Secular Science Thinks Billions Of Planets Have Sentient Life. So Why Haven't They/We Made Contact?

[jamesbond007]

High probability of alien life
The Universe Has Probably Hosted Many Alien Civilizations: Study

Science fiction
Themes : Aliens : SFE : Science Fiction Encyclopedia

God didn't create aliens
Are there such things as aliens or UFOs?

 

[JackRT]

I am only partly tongue in cheek when I suggest that as a primitive and irrationally violent people we are being held in quarantine until we grow up.

 

[nonaeroterraqueous]

Evidence does not suggest that there is intelligent life out there. Science demands repeatability, and so far there has been none, as far as we can detect.

All of the conjecture about alien life depends entirely on assumptions and statistical probability. The probability factor is sketchy, because they don't really have any kind of a handle on what percentage of systems have a viable planet (so far, none), multiplied against the number of planetary systems, also accounting for the age of the universe and longevity of a living planet, etc.

The other factor is the assumptions. That's a philosophical problem. If life coming into existence is the result of chance interactions, and not a deliberate act by an outside force, then we really are dealing in probability. If, however, it came into existence by the deliberate outside force, then there's no probability to be figured. It happens or does not happen as God chooses.

So we're left believing in aliens because of a combination of bad math and bad science/philosophy. It doesn't mean that they aren't out there. It's just not a good and rational thing to believe right now, based on the evidence.

 

[SnowyMacie]

That video doesn't talk about The Great Filter...

 

[exitstageright]

We cannot even get along with sentient creatures here on Earth.God may have put his worlds light years apart,in order for us not to make wars on each other.

 

[Monk Brendan]

Don't forget that scientists didn't believe there were gorillas until the middle of the 19th century.

Whether there are extraterrestrial biological beings capable of spiritual and moral life like ours: maybe yes, maybe no.

I don't think there is evidence either way at this poing.

 

[USincognito]

Maybe we're the first or maybe we're the last.

(hat tip to Carl Sagan)

And the title of this thread is wrong. It should be "Science has calculated that billions of planets exist based upon observations".

 

[Tanj]

High probability of alien life
The Universe Has Probably Hosted Many Alien Civilizations: Study

I'll never understand why the thoughts of a handful of people being attributed to the opinion of "science" is perfectly fine, but when I say the Westboro Baptist Church represents all Christians people disagree.

Can you explain that to me James? You have 1 article by Adam Frank and a few of his friends, and you have decided that = "Secular Science thinks..."

Is there any chance you could explain how that is sane?

 

[Shemjaza]

High probability of alien life
The Universe Has Probably Hosted Many Alien Civilizations: Study

Science fiction
Themes : Aliens : SFE : Science Fiction Encyclopedia

God didn't create aliens
Are there such things as aliens or UFOs?

The universe is very large and very spread out.

Life is probably rare, and intelligent life is probably vastly rarer still. It's also probable that extinction will come for even the most advanced species.

It's also possible that it's basically impossible to get beyond our own solar system.

This means that there could be millions of species at our technology level in our galaxy... and we wouldn't even be able to detect them.

 

[jamesbond007]

I'll never understand why the thoughts of a handful of people being attributed to the opinion of "science" is perfectly fine, but when I say the Westboro Baptist Church represents all Christians people disagree.

Can you explain that to me James? You have 1 article by Adam Frank and a few of his friends, and you have decided that = "Secular Science thinks..."

Is there any chance you could explain how that is sane?

When I was growing up, I first heard about "real" aliens from Cosmos star Carl Sagan. Basically, he thought that because of the "billions and billions" (actually millions, billions and trillions) of planets, stars and heavenly bodies, i.e. galaxies, asteroids, moons, etc. out in space. Sagan said that there was an abundance of carbon-rich complex molecules out there that are the building blocks for life and that it was everywhere. He also believed, i.e. had faith, like the seculars that once life began, then it would evolve. One cell and it becomes a multicell and eventually into some creature. Now that creature may not resemble a human as it was formed differently, but it probably would be sentient and evolve into an intelligent being. He even convinced NASA to send time capsules with messages for intelligent aliens in the satellites we sent into space. Yet, he was against UFOism or those who believed in UFOs and that aliens visited, contacted or abducted humans. He thought there wasn't any scientific verification to these stories, so these "believers" were in the lunatic fringe.

Of course, this was before the fine tuning facts and discovering through the Bible that God did not create aliens.

 

[jamesbond007]

The universe is very large and very spread out.

Life is probably rare, and intelligent life is probably vastly rarer still. It's also probable that extinction will come for even the most advanced species.

It's also possible that it's basically impossible to get beyond our own solar system.

This means that there could be millions of species at our technology level in our galaxy... and we wouldn't even be able to detect them.

No disagreement there. The evolution camp has stated now that life "is" rare since SETI hasn't had any contact, Ferdi's paradox, Drake equation, fine tuning facts and the fact that humans have sent many probes and not one single microbe has been found. There are people who think life exists on Mars, but there is none. However, some think that life existed there in the past and continue to investigate. Even the head of NASA thinks we'll find alien life in the next twenty years due to the expensive telescopes and probing equipment that they have and the "billions and billions" of heavenly bodies out there.

ETA: I left out the Great Filter above.

