Why are so many people reluctant to accept the possibility of life elsewhere in the universe?

Question

Life can form on Earth; we're living proof. And, according to science, the origin of life came from nonliving material. Why do some still believe that life can't exist elsewhere?

Answer 1

Most people would accept the possibility of life elsewhere in the universe, if you gave them proof. As yet there is none. There is conjecture, there is the fact that there are many planets out there, but these are not proof. The belief that "it is highly likely that life exists elsewhere" is not, in itself, proof. The fact that we exist does not prove that life exists elsewhere. Life can exist elswhere, but it might not.
The proof we need must be tangible, such as radio emissions which are not natural (eg not produced by a pulsar etc). Aliens landing in a large city would also be proof.
But, as it is, there is no proof. We are alone until we prove otherwise. We may, in fact, be unique in the Universe. How terribly lonely.

Answer 2

Well the sun revolves around the earth right?

I think the reason people are reluctant to accept the possibility of life elsewhere is partly because religious doctrine historically has placed us in the center of the universe and partially because people want to feel special. If life is more common, then what we have going here is not actually all that unique. People want to feel one way or the other that they were put onto this Earth for a purpose and if there's life external to us, it makes it believe that.

And now for the real reason: people have seen too many cheesy Alien Invader type films with aliens coming to kill us all. If you talk about life anywhere else, the Martians will get us so Shhh!

Answer 3

You are partially correct, but no scientist can explain HOW life came from nonliving material. Even if they could, most scientists would admit that the conditions we have on earth are a one in a trillion chance. The odds of life just sprouting out of nowhere are absurd, not to mention the odds of it happening twice. The more unlikely part is that life would appear in a place with just the right conditions in order to sustain it and allow it to grow and "evolve".

Besides all of this...If life were to exist elsewhere we will NEVER know. Despite what the sci-fi movies will tell you, there is no system by which you can traverse the kind of distances we are talking about. Give it up, there's plenty of life here on Earth, let's deal with ourselves before dreaming of other alien races.

Answer 4

definite to the “threat” of extraterrestrial existence. the 2nd aspects of this question are: a million] could Christians agree that the suited scientific fields are the appropriate how you will locate solutions to this question? definite. 2] How far returned in historic previous could you will desire to flow before preserving the possibility of existence someplace else interior the universe could bring about reprisals from the Christian church, the wrath of that's honestly documented for the period of the dark a protracted time? Say around the time of Galileo. 3] What if a greater physically powerful form of Alien existence had no thought of the Christian or the different anthropocentric god? the percentages of them believing that a god created people in his very own photograph could be distant to declare the least. What IF a frog had wings….. etc, etc 4] Is your acceptance of the size of the favored universe a faith in scientific learn? No this is no longer faith interior the religious experience that's understanding.

Answer 5

Given the number of stars, (all things being equal) there must be life elsewhere in the universe. But all things are not equal. Earth is in the right zone for temp. Not to hot and not to cold. Earth is the right density.Not to much gravity to crush life. Most importantly earth has a huge moon. that is close enough to keep it stable. Cause a tidal effect that keeps our oceans churning. A rip roaring tide millions of years ago. The probability of another world having all the necessities for life to develop is extremely remote. The probability of intelligent life developing on another world is almost nonexistent.

Answer 6

The people who are not willing to accept the possibility of life on other planets are afraid. Afraid that if there is some form of life elsewhere, then we are not "God's only creation" and we aren't the special "children of God" that the pious religionists so desperately need to believe.

But we need to make one point here. Most thinking people admit the possibility of life on other worlds. But when someone use the terms UFO or "aliens" they immediately narrow down the definition of life to "intelligent beings that have visited earth in guided spacecraft", and *that's* what most of us are unwilling to accept.

There may be life everywhere, but that doesn't mean its intelligent life that has come to Earth. Even on earth, there has only been life capable of limited space travel for maybe 50 years, with over 3 billion years of life before that.
Until there is scientific evidence that can be studied, then "aliens among us" is just myth.

Answer 7

The people who don't accept the possibility of life on other planets or moons typically don't want to accept the possibility that we, humans, may not be the most advanced or smartest species in the universe like so believe for so long.

People tend to not accept things they can not see, also people assume when others say, "There may be life on other planets." they must mean intellectual life. This is not the case, most people that believe in life outside of earth usually are taking microorganisms into account, but still won't rule out the possibility of advanced life.

Answer 8

Fear. But also people picture green aliens rather than bacteria and other living things. I think they won't accept the star trek kind of thing.

But it is pretty audacious of us to assume that we are the only planet with life on it considering we are at the begining of our space exploration.

There is such diversity within our planet. i'm sure the same can be said about the universe. However we could be the last of the living things in the universe so maybe we haven't found life cos it all died off? who knows but don't be so close minded i say.

Answer 9

There is as much evidence that there is life on other planets as there is evidence that God created all of it, which is to say there is no evidence for or against either belief. Come to understand why so many people are reluctant to believe in God, and you'll have the answer to your question. The greater irony is that the people who are most likely to believe in extraterrestrials are the least likely to believe in God, and vice versa.

Answer 10

I have been told that we are to learn from history, that is why we study it in school, right? Then the answer to your question is: "Why did people believe the earth was flat? and if they sailed to far into the ocean they would fall off?" Did they not see that it took a whole cup to hold water, not just a half or flat vessel?