to the Theists..Follow

hmmmm... that is true. However, even if you take out the whole "creator" thing and think about it in statistic terms, there is still a chance that some planet out there does indeed hold life. Even if there is only like a 1 in a billion chance that another planet holds life, that is still a pretty damned good chance when you think of how many galaxies there are out there, and who knows how many solar systems which in turn hold planets. Even a 1 in hundred billion could still potentially yield a high likelihood. Ya, it would be forever to find that little 1 in a billion planet though, but that doesn't mean it isn't out there.

You mean Norrath doesn't count?

Anyway, this isnt the Stone Age, and scientists do have a "clue" as to the conditions necessary to create life, and therefore the chances that a planet with those conditions and with the right orbit would have in developping life.


No, no they don't. They have a completely arbitrary guess that is no more or less likely than life only even existing uniquely on Earth.

Sorry.

Not as romantic, but that's the case.

I often wonder if there is a God, and whether or not I actually have a choice in what I do or is it pre-destined.

I'm a very indecisive person, and see too many questions to be answered on both sides of the argument about whether there is a God or not. I would like to think there is a heaven that is on the other side of this life. A heaven that I could possibly go to to where I live in a mansion and never hurt, cry, or feel any pain at all. But if there is a heaven, there has to be a hell right? What bothers me, is I'm not sure I have or can live my life as intended by the Bible so I don't end up in hell for all eternity.

With heaven/hell in mind, I wonder to myself if I already have a pre-determined destination, or do I actually have a say-so in where I go by the actions I take every day in different situations.

For example, am I making this post because I choose to or was it already supposed to be.

So at this point in my life, I have no clear cut opinion on whether or not religion is just a bunch of crap.

One thing that should be pointed out when talking about this... we may not even be talking about life-forms that can communicate in some verbal way... even something microscopic would count as life... of course, no chance in hell could we find something other then a huge city from earth pretty much. Unless there is some technology I don't know about.

Also, you're right, we don't know exactly the enviroment needed for life... however, we are still discovering new life-forms here in earth in some of the most extreme places you could immagine enviroment wise. Hell, I think at one point we found something that lives like near lava or something... I remember reading something awhile back about something living on the sea bottom, deeper then we've ever seen life before, near like a thermal crack or something. Extreme pressure, heat, no light... wouldn't think life could form there, and yet we found some.



Pretty good way to sum it up actually. Right now, no one can prove either way whether life exists somewhere else or not. Until we can actually go to planets and see first hand whether there is even a small orgainism we can't prove it one way or another. Of course, if we were visiting other planets in the name of exploration (think like stargate or startrek) I immagine we would be looking for more humanoid style species then organisms. Though either would (at first) be a major boon to science.

Stupid office network sucks ***.

Edited, Jun 14th 2006 at 11:40am EDT by RedPhoenixxxxxx

Pot, kettle...

It's not just 'something', there is an entire micro-ecosystem down there with a variety of species. Crabs, shrimp, worms and other animals all living around thermal spouts.

Also don't discount non-carbon based life forms, if they exist. Mankind knows too little about any damn thing to even begin to form a definitive claim on the possibilities of extra-terrestrial life. ****, they can barely form a comprehensive theory on terrestrial forms.

Wow.. we learned to create primordial life and no one told me

That's always been my contention. People always use the qualifier of "life as we know it". Understandable, since it's kind of futile to be looking for something that we can't even comprehend yet. But who knows, there may actually be a world of nitrogen-based life out there. That is susceptible to Head & Shoulders as poison. Sorry, not that big a fan of Contact.

Nobody's mentioned Noodle-based life forms yet. . .

Just talk to Dana...