chooses to put it.

Jason

Ax · 04-08-2007, 07:23 PM

Don't resurrect dead threads...

Lightknight · 04-08-2007, 07:40 PM

I imagine that the likelyhood of alien life is extremely high. Just not necessarily in the way we'd think about it. All we'd need is some single-celled organism from somewhere else to be able to claim the existence of aliens.

Now, intelligent lifeforms? That's an entirely different question. Out of all of the numerous species on Earth, it appears that we are the only intelligent ones [liberal joke inserted here] [mocking of liberals inserted here] [Fist fight inserted here]. If you really look at this statistically, humans are the smallest fraction of the world specie population that a single specie can be (I know, it's amazingly redundant and not needed to be said). Now, add that with how much life we've observed thus far outside of the boundaries of earth and what we have are nigh astronomical odds. However, when speaking about all the cosmos, astronomical odds aren't unbelieveable.

peter600 · 09-06-2007, 09:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lightknight

I imagine that the likelyhood of alien life is extremely high.

think about the millions of stars you see in the night sky, then remeber thats not all of them. with so many possibilities out there i reckon theres a pretty high chance that somewhere there is life of some sort even though it may not be intelligent.

Jeffrey · 09-06-2007, 09:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lightknight

However, when speaking about all the cosmos, astronomical odds aren't unbelieveable.

Okay...so there's a Cowboy Planet out there somewhere?

SccHarpGirl · 09-20-2007, 06:31 AM

Alien life = likely, somewhere out there.

Intelligent alien life = I have to agree with Nate on this one and add that even if they were out there, due to the immense distances we're talking about and the laws of physics, it's possible we'll never discover them (and vice versa) without major breakthroughs in physics (faster than light travel).

I believe in a planet of ballpoint pens, somewhere out there...

Nate · 09-20-2007, 08:09 AM

Why is it so hard to grant the possibility of intelligent alien life after granting the possibility of alien life at all?

JerryLove · 09-20-2007, 09:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nate

Why is it so hard to grant the possibility of intelligent alien life after granting the possibility of alien life at all?

I don't think that anyone has had a hard time going from "life" to "intelligent life". Of course, there are some fundamental questions about how common intelligent life (to the extent that humanity is) would be.

Recall that, as a techonologcial society, we've existed only 10,000 years or so. It's quite possible that intelligence of our sort is not sustainable and inevitably kills itself.

It's also possible that its common, but that there are no truely great propulsion advances to be had beyond what we can see on the horizon. If so, geting to a sinlg other star, or communicating with someone there (not to touch on the number of other stars) is a monumental undertaking and will never be anything less. The odds of discovering another intelligent lifeform may be very small indeed.