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Is there anyone who does not believe in the existence of extra-terrestrial life? It seems almost silly not to believe in life elsewhere in the universe.The Universe is so big, there must be life elsewhere in it.
That also happens to be a 17th. century reason for believing in the existence of God. The universe is so big, God must be out there somewhere.
There is no more proof for the existence of extra-terrestrial life than there is proof for the existence of God. Why should one belief be reasonable and the other silly? No one has any real knowledge one way or the other about either.
Even though we have no knowledge about extra-terrestrial life, we can still ask questions about it. What form would life on another planet take? How would it come about? How can we relate to it?
We can also ask the same questions about God. What form would God take? How would God come about? What are God's motivations?
We must realize that belief is only belief. Without knowledge, there can only be belief. There's nothing wrong with a belief by itself. It's only wrong to insist that everyone else believe the same as you do. It's wrong to coerce and manipulate others with unprovable beliefs.
Belief without knowledge is only belief and all beliefs are equal. If the answers come easily, you're not asking the right questions.

nipoleon 5 Jan 15
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8 comments

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Arguing the scientific probability of extra-terrestrial life is missing the point. The point is that there are lots of things people believe without any proof. Regardless of how sensible it seems, without knowing they can only be beliefs.
I believe in the " possibility " of extra-terrestrial life.
I believe in the " possibility" of the existence of God.
I do not believe in the " facts " of these things. There are no facts, they are only beliefs. Whether it be ghosts, ESP, out of body experiences, astrology, the true nature of Dark Matter, you can believe whatever you want when there is no real knowledge. It's the political arrogance of imposing and coercing beliefs that's disingenuous and harmful.

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Hi Nioleon,
I have read there are about a billion galaxies in the known Universe and in our galaxy the milky way there are about 500 billion stars/planets and so far we know of only one with complex cells and intelligence that is on planet Earth,so given that there are a billion galaxies there is possible that there is intelligent life on a billion planets.which would have had time to evolve to become intelligent life forms.and still I would not believe there is a supernatural diety,which counteracts physical laws.

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I kind of think this is the same question as "is there a gawd?" "Oooh, look, somebody must have made all this"......
Who cares? How is relevant to me?

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For thousands of years, intelligent people have tried to use logical constructs to prove the existence of God, all to no avail.
Using logical and scientific constructs also do not prove the existence of extra-intelligent life either.
No knowledge = no knowledge. Maybe this and possibly that is no proof.
Saying that God is not necessary for the existence of the universe is beside the point. It's like saying blue-eyed people are not necessary for car wrecks. Of course not!
Belief is only belief and nothing else. Being a believer doesn't make you an idiot, being an atheist doesn't make you a genius.

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"All beliefs are equal" Really?

'I believe in the Loch Ness Monster' is equal to 'I believe doctors are unnecessary as god will heal my child's cancer'?

Not all beliefs are equal, some are dangerous - White supremacists? Hitler?

We can hypothesise about life elsewhere in the universe, as we know that abiogenesis is possible given the right conditions. The universe is really big (honest!) so it is possible that these conditions could exist elsewhere and it is possible that life could form elsewhere. Is it probable? I don't know. At present we have only one example of life existing in the universe, so on that basis it is impossible to calculate probability.

On the god claim, we have precisely no confirmed existence of god anywhere in the universe so have no evidence that it is even possible let alone probable.

With the evidence we currently have for life in the universe, I can confidently state that there is life on earth.

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There is no more proof for the existence of extra-terrestrial life than there is proof for the existence of God.

You're statement compares two very different realms: biology and God(s) The existence of biological entities is verifiable from our terrestrial experience, so it's far less of a stretch to expect to find it elsewhere. Saying the existence of God(s) is just as possible, only because of the size of the universe, is illogical because we haven't found any here....

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Thanks; saved me typing it (and you put it in a far more articulate way).

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It seems more plausible now based on recent discoveries that the life we are familiar with maybe didn't even begin on earth. If you believe that's possible, then you have to also believe it's possible life exists or existed elsewhere.

Couple that with the sheer size and commonness of the universe, and the math becomes very compelling. It's very likely life, even life as we understand it, exists, existed, and/or will exist in other places.

God is not a required factor in the equation.

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It is a mathematical certainty that life exists elsewhere in the universe. However, that does not mean that life as intelligent as man (if he is indeed "intelligent" ) exists on any particular planet at the same time mankind exists. For most of our (Earth's) history, only microbial life existed. Aside from that, man's interest in "extraterrestrial" life is centered around finding intelligent life and possibly communicating with it which is very unlikely due to the distances involved. In short, they are not coming here and we are not going there...the best we can hope for is radio waves.

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