There is no evidence that you exist...

You may be simply a figment of my very vivid imagination.  In fact, this entire world may be a figment of my imagination.

Are we truly here at all? 

That makes me feel suffocated.  Ironic.

If we are NOT alone, i'm 100% sure we'll find a way to put either ourselves (by accident or otherwise) or them on some extinction list such as what we caused for more than 50 years (to quote my Fuzzy friend,  mine is about 53.70, btw) - assuming you believe that present must be followed by future. Through faith or Science based on some past accumulating to BE the rational & real present.

If we are alone, i'm 100% sure we'll eventually all be bored to death anyway. It's called cellular decay.

So why bother.

I think God is the GREATEST scientist to ever live.  How else could he have created the marvel we call life. Think about how complex the human body is, how complex the brain is. We cant duplicate it except through sexual reprduction.  He has to be the greatest scientist.  Think about this...he said "let there be light" and there was.  While that is a true statement, it doesnt tell you how he did it. Only that he did it.  I bet he knows how to make light.  Genisis says he made heaven and Earth.  Yes, thats true, but it doesnt tell you how he did it.  All that stuff is beyond our capable thought at this point (meaning the point in time that the book of Genisis was written, and the knowledge level of the people at the time).  Why would he clutter our limited learning/knowledge with such complexities?  He wouldnt.  He knows we might have a hard time understanding how life is created.  But he knows how to do it.  Yes, he very much is a great scientist.  It was man who created religion.   Lots of us humans decided to believe in God, we then called it a religion.  So whats wrong with science, and religion both being right?  Both see the same thing from a different perspective.  Science wants to see the Earth and the Universe created in a big bang, religion want's it done in 7 days.  Who are we to say God's day was 24 hours?  We as a race have decided how long a day is based on Earths rotation.  When God created light on the first day, there was no earth to define a day as 24 hours.  His day was very likely millions/billions of years long.  Pretty presumtuous/self centered/egotistical on our part to think he is limited to a 24 Earth hour day.  I would bet the Big Bang was on the first day...

And...if you have a problem with the 24 hour day thing, think bout how long a day is on Mercury, or Venus, or Saturn.  Those planets have very different number of hours in a "day" than we do.  How could we possibly know what God calls a day?

So as a scientist, it would stand to reason that God would not only creat life here on Earth, but on other worlds as well.  It could be called that one thing just about all scientist have in common...curiosity.  He would creat many planets with life, and see how they turn out.  What scientist only does one experiment?

there is a book called The Lure... im sorry i forget who wrote it, but its about a group of scientists who discover a message being transmitted to them in the form of exotic particles.

anyway, most of the book was talking about the implications of the message, and then, the implications to responding.

on one hand, it can be understood that the reason the message was transmitted in such an advanced, difficult to detect way, was to determine if we are advanced enough yet (as anyone below our current level of tech wouldnt be able to recieve the signal) advanced enough for whatever reason, maybe to be able to understand their technology etc. the other side is to determine if we are advanced enough to maybe become a threat.

another point was how does it fit into the bible. in the book, the president of the US (who i thought was an idiot, no offense, because of how much stock he put into the counsel of his very religious friend, once again, no offense, but im entitled to my opinion) asked his religious friend what if there was life, the friend said flat out no, cant be, pres said, but if there was, and after finally getting to religious friend to open his eyes and even consider the possibility, he says, well, the bible says god made us and only us, so anything else must have been made by the devil... or something else, so if you do get a signal, keep very very quiet.

however one other point was that after a while, in order to continue growing, advancing and evolving as a race or species, a culture would have to become very peaceful, or even altruistic, or end up destroying themselves. so any race that decides to contact us would have to be friendly.

all very interesting points, and ones i have to admit i hadnt thought about before i read the book. i highly recommend it

I disagree with this.  At first glance, it makes sense, however, techonological advances does not mean that the society has evolved to a peaceful, or altruistic degree, nor does it mean that they would have destroyed themselves.

