What a time to be alive

“Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.” ― Arthur C
The Drake equation suggests the latter.

I never got that, how is it terrifying if we’re alone? Like I get that that means only our planet is liveable so we have to be more careful with it, but that seems less terrifying than the possibility of malignant aliens wanting to squash us.

If there are no other life forms in the universe it means life will eventually die out forever. If there are no other habitable planets it means life will die out very soon comparatively. Even if we took perfect care of our planet our sun will stop giving us life rather soon on a universal scale. That means in the case we are the only living things in the universe we have to leave our planet for life to continue at all. If there are no other planets capable of supporting said life then life is super screwed super soon

Who says that's a bad thing? And who says we won't have the technology to colonize other planets in other solar systems by then? And there is the supernatural God who may draw the universe to a close before any of that happens. I don't find it a scary concept at all, that Earth is the only planet with life.

@bethorien yeah I get that, but I don’t get how that’s terrifying, everything has to die sooner or later. Even if there is alien life (again, there most likely is), they too will die out. Maybe the universe will collapse on itself one day, I don’t know
@sublimegamer I was wondering when you’d sneak your god into this discussion

One cannot claim that there is likely or not likely to be alien life, based purely on scientific and natural principles. They need to have made some assumptions beforehand, from their world view. Atheists may claim alien life is certain, while creationists may claim alien life is nonexistent (because scripture never mentions them, so ethical questions would ensue). They could even argue vice versa. The fact remains that no life from other planets have been confirmed to be extraterrestrial, and there is currently no observable evidence that there is alien life.

There are so many planets similar to earth that we have observed (see that “observational science” you’re so fond of?) and life has been shown to not be all that difficult to arise (given the right chemicals are present (which is the case on those earth like planets)). These two things combined make it incredibly likely that there is some form of extraterrestrial life out there. Of course we can’t claim it’s certain until we have evidence, but we can say it’s very probable

@sublimegamer “One cannot claim that there is likely or not likely to be alien life, based purely on scientific and natural principles” either came out differently than you meant or is one of the most absurd statements I have ever seen on the Internet (which is saying a lot).

Life is nigh impossible to arise without intelligent creators (humans or otherwise) ensuring that conditions are "right". Other planets may be similar to Earth, but that does not help the issue of abiogenesis (life coming from non-living chemicals), which has never been observed. It goes against the well-established law of biogenesis (life begets life). To have it occur successfully without immediate death, on multiple planets, is making the improbable even more improbable.

This is simply untrue, like I said, if the right chemical are in place (and those chemicals really aren’t that spectacularly uncommon) self-replecating molecules can form on their own, no “intelligent creator” required, which is the first step towards life. This HAS been observed in a lab in which they mimicked the conditions of earth back in those days. How do they know those conditions? Well, we can look at our oldest rocks and get a pretty good clue of what it might have been like. Again, given the sheer number of planets, it’s just silly to think no planet except for this one has at one point contained the same or similar chemicals as we did

To say the chemicals are similar is one thing. Whether they would combine without careful LAB input to create life is another thing entirely. Are you saying those scientists are not intelligent designers of the conditions of the test?

Yes, that is what I’m saying, as they simply mimicked what occured naturally

@sublimegamer You realize when say “One cannot claim that there is likely or not likely to be alien life, based purely on scientific and natural principles.” and then say “To have it occur successfully without immediate death, on multiple planets, is making the improbable even more improbable.” you are being completely self-contradictory?

I think they know that they’re not relying on scientific and natural principles, but on their holy book

Based purely on scientific and natural principles. Is abiogenesis natural? No. Therefore we need some point of view to jump to the conclusion of aliens or no aliens.
Creationists acknowledge that our world view is rooted in the scriptures, why can't atheists acknowledge that their world view requires unnatural events too?

It is absolutely natural, in fact it’s an eventuality given the right circumstances. Specifically a planet with active lava vents at the bottom of an ocean of water. Water provides radiation protection and the vents provide a soup of carbon based molecules that will naturally become more complex over time.

They may get more complex, but even the Titin molecule isn't alive by itself. Given the right circumstances (an unnatural or supernatural event) life could arise.

There is no way to observe a process that takes millions of years to form any resemblance of life. It is purely based on human ideas, which can be warped in the enormous scope of the task.

It’s your understanding that something isn’t possible until we have observed it happen?

Isn't it possible that God created the univserse? We didn't observe it. I'm just saying that observing something generally makes it more true.

Do you believe in ice ages?

Jesus Christ, I knew you were a hardcore creationist but my god, are you thick, or more likely just willfully ignorant

I think we're done here.

Sorry man, I know it’s not cool to lash out like that, but it can be quite frustrating when you present people with evidence and they just go “nah I don’t believe that”

Yeah it can be frustrating. No harm done.