Question about Life in the Universe?

Question

According to NASA, and other scientists that peer into the depths of our Universe. We have not been able to idenfify even the smallest form of life! We have been searching for years but have failed. I have no religious affiliation with anything, but I believe that if we find life on another planet(particularly intelligent life), we will be eliminating organized religion. Can someone give some insight as to life in the universe, whether small or intelligent...

Answer 1

It's hardly surprising that we can see no sign of life out there. Views of Earth taken from unmanned explorer craft like Voyager taken from within our own solar system show no signs of life either. If you can't see elephants, whales or even forests from only a few million miles away then looking at hazy dots that are planets thousands of light years away expecting to see obvious signs of life is a bit optimistic.

In addition, given the size of the Universe we can hardly claim to have looked everywhere whilst at the same time it seems inconceivable that some form of life has not evolved somewhere else.

Spectroscopic analysis of stellar nebulae and other "gas clouds" in deep space has revealed the existence of basic organic compounds such as amino acids which are regarded as fundamental building blocks of all living things here on Earth. So if life itself hasn't been located elsewhere, some of the prerequisite precursors certainly have.

There are also several "fossils" found on meteorites believed to have come from Mars which may or may not prove to be the remains of living things which originated on Mars.

Answer 2

Well since the first thing that technologically advanced aliens would contact many light years before they reached us is the echo of our old television programs, I suppose any intelligent creature would avoid us. One must remember that an alien culture will be exactly that, for all we know a galactic alien empire could be spending advanced technological resources to remain hidden from our scrutiny. Also remember that the scope of the search is unbelievable there- are 250 billion stars in our galaxy alone. Even if we found an alien civilization, would we recognize it as "life"? A human concept of life using earth as a model probably won't work that well when applied on a galactic scale. For example could there be life on a neutron star? Most scientists would say no way, but just because the life is not adapted to live on a rocky planet with liquid water does not take away from it's being alien life. In my opinion it is only a matter of time until some form of life is found outside of earth and as to judging intelligence, well we all know humans are only ranked number 3 in the intelligence department.

Answer 3

As big as the universe is, it's a reasonable assumption that we are not the only place where intelligent life has evolved.

The problem is that everything is SO FAR AWAY...there could be intelligent life on a planet orbiting a relatively nearby star (good candidates that may have earth-like planets are as close as 10 light-years away) -- and we might never discover them. Searching for radio emissions? A good idea (and what SETI is doing), but there's no guarantee intelligent life will use radio waves for anything, in which case we'd miss them. Laser searches? OK, but those assume the other intelligent life-forms WANT to be found, specifically shoot laser beams into space, that they come in our direction, and that they're of a type that we'd understand as "intelligent."

With our current technology it's impossible for us to "see" another planet at all (we've detected hundreds by indirect means), let alone "see" if there's intelligent life there or even if the planet is capable of supporting intelligent life. They're just too far away, and we're hampered by the glare of their sun. Same goes for anyone else that might be trying to detect *us.* As our technology improves, we might have a better shot at finding other intelligent life in our galaxy -- but the chances of finding any (even if it's plentiful) in other galaxies is practically nil.

The odds favor intelligent life developing in lots of other places in our universe -- but the odds are very much against us ever finding each other. It's a very, very, very big universe...

Absence of evidence for other intelligent life, however, is not evidence of absence...:)

Answer 4

People need to take UNIQUENESS into account, It doesn't matter, you see, how many possibilities (for ET) there are but whether the causative factors for developing a biosphere are there. We don't even know what those causative factors are or whether other so-called "worlds," as amateur astronomers and media like the call celestial objects, possess such factors.
Meanwhile, imagine a World Series Game. Suppose the same players play a game the next day. Does anyone think the events in that game will be the same as in the first game? And here we're talking about baseball, not something as complex as the development of life. In fact, the odds are astronomical AGAINST a repetition of Earth's apparently unique experience, which was full of contingencies, accidents, "luck," etc. At several times, Earth's geological development almost wiped out ALL primitive life.
I think we should at least look for ET life.. I support efforts like SETI. But I do not support fantastic, scientistic projections, least of all "Drake equations" that purport that life elsewhere in the universe is "inevitable." It is NOT inevitable.
It rather intrigues me that our biosphere might just be unique. Why not?
Isn't each of us unique? What is uniqueness? It's something run-of-the-mill scientists, sci-fi writers, and pressies don't like because it ignores patterns and categories; it suggests doubts about a "plentitude of life" and "God's generosity," as religionists put it. But all that is religious speculation, not science.

Dr. ALW

Answer 5

There's too much space for no other life to exist. Besides, does a creator/artist only create one portrait? Or do they have the passion to create more? We haven't found intelligent life (obviously) because we aren't technological advanced enough, and we won't until many life times pass - which we will be more accepting and ready for. I don't think we are meant to find life until we are ready. Chaos would happen if we found other life now. Religious bull. Even if we found life, I doubt the government would let the world know, more then likely it would be covered up to avoid wars of religion.

Answer 6

How can finding Intelligent life some where else in the visible universe could eliminate organized religions ?????????????
In fact it should strengthen our belief in The Creator and Designer of the Universe.

" Is`nt He Who Created the heavens and earth Able to craete like of them ? He is The All-Knowing Supreme Creator. "

Answer 7

Well, they've only had the means of looking seriously over the past 15 years or so. That isn't very long. It's hard to find amoebae from 1,000 light-years away.

Personally, I think, life is probably pretty common, but intelligence isn't. As far as we know, humans are the only species to be able to explore and question existence, and it took 4.5 billion years of life to get here. Intelligence isn't required for life to exist.

For that reason, I think we'll have to find life on our own, and not have another out worldly civilization be able to meet us halfway.

Answer 8

our tools are rather inadequate for life search, e.g. we can only look at one star at a time, and we only began detecting planets orbiting these stars, so we can't really see what's going on with those planets.

Humans need religion, so it will not go away. They'll just adapt the interpretation of "man" to include all intelligent beings.

Answer 9

They haven't discovered intelligent life on Earth yet, so what makes you think they will discover it elsewhere.

Answer 10

You are very interesting. Happy Holidays!