The exploring of space can be related to the exploration of the earth several hundred years ago.  Discovering life on other planets, or in other systems, can be related to say, the Europeans finding other people in the Americas.

While the Europeans were more technologically advanced, they definitely had not become peaceful, or anything near altruistic.  And though wars in Europe have happened on and off since before we know... they hadn't managed to destroy themselves either.

sorry, let me clarify here, everything said in the book was argued from both sides, so there were people who argued that a race wouldnt have to become friendly before meeting people, it could simply have decided its better to fight other people etc

Got it.

Sounds a lot like the idiocy displayed by the US gov in the movie "Contact" where, when the decision had to be made who should be the person to contact the aliens on behalf of the US, Jodie Foster got replaced by someone else because she was an atheist. 

Oh great! Yet another patient who states his belief is fact. Isn't one lulapilgrim enough already?

Hehe, when I read this I suddenly had a picture in my mind of "God" creating the solar system, and the suddenly saying:"Okay, enough work for now. Let's call it a day."

Um yea we found life *edit(from) mars, it happened like 3 years ago

http://www.marsnews.com/focus/life/

but noone cared or even bothered to remember, long live the human race!

Erm, that is all true and fine. But you won't convince the bible babblers of anything with that. But at least it refutes some people's assertion that there is no life outside of Earth...

Also if an alien race wanted to get to earth they'd have to discover the science required and since this would require reasoned logic and probably good ccommunication you wouldn't exepect them to be irrational and kill us for a nonsense reason. 

So that leaves the usually reason namely limited resources. Given the plethora of planets out there it seems to me highly improbable that aliens species blast us all into space dust.

Unless of course they were building a hyperspace bypass and Earth was in the way of the propsed route. In which case, REMEMBER TO BRING YOUR TOWEL!

That's a logical fallacy.  While they may have the ability to use reasoned logic, and good communication, they may not use it in all situations.

Why do people insist on holding other life forms on such a pedestal?

Humans also have the ability to use reasoned logic, and good communication, however that doesn't always happen.

Emotions are also a powerful thing, sometimes overcoming logic, and that must be factored in.  Other life forms, if advanced, are likely to have emotions, and they may fear us, or despise us for being different. 

Again, just because they would likely be more technologically advanced doesn't mean that they would be above us psychologically.

I think this as to be taken into contexte. What reason would a civilization have to come to earth and blow everything to bits?

here are the reason against it:

• great distances, hell of a trip just to pick a fight
• Ressources? Water which is the building block of life as we know it is plentyful in the universe. no need to come all this way for it
• Maturity. According to our science today, travelling great distances is very hard and complex if at all possible. If a Civ gets to that point they would have to be mature. Considering our human history of war and all we have to acknowledge that we are children in the evolution of our species. We kill because other people don't think like us. I think that in time we will grow out of this way of thiking. That's when maturity comes into line.
• Rarety, Even humans if they were to find another intelligent life right now, our first action would be to learn about them because as humans we are curious. I don't tink we would go to war at least not right away.

Reasons against it:

• Great distances: Maybe we humans are just stupid, and FTL speed is easy to acheive. In this case we could have a civ that is hell bent on the accumulation of weath and therefore would see this planet as a nice heaven and would want it.
• Ressources: Slave labor. We human could be seen as slave labor and be used to provide for another civ.
• MAturity: It would not be acheived in this scenario because I can't believe that a mature civ would destroy a species that is not dangerous. We are not. We can hardly go into orbit. We pose no threat to an outside lifeform.
• Rarety: Maybe life is not rare and we are being thrown into an empire and we are now fucked.

I'm sure we could find plenty pro or cons.

So all in all I think it all comes down to how long a  civ takes to find FTL because without it it's probably not likely we would see anybody anyway. The longer the better because then Maturity would take place and I think would make a species a lot more benevolent. Hell Even Humans are mor tolerent now than we were a few hundreads years ago. Far form perfect I grant you but better.

It's just an opinion