 

[Shemjaza]

No disagreement there. The evolution camp has stated now that life "is" rare since SETI hasn't had any contact, Ferdi's paradox, Drake equation, fine tuning facts and the fact that humans have sent many probes and not one single microbe has been found. There are people who think life exists on Mars, but there is none. However, some think that life existed there in the past and continue to investigate. Even the head of NASA thinks we'll find alien life in the next twenty years due to the expensive telescopes and probing equipment that they have and the "billions and billions" of heavenly bodies out there.

ETA: I left out the Great Filter above.

We've looked nowhere.

A few obviously hostile to life planets in our home system and the planets unusual enough to stand out against a dark background is not a reasonable representative sample.

There are billions of planets in the Milky Way and we've looked at a few hundred.

Rare intelligence was always completely consistent with evidence. We have only a single example of technological intelligence amongst billions of years and millions of species.

 

[Strathos]

Wow, looks like I'm the only one who voted for the most honest poll choice.

 

[Shemjaza]

Wow, looks like I'm the only one who voted for the most honest poll choice.

You're right, of course. I don't know either.

But the scale of the universe leaves me very confident.

 

[Tanj]

When I was growing up, I first heard about "real" aliens from Cosmos star Carl Sagan. Basically, he thought that because of the "billions and billions" (actually millions, billions and trillions) of planets, stars and heavenly bodies, i.e. galaxies, asteroids, moons, etc. out in space. Sagan said that there was an abundance of carbon-rich complex molecules out there that are the building blocks for life and that it was everywhere. He also believed, i.e. had faith, like the seculars that once life began, then it would evolve. One cell and it becomes a multicell and eventually into some creature. Now that creature may not resemble a human as it was formed differently, but it probably would be sentient and evolve into an intelligent being. He even convinced NASA to send time capsules with messages for intelligent aliens in the satellites we sent into space. Yet, he was against UFOism or those who believed in UFOs and that aliens visited, contacted or abducted humans. He thought there wasn't any scientific verification to these stories, so these "believers" were in the lunatic fringe.

Of course, this was before the fine tuning facts and discovering through the Bible that God did not create aliens.

How is the thoughts of some other person an explanation for why you decided some small group of people = all of secular science?

 

[Shemjaza]

Of course, this was before the fine tuning facts and discovering through the Bible that God did not create aliens.

This, like the link in your OP seems to be a bare assertion, not a conclusion from evidence.

 

[FrumiousBandersnatch]

... The evolution camp has stated now that life "is" rare since SETI hasn't had any contact, Ferdi's paradox, Drake equation, fine tuning facts and the fact that humans have sent many probes and not one single microbe has been found.

There's so much wrong with that it's hard to know where to start.

The 'evolution camp' doesn't speak with one voice on any topic (including evolution). The majority of 'evolutionists' have made no public statements about the possibility of extraterrestrial life.

SETI is effectively only just beginning the radio exploration of just our own galaxy and is based on a number of questionable assumptions

There is no 'Ferdi's Paradox' - Fermi's Paradox is based on debatable assumptions.

The Drake Equation can give any result you want, depending on arbitrary parameters.

The appearance of fine-tuning is irrelevant to the search for extra-terrestrial life.

Of the many probes that have been sent into the solar system, only a couple of Mars landers (Viking & Phoenix) made tests directly related to life, one of which (Viking) gave an ambiguous result. If we did detect independent life elsewhere in our own solar system, it would strongly suggest life is probably ubiquitous through the universe.

There are people who think life exists on Mars, but there is none.

Unsupported assertion.

ETA: I left out the Great Filter above.

The 'Great Filter' is speculation based on the idea that the lack of detection to date is significant. Mainstream opinion in the field seems to be that it isn't significant, i.e. that we would have been extremely fortunate to have detected life at this stage of our exploration.

Remember also that sentience doesn't imply technology. Of the many sentient species on Earth, only humans have significant technological development.

 

[Justatruthseeker]

Well let's hope not, because if physical intelligent life "us" is any indication of how physical intelligent life treats others, we would be in big trouble if they found us.....

 

[DogmaHunter]

Secular Science Thinks Billions Of Planets Have Sentient Life. So Why Haven't They/We Made Contact?

Assuming there is sentient life out there, just to answer the question:

The universe is VAST.
If there is sentient life, even intelligent civilization out there, to actually cross eachothers paths is rather unlikely.

Simply because of the extreme distances.
It's already unlikely within this galaxy that is a mere 100.000 lightyears accross...
Let alone in other galaxies millions of lightyears away!

Even if you'ld have some kind of warp or wormhole technology, the sheer number of potential destinations, makes it unlikely to end up in the correct solar system or whatever.

The number of stars with orbitting planets in the universe vast exceed the number of grain sands on all the world's beaches combined.

Imagine taking a random grain of sand, and picking the correct one....

It's just extremely unlikely, even in a universe FILLED with life.
Let alone in a universe where intelligent life, or life full stop, is rare.

 

[High Fidelity]

Life on other planets is a statistical probability.

How advanced that life is remains to be seen.

The question in the thread title presupposes superior intelligence and technology to our own. We can't know or assume that. And even if they did, reaching out may not be the best move, especially if they can observe how primitive and divided we are as a species. If we can't stop ourselves killing each other and invading countries on our own planet for pathetic reasons, I don't know why anyone watching would want to send us an invitation to do the same to them.