How likely are we to find extraterrestrial life?

[otseng]

Many NASA scientists think we're on the verge of finding alien life.

Ellen Stofan, NASA's former chief scientist, said in 2015 that she believes we'll get "strong indications of life beyond Earth in the next decade and definitive evidence in the next 10 to 20 years."

Many astrophysicists and astronomers are convinced that it's not a matter of if we'll find life — it's when.

https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-pl ... de-2019-11

Questions for debate:
- How likely are we to find extraterrestrial life?
- What empirical evidence is there that any extraterrestrial life exists?
- What are the implications if extraterrestrial life exists or do not exist?

[Diagoras]

[Replying to marke in post #190]

Keeping on topic, we can ask something like:

Q: Does extraterrestrial life exist?
A: We don’t know. We only have evidence for life on Earth, and we haven’t carefully searched every planet.

Q: Would we know life if we found it (on Mars, for example?)
A: Probably. Life is extremely varied on Earth, so we have a large sample size to compare any extraterrestrial life to. However, we might not recognise something as life if it were very different (e.g. not carbon-based).

To answer your question, no, science has not proven that God does not exist. You don't ‘prove’ a negative like that. Many apologetics seem to think this is a ‘Gotcha!’ but it really isn’t.

[marke]

[Replying to marke in post #190]

Keeping on topic, we can ask something like:

Q: Does extraterrestrial life exist?
A: We don’t know. We only have evidence for life on Earth, and we haven’t carefully searched every planet.

Q: Would we know life if we found it (on Mars, for example?)
A: Probably. Life is extremely varied on Earth, so we have a large sample size to compare any extraterrestrial life to. However, we might not recognise something as life if it were very different (e.g. not carbon-based).

To answer your question, no, science has not proven that God does not exist. You don't ‘prove’ a negative like that. Many apologetics seem to think this is a ‘Gotcha!’ but it really isn’t.

Marke: As far as I know there is no scientific evidence proving or disproving God or aliens. People can speculate, theorize, assume, or believe what they like, but asking for unprovable opinions in response to a thread like this seems frivolous.

[mgb]

Marke: As far as I know there is no scientific evidence proving or disproving God or aliens. People can speculate, theorize, assume, or believe what they like, but asking for unprovable opinions in response to a thread like this seems frivolous.

Proof is not the only measure of things. For example, can you prove I typed this post? No. But you take it for granted that I did. There are many many things that are true that can't be proved. Can you prove you are were thinking of such and such yesterday at 12:00 pm? No.
This is where intelligence and evidence come together to assess the truth scale of a subject and this is certainly worth discussing.

[marke]

Marke: As far as I know there is no scientific evidence proving or disproving God or aliens. People can speculate, theorize, assume, or believe what they like, but asking for unprovable opinions in response to a thread like this seems frivolous.

Proof is not the only measure of things. For example, can you prove I typed this post? No. But you take it for granted that I did. There are many many things that are true that can't be proved. Can you prove you are were thinking of such and such yesterday at 12:00 pm? No.
This is where intelligence and evidence come together to assess the truth scale of a subject and this is certainly worth discussing.

Marke: How likely are we to find extraterrestrial life in space or perhaps discover God in heaven? Your guess is as good as mine, but I doubt we can provide any reliable probability number backed by science.

[Clownboat]

Marke: Am I wrong to assume that many atheists believe God cannot exist because He has not been observed and recorded by scientists? If that is the case, nobody can be allowed to believe in aliens either for the same reason.

Yes, you are wrong. I'll explain.

Being an atheist has to do with lacking belief. 'A - theist' = non theism or a lack of theism.
You are wrong because you are claiming that atheists have a belief that the gods cant exist. That would be holding a belief, not the lack of believing in one of the many available god concept beliefs that atheism actually describes.

[Clownboat]

As far as I know there is no scientific evidence proving or disproving God or aliens.

This statement is true!
Do keep one thing in mind though, things that are false or don't exist, will have exactly zero scientific evidence. See all the god concepts humans have invented throughout time and do with that information as you will.

What do you make of the fact that there is no scientific evidence for the Crocoduck and the fact that science cannot disprove the Crocoduck? Is this evidence that Crocoducks are real in your world view? If you have no issue with not believing in Crocoducks, see the gods (perhaps leave your god concept out and just view the others to keep emotions out of this) and notice the same reasoning being used.

