“if we are the only life forms here on earth why was the universe made so large.”
I agree we will probably not know on this side.
The question is often used to imply there would be waste in the creative enterprise if there were no other life. Because God is not wasteful, it is reasoned, He likely created these other spaces for other life.
I have heard many who are almost giddy that this gives the “out” for alien life to exist in a theistic framework.
It would seem, though, that the universe should be absolutely teeming with life, else the “waste” argument becomes weak. The scale of galaxies and distances is mind-bending. There are many other forms of waste, of course, in the forms of heat and energy expelled from stars, etc. which could be considered, but it is often the “space to live” argument that gets the hook.
But if we look in the opposite direction toward the atomic scale, we find something similar. My speculation is that God has constructed the physical domain in such a way that, no matter how large or small we look, we cannot reach the ends, and this creates the perception of waste, but is just a reflection of His own infinitude.
Perhaps God simply colored outside the lines(?)
I think if we took the time to think it through that we could deduce the nature of these things. For example, if not even information can travel faster than light, then any "aliens" should be from this planet. If, with our current tech, we cannot see them on land, and given that 75% of Earth is covered in water ...
Regarding "UFO crashes", in a world where human vehicles are starting to safely drive without drivers, how likely is it that an advanced species would experience crashes of their higher-tech vehicles and devices?
Finally, they must be friendly towards humanity, otherwise they would have already released their own virus into a "wet market" in China.