Posted on 11/15/2005 6:45:01 PM PST by KevinDavis
Ever wondered how life began and whether there is life on other planets? You're not alone, but the curiosity rarely turns into a career.
The UW astrobiology program gives hope to would-be professional stargazers. Astrobiology -- the study of life in the universe -- looks for scientific answers to questions like "How did life begin on this planet?" and "Are we alone in the universe?" The field builds on knowledge across several disciplines.
UW biology professor Peter Ward and UW astronomy professor Donald Brownlee believe discovering intelligent aliens on other planets is unlikely. In Rare Earth, a book the two co-authored, they say the conditions needed for complex life are so narrow that microbial life may be common, but complicated life in the universe is likely rare.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedaily.washington.edu ...
Watch the movie, "The Privileged Planet".
I think you'll all find it interesting.
"That being the case, why should we automatically conclude that God did not also create life forms on other planets?"
Because it conflicts with some people's view of the bible, and therefore life, and renders everything they believe in questionable?
Instead of taking the wide view of creation as indication of the existence of God, some are only comfortable if it matches up literally with what the bible says - the earth was there and *plunk*, so was man, same then as he is today.
So, the makers of that special were able to look at every planet, not just in our galaxy, but in the entire universe?
Any sort of life is a subject to favorable conditions...and favorable conditions are subject to, basically, odds.
So, if the conditions are "one in a million", count that up against the 100 thousand million stars in the Milky Way alone.
If you think it's one in a billion, count that against the millions and millions of other galaxies, each with billions of stars in it.
>>>if life can evolve (or was created) even in simple form on other worlds, I see no logic in calling further evolution or intelligent creation on said worlds "unlikely."<<<
Evolution cannot explain the creation of life, so we must assume God created life. With God all things are possible, but some are unlikely. Assuming those that are more likely are found in his Word, I agree with the UW profs.
Not really. There is an abundance of evidence that the Earth is not flat. Where is the abundance of evidence that shows we are not the only ones in this universe?
I wonder what part of the bible Graham thought hinted at life on other planets.
I can see him citing the various orders of angels and fallen angels as other life forms.
(Not to mention God, of course.)
Which "UW" is this??
Why is it arrogant to accept the evidence currently at hand?: we are the only life in the universe as far as we know. Arrogance will rear its head when we say "we will ignore the evidence whatever it may be."
Hey, there was one of those on "The Wizard of Oz" the other night.
She (?) was called the 'Wicked Witch of the West', and had a green face that would stop an eight day clock.
But she danced when Dorothy poured water on her. And then melted.
One of the Washington Universities..
And, even if not, the galaxy is so vast, and the distances between stars so great (particularly out here in galactic hinterlands) that I expect it would be possible both to have fairly large absolute numbers of life bearing planets, even civilization bearing planets, yet still so thinly dispersed that the chances of one discovering the presence of another are close to nill.
I mean I don't know what that number might be; I'm not doing any calculations here. Unless another civilization is intentionally beaming very high power interstellar signals in our direction -- that is if they're only transmitting the normal civilizational noise such as reruns of I Love Lucy -- how close would they have to me to be detectable to us? A few light years? A few dozen? A few hundred? How many such civilization would there have to be in the galaxy altogether such that there would be a good chance of one being close enough?
This posting gots lots of strong opinions on a subject we really know nothing about.
I wish intelligent life were more common on Earth.
I agree.. After seeing pictures from the Hubble.. There is a now way in Heck that we are alone.. God did not create this universe only for us to enjoy..
And any possible probe or visitor from another planet / system visiting earth looking for intellegent life would have a 50-50% chance of contacting a liberal, an islamist or an out-right communist and conclude that there is no INTELLEGENT life on Earth.
And one doing just an electronic probe of our TV broadcast spectrum would have a 0% chance of detecting intellegent life.
Seems they have given up on "time and chance".
Billions and billions...
It's true that if you set all the factors making up the Drake equation to fairly negative values, you come up with a very small number of advanced civilizations but you don't come up with just one or zero. Given Sagan's "billions and billions" of stars as a starting point, getting just one is just as improbable as getting billions and billions (i.e., too negative or too positive in setting the factors).
The real question is contained in Fermi's Paradox: where are they? Given the universe's long history and physical dispersion, there may have already been hundreds or thousands of major spacefaring civilizations and there may be that many or more in the future. But it is also possible that there is just one at a time.
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