What if the odds are way less than 1 out of a trillion? Look at each of these properties that have to be juuussst right that I can think of off the top of my head. Imagine the odds of each one being one out of a 1,000 (a few 0's). Multiply it out and it's 1 out of 10^36. And that's just the properties I can think of that are special about our planet, star, and galaxy. I'm sure there are many, many more properties that have to be fine-tuned to be just right for advanced life. And with my example I assumed the odds for each property was 1 out of 1,000, but I'd bet for most of them it's a lot less.
1. Planet just happens to be in the "goldilocks zone" for liquid water.
2. Planet in the right age of its life cycle for advanced life, while the host star also just happens to be the right age in its life cycle.
3. Planet has a molten core.
4. Planet has a big brother bodyguard planet like Earth has Jupiter, and the big planet is close enough to absorb most of the asteroids into its larger gravity well (sparing Earth from frequent ELA's), but far enough away so that the big planet doesn't cause too much tectonic activity on the life hosting planet.
5. Host star is near enough to other stars for the necessary cosmic radiation, but not too close and being too bombarded with cosmic radiation.
6. Planet's rotational axis wobbles some to give us some tectonic activity (to stir up necessary heavy elements to the surface), but not too much wobble.
7. Planet's orbit around host star is elliptic enough to help with tectonic activity but not too elliptic.
8. The planet have an accompanying moon just the right size and nearly circular orbit to provide a stabilizing effect on the planet's rotational axis. (Some say our Earth's rotational axis would vary as much as 90° without the moon.) Plus the moon also acts as a sentry like Jupiter does, absorbing asteroids.
9. The host star's iron enrichment be just enough to form planets, but not too rich.
10. The host star's orbit within its galaxy be circular enough.
11. The host galaxy absorb enough dwarf galaxies at a frequent enough rate to maintain its spiral state, but not too frequent. The fact that it's been probably 10 billion years since our Milky Way Galaxy absorbed a dwarf galaxy makes our galaxy somewhat fine-tuned for life in a way that most galaxies aren't.
12. The host star's distance from its galaxy center can't be too close (the massive red stars near the center of the galaxy would disrupt too many things on the planet), not can it be too far away (where there are less elements). It must be within the galactic disc, but not too close to the galactic center.
IMHO I guess it's possible that advanced life is out there somewhere. But only if God created it like He created Earth. Us Christians don't gain or lose anything whether or not we discover advanced life elsewhere. The atheists have to discover advanced life elsewhere to avoid admitting that Earth was especially fine-tuned for life. As for me, I'm not religious enough to believe in this much random chance.