[aruanan]

The mind-boggling numbers involved with this question argue in favor of a universe that is teeming with life.

If you calculate the odds that we have arrived where we have by chance, you'll arrive at number that virtually guarantees its impossibility. But let's assume it happened anyway. To find, then, what the odds are that this has happened twice, you have to multiply the first set of odds by itself and so on for each different occurrence you posit. So the likelihood, as likelihood is actually figured in real science, militates against anything like we've seen on this planet ever happening again, much less in such a way that results in a "universe that is teeming with life."

[BenKenobi]

I’m an agnostic on this question.

I agree that the odds of it happening are astronomical, but I also know that God really has a thing for life.

You’ve got a huge universe and all kinds of factors, and some that we don’t know about yet that are required for life to form here on earth.

Call it a wash and unity? I dunno. Not a question that I expect to be settled before I have to shuffle off this earth, so I’m not too worried about it.

[Windflier]

...the likelihood, as likelihood is actually figured in real science, militates against anything like we've seen on this planet ever happening again, much less in such a way that results in a "universe that is teeming with life."

I'm sorry, but in a sea as vast as the universe, that statement is illogical.

Who says that life must develop under conditions identical to those found on Earth? We have life forms on this planet that thrive in conditions that are deadly to plant, animal, and insect life.

Whole ecosystems could inhabit methane seas on other planets, as far as we know. Animal life could exist elsewhere that breathes in an atmosphere with a totally different chemical composition than our own.

The possibilities are endless.

[Lazamataz]

If you calculate the odds that we have arrived where we have by chance, you'll arrive at number that virtually guarantees its impossibility. But let's assume it happened anyway. To find, then, what the odds are that this has happened twice, you have to multiply the first set of odds by itself and so on for each different occurrence you posit. So the likelihood, as likelihood is actually figured in real science, militates against anything like we've seen on this planet ever happening again, much less in such a way that results in a "universe that is teeming with life."

Problem is, the universe looks darned big, infinite almost.

Roll a trillion dice, infinite number of times, and the odds of them coming up all 6's an infinite number of times is 100%.