It's all a matter of opinion, I suppose.

I just believe that any other life that could/would travel, would be as complex as we are, if not more.  A varying range of emotions, desires, needs, and logic, would all factor in, and would result in a life form that is neither completely evil, nor completely altruistic.

All of this reflection, however, is based upon what we know, and understand, about the human race, and what would exist at either ends of the spectrum of enlightenment (purely acting out of instinct vs. full comprehension, and acceptance of all), but perhaps any other life forms have a completely different set of... everything, and there will be nothing that we can relate to at all.

People who don't deem Life outside Earth possible should read this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Complexity/Consciousness

"The Law of Complexity/Consciousness is the tendency in matter to complexify upon itself and at the same time to increase in consciousness. The law was first formulated by Jesuit priest and paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.

...

Interestingly, for Teilhard, because the Law of Complexity/Consciousness runs everywhere and at all times, and because of the immensity of both time and space in outer space, and the immensity of the chances for matter to find the right conditions to complexify upon itself, it is highly probable that life exists, has existed, and will exist in the universe apart from our earth."

I find it hard to believe there is no other life out there, when it would take 100somehting years traveling at the speed of light just to get the the outer reaches of our solar system, the universe is pretty damn big, do you really believe that its all empty?

Theres bound to be a bunch of life out there. However I doubt humanity will ever see it, traveling at X times the speed of light just doesnt seem possible, and even if it was, I doubt a human body will be able to survive the strain.

Only ways I think we'll bump into other life, is if they turn up here, "wormholes" exist, or we build a really big fuck off moving space station, fill it with thousands of people and launch it off into space somewhere a-la-PSO.

Hubbard's Battlefield Earth or Scientology?

Established two-way communications would signal a competition worth generations of Humanity's best.

Any culture capable of faster than light travel will have very powerful computers as well as incredible robotics. They dont need slave labor. People require space to live and lots food. Thye also tend to be rebellious. Machines have none of these unwanted qualities.

Why would they make earth uninhabitable? Assuming they need the same things we do to live (unlikely, except for the common denominator of water), Earth would be a gem. They still might wipe us out or enslave us or deal with us in some sort of way, but I'm sure they would want to preserve Earth. Using your analogy, that's like finding a field full of cattle, healthy grass, and streams in the middle of a desert wasteland and then nuking it into oblivion. 

Not criticizing. I do agreee with your other points.

Exactly!

Yeah, like with the Constitution. Where would the country be now if we had listened to the strict constructionists and done only what the constitution said? There have already been things basically proven by science that don't exactly fit in with the Bible, and Christianity hasn't fallen apart.

Also, who says they can't be militarily inclined like us and not have killed themselves? It's called MAD, it was demonstrated here just a few decades ago. We had (and have) the power to destroy every living thing on this planet, inhibit new growth for hundreds of years, and probably split the moon a few times while we're at it. Has that happened yet?

The Bible was written by men to explain what they had been told by a greater power which they had to describe in words that they understood. Taking that into account it is amazing how much of the Bible is right on, and that which isn't right word for word is right when you take into account the viewpoint of the writers. As in the great flood which covered the earth, it might not have covered the whole globe, but it covered enough that they couldn't see land. Who knows, if we were given that sort of insight today we might be able to make scientists blush with shame from the acruacy. I mean the Bible is thousands of years old after all.

who has the pipe?  thought it was my turn?

Just takethe pipe from her.

Also, remember that everyone who'se religeous isn't like Carrie's mom and all athiests don't worship Bill Maher.  

The finding of a confirmed (not fossilized bacteria, as on Mars most likely) form of life would change the world for the better, more science funding, more collaberation together, etc.

I think the odds of life elsewhere in the vastness of this universe is pretty good. The odds of us discovering that life any time soon are pretty poor. We simply lack the technology to cover that much distance and, unless some great fundamental physics discovery is made, we never will. But one can hope for that great breakthrough.

Assuming that discovering life off our own little planet would somehow destroy relgion is a faulty premise. I know of no major religious text that claims we are on the only inhabited planet in the universe. Many religious peoples mistakenly hold that belief, but it's based on mistaken assumptions and not their own relgious texts. Such a discovery would simply force them to realize they made some bad assumptions.

To ProtoConcept (first comment you made):

First I would like to say I am not religious, in fact the idea of religion to me is total shit.  I love and believe in God (I'm a Christian) I go to Church and all that stuff but not to look good or for the idea that I am doing a favor or a good work.  Many religious people love religion more than God and that is very wrong as God should be first, then family and loved ones, and whatever else but religion should never be more important than those two things EVER!  Look at the pharisees in the Bible.  They must of been some of the most religious people ever, hell they read the entire Bible and memorized it, but they were the very same people that put Jesus to death.

