3 ms·
Life almost definitely exists elsewhere, and this is coming from a religious person. The number of star/planet combinations out there virtually guarantees it ma
by ythn 9y ago
Life almost definitely exists elsewhere, and this is coming from a religious person. The number of star/planet combinations out there virtually guarantees it mathematically. The problem is that space is too large and vast and the speed of light too "slow" to be able to reliably "scan" the universe fast enough to find life.
Two scenarios (at least):
1. God exists and specifically seeded life on Earth.
Even if this is the case there is still no reason meteorites couldn't carry microbes from Earth to Mars. It doesn't seem like God cares about quarantining life to earth, seeing as we made it to the moon.
Also, why bother making a universe so mindbogglingly huge and vast only to put life on a single planet? Makes more sense for God to seed countless planets out there with life. And indeed there are a few verses in the Bible that imply Earth is not God's only creation.
2. God does not exist and life emerged naturally.
If this is the case then that means life can emerge naturally somewhere else with identical conditions, and given the number of stars/planets/time elapsed, this seems like it could be a high probability (hard to know, though, without understanding exactly how life emerges).
- nukeop 9y agoI've seen this "argument from big numbers" lots of times and it's unconvincing. The large number of planets in the universe means nothing if none of them have Earth-quality conditions, or if it's purposefully kept empty, or if the probability of life arising is too small even given the large number of planets.
- llccbb 9y agoBig numbers don't "guarantee life", rather they make it "very unlikely there isn't life". It is the same way that "an absence of evidence is not evidence of an absence". Secondly, it remains a challenge to categorize and define the envelope for what is and isn't "life". We have a decent hold on "earth-like life" but it will not be sufficient for all that might be encountered in due time (or already exists unbeknownst to us). If you have ever defined an ontology you know that it becomes more and more challenging to put definitions to the universals as you climb up the ontology. At the top, the universal from which all other universals inherit is very commonly left descriptionless. Last, there are many alternative to the Christian One-God view that you express (I am sure you are aware and chose to limit your points for brevity). There are spiritual books that explain/propose/posit the universal disconnect between the living conscious beings of Earth in this material plane and the myriad of "beings" that exist in other higher dimensions/levels/shells.
- ythn 9y ago"very unlikely there isn't life" == "very likely that there is life"