Do you believe in life elsewhere?

[pica]

When you think that our planet is just one of a possible billion in the Milky Way Galaxy, and that the Milky Way Galaxy is one of a possible hundred billion galaxies in the universe. Do you think that life exists elsewhere in the universe. Now when I say life I mean anything from a single-celled organism to a thinking being.

[finfrocka]

Simple answer yes.

Complicated answer, yes but why does a living thing even need cells to survive. That only applies to life as we know it. Any life out there especially intelligent life, most likely will be so far beyond our imagination that even trying to guess what they would look like would be an insult to their being.

[IconBasser]

no idea. I like to think so, though.

[Stumbo]

Yes. Why should we be the only ones to suffer?

[jonathan_matos5]

I am a big fan of the "awful waste of space" answer to this question. If there is only life on one planet in the universe, then why is the rest of the universe even there? as for intelligent life, I'm still looking for other intelligent life on earth. people seem to be so stupid most of the time.

[Papa Dangerous]

Originally Posted by finfrocka

Simple answer yes.

Complicated answer, yes but why does a living thing even need cells to survive. That only applies to life as we know it. Any life out there especially intelligent life, most likely will be so far beyond our imagination that even trying to guess what they would look like would be an insult to their being.

Well said! Almost anything can be considered alive when you think like that! I know trees have cells and such, but I hold them in a very high regard as a living being on the same respect that I hold other people too. Without trees and plants... there are no people.

I think a lot has to do with what is considered a live or living or non living or dead

[Mike M.]

No doubt in my mind that life of some type excists beyond our back yard. With all that space out there I just cannot believe that this, on earth is it.

[bassingeorge]

YES! Most definitely! Without a doubt!

[Muddslide]

I think it is a very heavy statistical probability. We can barely conceive of the number of planets that must exist. Since we know that life permeates the Earth even in the most hostile conditions, I tend to believe in life elsewhere.

Now, much of that life may simply be algae. Whether or not there are beings anything like us who build spacecraft capable of coming to visit our planet is a little more tenuous an idea, but certainly possible.

I actually saw a science documentary type show recently where some guy with a big brain had figured out mathematically (given an infinite universe) how far you would have to travel to find a creature with your exact same molecular structure. Your identical twin, essentially.

[Demon_Hunter]

If there's a bright center to the universe, we're on the planet that it's farthest from.

[bongomania]

"Believe"? No. "Think it's highly probable"? Yes.

[DBH_Bass]

Yes. In the vastness of the universe I think it's ignorant to believe that we're the only planet that is in the "comfort zone" to support life.

[flypejose]

Life is not an assemblage of mollecules, cells, tissues, organs and functions. In fact, cells, tissues and organs could be dead or alive, telling you that life is not something we quite fully understand to start with.

I personally doubt that there could be an extreme variety and complexity of living organisms somewhere else in the cosmos as there is here on Earth. Magnificent living organisms eating, reproducing themselves and fitted in their environment in a complex system...Even what we believe to be simple life forms (which are not that simple)...

I doubt the idea but anything is possible... in the imagination!

[Big_Daddy]

With a universe as infinite as this, there's room for billions of possibilities. We have life on earth because of the exact proximity to the sun, et cetera, et cetera.

When you take every explanation as to how our planet can support life as it does, and then the sheer size of our universe, there's a definite possibility there's another life-sustaining planet like ours.

[12bass]

Originally Posted by pica

When you think that our planet is just one of a possible billion in the Milky Way Galaxy, and that the Milky Way Galaxy is one of a possible hundred billion galaxies in the universe. Do you think that life exists elsewhere in the universe. Now when I say life I mean anything from a single-celled organism to a thinking being.

From a philosophical perspective, belief in a proposition is equivalent to asserting to the truth of that proposition. Thus, belief in extraterrestrial life would be equivalent to asserting that extraterrestrial life actually exists.

However, at present, there is no way to evidentially justify such a claim; thus such a belief is not rationally warranted. Extraterrestrial life may even be highly probable. Unfortunately, probability alone is insufficient to justify belief.

Do I believe that extraterrestrial life is probable? Yes.

[jmattbassplaya]

Originally Posted by bongomania

"Believe"? No. "Think it's highly probable"? Yes.

Exactly.

Believing has no place in science.

[i_got_a_mohawk]

Originally Posted by flypejose

Life is not an assemblage of mollecules, cells, tissues, organs and functions. In fact, cells, tissues and organs could be dead or alive, telling you that life is not something we quite fully understand to start with.

It depends on how you want to define life, I quite like the Biological requirements for something to be defined as life:

Homeostasis: Regulation of the internal environment to maintain a constant state; for example, electrolyte concentration or sweating to reduce temperature.

Organization: Being structurally composed of one or more cells, which are the basic units of life.

Metabolism: Transformation of energy by converting chemicals and energy into cellular components (anabolism) and decomposing organic matter (catabolism). Living things require energy to maintain internal organization (homeostasis) and to produce the other phenomena associated with life.

Growth: Maintenance of a higher rate of anabolism than catabolism. A growing organism increases in size in all of its parts, rather than simply accumulating matter.

Adaptation: The ability to change over a period of time in response to the environment. This ability is fundamental to the process of evolution and is determined by the organism's heredity as well as the composition of metabolized substances, and external factors present.

Response to stimuli: A response can take many forms, from the contraction of a unicellular organism to external chemicals, to complex reactions involving all the senses of multicellular organisms. A response is often expressed by motion, for example, the leaves of a plant turning toward the sun (phototropism) and by chemotaxis.

Reproduction: The ability to produce new individual organisms, either asexually from a single parent organism, or sexually from two parent organisms.

(just copied from wiki)

Life is the manner in which cells are constructed and the molecular pathways which occur to maintain, replicate etc the cell.

Live cells and dead cells may look the same (if you nuke them with formaldehyde!). But if you look at the biochemistry within the cell, they are nowhere near the same.

Consciousness is something we'd have a harder time explaining, but, that isn't required for life.

I don't know if there is life out there, but I'd say it's a probability. Something else to take into account, the vast timescales of the galaxy, some forms of life could have come into existence and perished before life developed on life, life could develop on other planets long after life on earth is extinguished.

[Sublab]

What IS life?

[pica]

Originally Posted by Sublab

What IS life?

Well, the dictionary defines life as:

The condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity, and continual change preceding death.

[i_got_a_mohawk]

That's kinda what I was trying to get at, the definition varies slightly depending on the angle you look at, I personally quite like the biological one.