If one accepts the scientists’ explanation of how life arose here on Earth, then it developed in an environment inhospitable to the vast majority of life now on the planet. And, who are we to say the path followed here is the only option? That seems utterly arrogant, to me.
If one accepts the Judeo-Christian explanation of how life arose (was created) here on Earth, then who on Earth (so to speak) is to say what God can or cannot do?
As for civilizations being short lived in terms of geologic time, that’s true, BUT, the pattern is of civilizations rising, collapsing, and then new ones replacing the old. Unless we utterly wipe ourselves out — fairly hard to do — once an Industrial Age has occurred, if just enough information survives each time to get subsequent civilizations into their own Industrial Age(s) fairly quickly, then the pattern will likely still be of rises and falls, but much faster than in the past.* At least some civilizations should be able to get out into and inhabit, at a minimum, interplanetary abodes (Earth’s Moon, Mars, the Asteroid Belt, moons in the outer Solar System that have large quantities of water...). Heck, we are not THAT far from being able to do so, ourselves. Survival of any of those colonies makes recoveries even faster, as then technology retention is vastly enhanced.
Some civilizations last longer than others, too. In our case, say, a U.S. Constitution with certain inviolable additions near the front, could perhaps be better enduring. Learn from our mistakes, one might put it. Humans are adaptive and sometimes (sometimes) do learn from mistakes.
*I was watching a documentary the other day on how SLOWLY humankind had progressed for tens of thousands of years, and then we took off like a rocket once the Industrial Revolution began, with the Information Age providing sort of a “second stage” further boost.
The major problem is that over geologic time frames, the odds of Solar System-wide catastrophe go up. This would argue that civilizations reaching their own Industrial Ages need to last long enough, and be wise enough, to at least be capable of sending out generational “seed” ships.
We are alone...