What is your opinion on the "Habitable Zones" of stars? What does that say about our gift of life to you

Question

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitable_zone

I was basically implying that life on Earth was a mistake seeing as these habitable zones are rather small leaving only one planet in each solar system to tolerable to life even just water, but whatever!

Answer 1

I think it's exciting that we are starting to learn how to identify stars that have other planets orbiting them, and that depending on the size and brightness of the star, each has a distance at which life might be possible.

Now that we know how to find extrasolar planets, we're starting to find them almost everywhere we look. I think it's likely that other stars have life, although not necessarily intelligent life as we know it.

I hope this helps.

Answer 2

There's nothing particularly significant about them. It just maps the volumes around a star where a planet's solar radiation would be about the same as earth. No surprise there. A planet there would be at a suitable temperature to support the life forms we know on earth. We think that's a near-optimum temperature for most forms of life, but we can't be sure. Are you trying to say that someone other than God gave the gift of life? Or that God could give that gift only in the habitable zones?

Answer 3

The Earth happens to be in the "habitable zone" around the Sun. That doesn't make us special. If Earth weren't in the "habitable zone" we wouldn't be here talking about it. Maybe we'd be somewhere else, or maybe we wouldn't exist at all.

It's not necessary to think of life as a gift. Life is just an natural, inevitable consequence of the physical and chemical laws of nature. It is a temporary departure from equilibrium with the rest of the universe, which is a cold, lifeless place.

Of course, that doesn't mean that we should act irresponsibly as though we do not appreciate life. Enjoy life while you've got it - you only get it once.