Posted on 02/08/2013 8:37:47 AM PST by PJ-Comix
Most people seem to assume that the universe is chock full of intelligent life. But what if we ARE alone in the Universe? So far all SETI searches have shown no evidence of other civilizations out there. If you have devoted your life to searching for intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, you are probably wasting your time.
The more I study about the formation of the earth, the more convinced I am that the earth is pretty much a freak occurrence whose conditions for life or intelligent life exits nowhere else. So what are the theological implications of this? I would be most interested in reading your input.
I think we will be able to expand the narrow band of environmental conditions we need to survive but not by a huge amount. I think we’ll be able to genetically engineer a bit more tolerance to higher radiation levels, warmer temps, thinner atmospheres etc.
In the movie Pandorum the travelers were being continuously fed something to make them more adaptable to the new planet (Tanis) they were going to. Obviously it created a disaster in the movie but that was a central theme there.
We probably are alone in the universe. Dr. Coppedge did a probability analysis of a single polypeptide forming from an amino acid and it was 1/10^23. There are hundreds of thousands of these necessary for the simplest life to form. That makes the odds of forming 1/10^23000000, even with all of the entire surface of a planet available for the probability, and billions of years to do it under perfect conditions. The fact that life has already formed here is utterly improbable. The universe is very young.
So, the theological implications, huh? If we’re the only intelligent life, and God sent his son to die for that life in order to reconcile with Him, then the theological implications are straightforward. But if there was other intelligent life, then did Jesus die for them as well? It would mean that Jesus is not God Himself, as He claimed.
The theological implications of intelligent life elsewhere are staggering. But the implications if we’re alone are just pretty simple. God’s commission to Adam was to multiply & inherit the earth. We’ve done that. Now our commission will be to multiply and inherit the GALAXY. Human population will be in the trillions, hundreds of trillions, like sand on the seashore, as promised.
Hopefully God will clean up our mess & implement His millenial kingdom before we screw up the rest of the galaxy.
So ... We blew more than $Trillion on TARP and Porkulus, and we have nothing to show for it.
Now you're telling us for the same money, we could be sending a robot probe to Alpha Centauri????
That really pisses me off.
I consider myself to be fairly tolerant but do NOT ever mock Elvis.
Imagine God creating the entire universe for our benefit and our use.
Oh yes, thank you. All the crap about the Alcubierre breakthrough and recently modified models that will ‘work’ with Negative Energy (only exists on paper) and “exotic matter” (unobtanium)
Looking at the question"
Are we (probably) ALONE in the universe?
I say you are looking at the wrong question in the wrong order
First (As a given for this question) "We exist at this time"...at some time we did not exist but now we do
So therefor that means(As a given for this question)that some mechanism exist that created us also exist.. (whether it be God, evolution or whatever)
..the fact that we exist at this time is proof there is some creation mechanism that exist in the universe
So now it becomes(As a given for this question) "A creation mechanism exist in the universe"
So the question now becomes:
Did that creation mechanism function only once at this one time and place in the total universe? ....
Weighing that question I would say that answer is: "Probably not"
So by extension the answer to the question:
Are we ALONE in the universe?
The answer would also become: "Probably not"
WooHoo! More for us!
A couple of months ago, I saw Elvis at the Sonic Burger in North Las Vegas ...
Gravity is not instantaneous. Its influence is exerted at light speed.
Anybody sitting in front of an electronic computer has no room to bash theoretical things that need unobtanium. The first electronic computer designs, which were eventually used to build actual computers, were done around theoretical not yet existing things like capacitors and resistors. People thought there might be some way to do those kinds of things with electricity and if you could then you could arrange those in a certain way and walla. And you’re reading from the walla.
In short, it would mean manned space exploration is roughly analogous to a hamster chewing at the bars of his cage.
If we solve the gravity puzzle we will have warp travel.
Oops. Starting with 1/10^23 is far too generous. It’s 1/10^161.
http://www.tedmontgomery.com/bblovrvw/creation/crea-evol.html
DeNouy provides another illustration for arriving at a single molecule of high dissymmetry through chance action and normal thermic agitation. He assumes 500 trillion shakings per second plus a liquid material volume equal to the size of the earth. For one molecule it would require “10^243 billions of years.” Even if this molecule did somehow arise by chance, it is still only one single molecule. Hundreds of millions are needed, requiring compound probability calculations for each successive molecule. His logical conclusion is that “it is totally impossible to account scientifically [naturally] for all phenomena pertaining to life.”32
Even 40 years ago, scientist Harold F. Blum, writing in Time’s Arrow and Evolution, wrote that, “The spontaneous formation of a polypeptide of the size of the smallest known proteins seems beyond all probability.”33
Noted creation scientists Walter L. Bradley and Charles Thaxton, authors of The Mystery of Life’s Origin: Reassessing Current Theories, point out that the probability of assembling amino acid building blocks into a functional protein is approximately one chance in 4.9 × 10191.34 “Such improbabilities have led essentially all scientists who work in the field to reject random, accidental assembly or fortuitous good luck as an explanation for how life began.”35 Now, if a figure as “small” as 5 chances in 10191 is referenced by such a statement, then what are we to make of the kinds of probabilities below that, which are infinitely less? The mind simply boggles at the remarkable faith of the materialist.
According to Coppedge, the probability of evolving a single protein molecule over 5 billion years is estimated at 1 chance in 10161. This even allows some 14 concessions to help it along which would not actually be present during evolution.36 Again, this is no chance.
It is not evident to this self. Sorry. In the physical sciences, casting about the term “self-evident” is just laziness, a way to avoid the hard work of doing the proof. Time without process will not help you. I could spot you eternity, and your spontaneous life theory would remain an unproven crutch for a weak idea. Show me the process, or leave me to my doubt.
On what basis are you assigning a probability?
Uh, NO. That's not the sort of God I believe in.
His existence is NOT conditional on any other being. In fact, all other beings, all other minds, were Created by him either directly, or through processes He designed.
None of this "god exists for you, but not for me" nonsense.
My God is actual, real, pre-existent, non-conditional, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and amazingly, cares about what happens to you and me.
“Considering our own short history on this planet, I think I would prefer that any other “intelligent” life in the universe be very, very, very far away.”
This.
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