Do you believe there are aliens?

[Rashiminos]

that was drilled into me by science professors to then say, "it seems probable, therefore it is."

A fitting remark.

 

[Perfection]

The way I see it, it is speculation to say we are alone in the universe considering our own very existence.

It's speculation either way because we don't friggin' know.

 

[Rashiminos]

All I'm asking for is some data points to justify such statistical certainty.

Hypnosis.

Look, I want extraterrestrial life to exist. It would be the single most exciting discovery

Meh. That may not be the best thing to want.

 

[Akka]

And what is "your take" based upon?

I'll let you re-read the post, because I'm becoming a bit tired of having to quote myself every second answer. Try to pay attention and not require constant repeat ?

 

[Rashiminos]

I'll let you re-read the post, because I'm becoming a bit tired of having to quote myself every second answer. Try to pay attention and not require constant repeat ?

You could shorten that to "They are in my previous posts. Take them or leave them."

 

[strijder20]

I think they exist, because the chance is so high.
I also think intelligent life exists, because the chance is so high.
I doubt they are visiting/watching us, though.

 

[Power_of_Beer]

It doesn't follow from Miller-Urey that life will happen.

Did i state that? Do you think this was the only experiment in this area? I can tell you, a lot more has been done there. As i said, with all kinds of various parameters.

 

[emzie]

I'll let you re-read the post, because I'm becoming a bit tired of having to quote myself every second answer. Try to pay attention and not require constant repeat ?

The point I was trying to make was your position is faith-based, since we do not know enough about how life formed on earth to make any estimates about how likely it is elsewhere. To take this to an absurd extreme, assume for a moment life was seeded on earth by God. Would you expect aliens in this case?

What if life is actually ridiculously unlikely, like some creationists would claim? Perhaps an autocatalyst molecule sufficient to carry data and mutate really is a 1-in-10^100 chance (I'm intentionally picking things I think absurd). In that case, the chance of life forming in the universe was much lower than the number of planets capable of life forming.

The point remains we don't know enough about ourselves to extrapolate from ourselves. We absolutely can estimate probability, but only with the caveat that our error bars are too large to actually draw conclusions.

To quote Sagan on this topic: But I try not to think with my gut. ... Really, it's okay to reserve judgment until the evidence is in.

 

[SG-17]

All I'm asking for is some data points to justify such statistical certainty.

There are an approximate 300 billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy alone. Trillions in the Local Group.
708 extrasolar planets have been discovered to date. It is estimated that 40% of Sun-like stars have small planets, that is only accounting for Yellow Main Sequence stars. We've detected planets around red dwarfs and many other types as well. This places the estimate number of planets in the galaxy in the tens of billions.
Of those 708, several (I can't find the exact number) have been in the habitable zone of their star. Most recently the discovery of Kepler-22b, a rocky planet only 2.4 times the size of the Earth in the middle of its star (G-Type like the Sun) habitable zone, has decreased speculation that Earth-like planets are rare.

 

[bhsup]

Yes, I absolutely believe alien, and even intelligent alien life exists out there in the cosmos. It is perhaps the greatest arrogance of man, in my opinion, for us to assume that in all of creation God chose only this little rock out in the fringes of our own galaxy to populate. In fact, I suspect the universe is simply teeming with intelligent life.

 

[emzie]

There are an approximate 300 billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy alone. Trillions in the Local Group.
708 extrasolar planets have been discovered to date. It is estimated that 40% of Sun-like stars have small planets, that is only accounting for Yellow Main Sequence stars. We've detected planets around red dwarfs and many other types as well. This places the estimate number of planets in the galaxy in the tens of billions.
Of those 708, several (I can't find the exact number) have been in the habitable zone of their star. Most recently the discovery of Kepler-22b, a rocky planet only 2.4 times the size of the Earth in the middle of its star (G-Type like the Sun) habitable zone, has decreased speculation that Earth-like planets are rare.

And what's the chance that life develops?

 

[Rashiminos]

And what's the chance that life develops?

It's been suggested to me that this chance approaches unity.

To take this to an absurd extreme, assume for a moment life was seeded on earth by God. Would you expect aliens in this case?

In that case, is there a reason aliens would not exist?

 

[Takhisis]

Do you believe there are aliens?

There wouldn't be if you hadn't voted the Anti-Christ for President.

It's speculation either way because we don't friggin' know.

As always Perf's got it right. We don't know. We've met nothing that we can identify as a lifeform so far, but then… how many 'other' sorts of life are there?

And, since many people point out the size of the universe… what'd be the chances of us ever meeting alien life?

 

[GoodGame]

Generally, no. But I believe random spam is aliens trying to respond to SETI signals! /joke

 

[El_Machinae]

We have a light cone that is in our past, and it's pretty big. Have aliens evolved in that bubble? I don't know. Ostensibly, they could be growing towards us. Our future light-cone is a great deal smaller (due to universal expansion) and so the odds of us getting to aliens is a lot lower.

But, the actual Universe is so utterly gigantic. I've no doubt that there's life 'out there', it's IMO inevitable. Unless some type of transdimensional travel is possible, though, they're not something we need ever interact with.

So: within the closest 100 billion galaxies? Maybe. Within the closest 1 billion galaxies? Well, less likely. Within the total Universe, undoubtedly

 

[timtofly]

Aliens is the new belief system??

 

[Vylinius]

Yes I believe in aliens. Do I believe in all the stuff people say about them and the theories that use them? No. I believe extraterrestrial life is out there somewhere because statistically its bound to be out there in some form somewhere.

 

[Gamemaster77]

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Because I deem the chance rather big that they do, I think they exist, but I cannot say for sure.

I'm an agnostic alienist.

edit: By the way, anyone trying to draw an analogy between the discussions whether aliens exist and god exist need to consider that the analogy only works if either no characteristics are given for God, or there are characteristics given for the Aliens.

For instance:
"God exists, he sent Jesus down to Earth to save us and the Bible is his Holy inspired word" is equivalent to "Aliens exist, they live on Planet Arcturia, they are green and have 6 tentacles".

or

"God probably exists, no idea in what shape or form" is equivalent to "Aliens probably exist, no idea in what shape or form".

 

[Rashiminos]

"God probably exists, no idea in what shape or form" is equivalent to "Aliens probably exist, no idea in what shape or form".

Forms?