But I'm afraid that you are wrong about a lot of the stuff that you posted, not all of it but quite a bit.  See first thing you stated is that you aren't religious (so I assume you don't believe in A God or have read the Bible).  Maybe you have but I'm assuming you haven't.  First of all religion is something made by people and as we have come to know to much of anything is not good right?  To much religion brings stupidity and editing stuff which is exactly what people in those days (the 1000's to 1800's I guess) did.  The BIBLE never states once anything about anything revolving around the Earth except maybe the moon (not sure cuz I haven't and don't plan on reading the whole thing).  People took this out of the Bible by saying since the Earth is so special everything should be under it (in rank not literally).  The thought it should be the center of the universe as well, and they thought that the Sol system should be the only one with planets, but the BIBLE NEVER STATES ANY OF THE ABOVE EVEN ONCE!  People took it out of context and created their own opinions and used religion as a means to back it so if anyone questioned it they would put the questioner to death and be done with it.  God never once said in the Bible that there is no other life, he merely says we are special, and we are.  He gave us the gift of life and created US in his own image.  What many don't understand though is that God did not intend to give us this extreme intelligence we now have.  He did give it to us but he gave us the choice of taking it and leaving him, or leaving it and joining him.  This all happned in Genesis (the first book of the Bible) when Adam and Eve were tricked by satan to eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  God created the entire universe but as far as I know he never said why, this is where are own ideas develope.  I feel it was created for us and all life.  I feel that it was created to make us happy and anything else out there happy.  Think of how boring it would be to only see pure black when you look up at the night sky, think of how little wonders and thoughts we would have had without it.  Even though God did not intend to give us such extreme knowledge but he did give it to us by placing the tree there, God knows everything, and for all we know he could of created the planets, stars and beyond as a means to never let us forget him.  The only reason we search for God, or a reason to live is because our simple human minds compared to that of God, are not capable of such great understanding.  We don't get why we havn't found any alien life yet, because what we think is that if life formed on Earth then why not anywhere else?  We think that if our sun is yellow, why can't there be green stars?  We think that if humans are intelligent why can't anything else be...

Here is where my own opinions collide.  First I think that life should not be anywhere in the universe because life is something special, it moves, thinks, feels, listens, communicates, and is just a live.  But a planet is dead, it is made out elements that there are millions of in the universe and is just formed by mere luck.  I can not understand how scientists say life came from nothing because from all that we have ever learnt, life comes from life, and no where else.  God was alive and he created us, so life came from life.  Your dog has puppies so life came from life.  Your own baby came from your so life came from life.  How could life come from that which makes the planets so dull and dead?  If that were true than life should be able to adapt to any condition should it not?  Why shuold life be limited to Earth like planets?  Whos to say that life couldn't originate on a planet so hot as Venus and, or a giant as empty as Jupiter?  If this were true than life should be all around us, on Jupiter, Venus, Mercury, Saturn, Mars, Pluto and all the other celestial bodies that surround us.

But then I think of how we are alone.  I just can't get myself to believe we are alone.  I can't get myself to think that only Earth is special, because from all we have learned, humans are not that special.  We aren't strong, we have no physical means for defense, we have no power but the power of our minds.  Every creature has it's own special ability, the bees give life to plants, dolphins communicate and see completely differant than us, the giant squid lives in the furthest depths of the seas, and we can think our way out of almost any situation.  What is so special about life that it couldn't be on other planets, and furthermore, why would God leave us alone...

Until we have found life I know my question may never be answers, I may even die wondering, but I do know one thing and that is that God created us for a reason.  He created us to live in this small small place called the Universe which we find to be so big.  God is incredible and understands all so maybe the reason we don't believe in him is because of jealousy and pride.  We don't like saying we're second best, we don't like thinking that we can't be the best but that's the truth and we need to learn to accept it.  We are lesser to God and pride is never a good thing, don't be proud to be a human, be proud to be alive and whether you believe in God is your own choice.  I respect all religions, muslims, hindus, jews but not the religions themselves.  I respect the people in them that believe in atleast A God.  I even respect the atheists because even though they don't believe in a greater one, they at least admit to not knowing all, and it is because of their own thirst for knowledge that we have come so far in our sciences.  Do you think a religious man would ever do as much as Einstein or Galileo did?  I think not.  I am not one of those people trying to get you to go to Christianity at all, I am just defending my views of God as some people have bashed it.  Hopefully everyone here understands the God of Christians better.