Deep space photo

[Mr. Anderson]

About other planet with life forms:
It as been 'proven' that we are probably alone in the universe, or at the very least, our cousins are so far from us that we are never going to see them, ever.

Moral of the story: take care of the earth, she is one of a kind...

Ah, but you see, you're making assumptions based on the limited knowledge that we can see with our own eyes. That's like b2tm said, its very narrow minded, even using science to calculate the odds of other earths. We don't even know if Earth is unique and we don't know if Earth like planets are the only ones capable of harboring life. Not only that, we really can't say for sure what other types of life forms are out there.

You can't use science to back up faith because they're like oil and water.

D

 

[wdlove]

I believe that faith and science are very compatible. Our pastor that has his PHd in the Old Testament was trained in science prior to his Seminary training feels the same way. We have many scientists in our church. They say that for them it has all become very clear.

 

[Makosuke]

You are 100% correct. There are thousands of galaxies in that picture. How many suns and planets in a galaxy? Thousands? Millions?

Billions. I absolutely love the Hubble Deep Field images, and this third one (it is the third one, right? I didn't miss any, did I?), being the deepest, is also the coolest.

I can't get enough of looking at all of those tiny points of light (not just the bigger ones where you can discern shape), and realizing that every single one contains billions of individual stars, like the vast sweep of our own Milky Way, and then further realizing that the area in that "window" is only the size of the head of a pin held at arm's length, and every other little patch of sky looks about like that if you look closely enough, and that's only as far as we can see. Makes you realize how small (and yet how precious) our world is, and how petty humans are for the most part.

On religion: The point about religion these images really drive home for me is how miserably petty and small-minded most people who consider themselves religous are in their image of God. There's a universe of truly unfathomable vastness and mind-boggling beauty out there, and yet some people would rather think that the best God could manage is a tiny ball of rock 8,000 years old, or the color of a human's skin is somehow important to the Supreme Being responsible for all this. Reality is far more impressive.

Personally, I don't see how you could look at a construct so vast and not believe in a force of some sort behind it. I'm Catholic, but I don't see the problem with also being a scientist, and it'd pathetically small minded to not think there's plenty of life out there, some vastly more advanced than us; some churches obviously have a huge problem with things like this (creationists...), but at least some formal forms of religion, when faced with scientific fact, try to take it in.

Here's one more thought: There is, by most scientific estimates, more complexity at work in the biology of a flea than in the construction of a galaxy--life is impressive stuff in its own way.

 

[Mr. Anderson]

I believe that faith and science are very compatible. Our pastor that has his PHd in the Old Testament was trained in science prior to his Seminary training feels the same way. We have many scientists in our church. They say that for them it has all become very clear.

Can you explain to me how?

Sure, you can look at the heavens and be in awe of what you see - but that doesn't prove the existence of God any more than your faith in Him proves it.

D

 

[Doctor Q]

Amonia might do instead of water, and silicon might do instead of carbon, so there are other possible bases for life. From what I have read, the odds favor the existence of life somewhere besides Earth. However, no matter how advanced another civilization is, it may be subject to laws of physics that prevent them from reaching us, so we might never learn of their existence, and them of ours. Too bad. It would be a great boost for the tourist industry.

Just think: On another world, Macs might be the dominant type of computer. The "universal access" features might come in handy elsewhere in the universe!

 

[agreenster]

It's not quite as important as settling the meaning of our existence, but I'd like to say that I love agreenster's avatar. It even suits the discussion of E.T.

Of course, if you change your avatar in the future, this post is not going to make sense!

He's not an alien! He's a TURTLE! Awww geez. Back to the drawing board... Maybe if you saw his shell and everything...

I just hope Pixar responds as well to my little creation as much as the folks here have....just finished my demo reel today!! yaay!

 

[agreenster]

I believe that faith and science are very compatible. Our pastor that has his PHd in the Old Testament was trained in science prior to his Seminary training feels the same way. We have many scientists in our church. They say that for them it has all become very clear.

Thats not a very strong argument. Just because your pastor and fellow church friends have their science training, doesnt mean they have the answers to the universe. Again, kinda arrogant.

I think what Mr.A and some of us are saying is, there is SO little we ACTUALLY know about the universe outside of our own that the training and learning we receive here might mean absolutely nothing to another planet. There could be elements and chemicals and DNA structures that are leaps and bounds beyond what we have ever heard of. There could be other sensory structures (sight, sound, taste, etc) beyond our own, and we wouldnt even know we bumped into an alien if we did, because we couldnt even detect them!

I dont know. I think its safe to say that we dont know much and only time will tell about the mysteries of the universe. But pretending to KNOW because of someone's claim of religious/spiritual enlightenment, and how it correlates with their community college degree is pretty lame.

Thats why I try to live my life with the philosophy of not knowing, and constantly learning, filtering out the junk as I go...and when I die, if I'm face to face with God/thecreator/whatever, I think its safe to say it wont be dissapointed with those practices. At least its not pretentious.

 

[Mantat]

I am so sorry to not be able to find the name of the book I read about life...

One of the important thing in the study that I forgot to mention was that I was talking about <intelligent life form>. This is a big difference than just <life form>.

For exemple, out of all the life form on earth, probably less than 0,1% is intelligent. Now, the chances that, in our time frame, we see a planet able to carry intelligent life are very small. Species come and go and human are probably going to be gone in less than 100,000 years. So, for an alien to meet us here, he would have to be closer than 100k light years away. This is a very short distance in space. So you can see that ths is a very limiting factor.

There are many other critera that I cant think of right now. They are not based on the possibility of life on another planet but on the chances that this life will be intelligent and able to exist at the same time as us.

 

[Stelliform]

If humanity were to expand into just 1% of the universe.... Can you imagine how long everyone's zip code would be?

Awesome pic!

 

[Mr. Anderson]

One of the important thing in the study that I forgot to mention was that I was talking about <intelligent life form>. This is a big difference than just <life form>.

For exemple, out of all the life form on earth, probably less than 0,1% is intelligent. Now, the chances that, in our time frame, we see a planet able to carry intelligent life are very small. Species come and go and human are probably going to be gone in less than 100,000 years. So, for an alien to meet us here, he would have to be closer than 100k light years away. This is a very short distance in space. So you can see that ths is a very limiting factor.

But you're just rationalizing you assumptions - which doesn't really get you anywhere. I'm an optimist and believe we're not alone and until proven otherwise, that's what I'm sticking with. You're a little more doubtful and that's fine too - you have the same info as I do and the same lack of info as well

As for intelligent life on other planets in our lifetime, don't be so pessimistic. It could be under the ice on Europa - we won't know till we get there. How intelligent remains to be seen, but there are lots of sea life that have had to develop large complex brains other than mammals. Octopi and squid come to mind here.

Again, I'm open to anything and know that I won't have all the answers in my life time. I just hope to see even more awe inspiring images as the time goes on.

D

 

[raynegus]

They had that picture in a National Geographic a while back. They said it was taken in an area of the sky that seemed to have nothing in it. The field of view was equivalent to holding a grain of sand at arm's length. That is one tiny piece of sky to blow up. Amazing.

 

[Doctor Q]

He's not an alien! He's a TURTLE! Awww geez. Back to the drawing board...

Don't change a thing. Yes, now I can see that the little feller is a turtle. And the first life form we find elsewhere in the universe might very well look like a turtle.