Well, since the only solar system we know much about has planets and life the assumption would be that life is likely to occur and abundant. That such an idea is foreign to the many religions as well as the current set of fixed ideas we call ‘science’ doesn’t reduce it’s validity.
I’m always amused by the egocentric similarity of religious people and scientists who both claim that life is unique to one planet in one corner of one galaxy in a universe of apparently limitless scope.
I’m sure I’ll get burned at the stake for this. Or have my grant threatened.
If we found such a planet and life hadn’t even developed on it yet, let alone grown to the tipping point as our own has, it would be worth as much as a case full of ice cream to a kid standing outside a padlocked soda shop.
“That such an idea is foreign to the many religions as well as the current set of fixed ideas we call ‘science’ doesn’t reduce it’s validity.”
Well, from a Christian point of view, I have always been fascinated by questions such as these:
1. If there are extraterrestrial civilizations, does each one have a “Savior” with both Divine and local natures?
2. Does each have a “Mary, the Mother of the Savior?”
3. Are there a whole collection of such “Marys” all assumed into “Heaven?”
I think there are more scientists that allow for the possibility of life beyond our planet than religious people. I could be wrong...but I doubt it.