Accepting that God created the heaven and the earth, one must also conclude he created all of the stars, many of which also have their own planetary systems. That being the case, why should we automatically conclude that God did not also create life forms on other planets?
Beats me... I have a feeling that God did create other lifeforms. To say that we are the only ones in this universe is like saying the Earth is flat..
Of course, if there was intelligent life on other planets (that had a few million years jump on us), the logical question is: where are they? You would think they would have had time to colonize all over the galaxy.
Arthur C. Clarke had a pretty good explanation for this, which was hinted at in "2001- A Space Oddessy". Advanced civilizations are like an impulse function; either they destroy themselves or they self-evolve to the next level. They are only around long enough for their inhabitants to figure out how to assume a suitably "God-like" form that allows them eternal life. According to ACC, they first made the jump from biological to longer-lasting, mechanical bodies. Eventually, they learned how to store their essence in the cosmos, negating the need for physical bodies altogether. In effect, becoming divine beings. His earlier book "Childhood's End" had a similar theme, with humanity joining the "Overmind".
"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.