[Clownboat]

Marke: How likely are we to find extraterrestrial life in space or perhaps discover God in heaven? Your guess is as good as mine, but I doubt we can provide any reliable probability number backed by science.

The method of doing things that we call science can only work by first starting with making observations. If you cannot make observations about gods or aliens, then you cannot begin to use the scientific method. Therefore I'm confused as to why you note that science cannot provide you with percentages for things we have no observations for.

See black holes for example.
Evidence for the existence of black holes were found through observations of X-ray sources, binary star systems, and the movement of stars at the center of galaxies. From there hypothesizes were formed, then theories made that could be both tested and falsified. If a theory passes all tests, they become known as things like germ theory, gravitational theory and the theory of evolution. A theory in science is a big deal. Many humans don't understand that though sadly.

What observations do we have for any of the available gods or aliens? If none, we have a non starter for employing the scientific method and therefore no scientific probability would be available.

Look what happens when we use science on your preferred god concept.
We cannot directly observe this god concept (like black holes at one time), but there are claims made about this god concept that could be hypothesized about.
Take all powerful and all loving for example. Would an all powerful God create imperfect humans that it at one time called perfect? Would a loving God kill of all life on earth, less a handful of humans and two of most animals when this concept is also all powerful? I could go on and on, but at some point we must have a working hypothesis and the claims about this god concept are not logical when we test for them.

Therefore, we have a working theory for black holes, but not the claims made on behalf of your god concept (nor aliens for that matter).

[marke]

Marke: Am I wrong to assume that many atheists believe God cannot exist because He has not been observed and recorded by scientists? If that is the case, nobody can be allowed to believe in aliens either for the same reason.

Yes, you are wrong. I'll explain.

Being an atheist has to do with lacking belief. 'A - theist' = non theism or a lack of theism.
You are wrong because you are claiming that atheists have a belief that the gods cant exist. That would be holding a belief, not the lack of believing in one of the many available god concept beliefs that atheism actually describes.

Marke: I can accept that atheists or God-rejecters may not believe there is a God to reject.

[marke]

As far as I know there is no scientific evidence proving or disproving God or aliens.

This statement is true!
Do keep one thing in mind though, things that are false or don't exist, will have exactly zero scientific evidence. See all the god concepts humans have invented throughout time and do with that information as you will.

What do you make of the fact that there is no scientific evidence for the Crocoduck and the fact that science cannot disprove the Crocoduck? Is this evidence that Crocoducks are real in your world view? If you have no issue with not believing in Crocoducks, see the gods (perhaps leave your god concept out and just view the others to keep emotions out of this) and notice the same reasoning being used.

Marke: Why are we debating the fact that there is no scientific evidence for or against God? Likewise, there is no evidence proving God created original life on earth or that life on earth began by some process without involvement from an intelligent being.

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No, science has not definitively proven that life arose solely from natural processes without the involvement of a divine entity like God. While the scientific community has developed strong theories about the origins of life, such as abiogenesis, a detailed, experimentally verifiable explanation for how life emerged from non-living matter remains elusive.

[marke]

Marke: How likely are we to find extraterrestrial life in space or perhaps discover God in heaven? Your guess is as good as mine, but I doubt we can provide any reliable probability number backed by science.

The method of doing things that we call science can only work by first starting with making observations. If you cannot make observations about gods or aliens, then you cannot begin to use the scientific method. Therefore I'm confused as to why you note that science cannot provide you with percentages for things we have no observations for.

See black holes for example.
Evidence for the existence of black holes were found through observations of X-ray sources, binary star systems, and the movement of stars at the center of galaxies. From there hypothesizes were formed, then theories made that could be both tested and falsified. If a theory passes all tests, they become known as things like germ theory, gravitational theory and the theory of evolution. A theory in science is a big deal. Many humans don't understand that though sadly.

What observations do we have for any of the available gods or aliens? If none, we have a non starter for employing the scientific method and therefore no scientific probability would be available.

Marke: The evidence of God is the fact of the universe and life on earth, which no other theory of origin is even close to being scientific or rational.

Look what happens when we use science on your preferred god concept.
We cannot directly observe this god concept (like black holes at one time), but there are claims made about this god concept that could be hypothesized about.
Take all powerful and all loving for example. Would an all powerful God create imperfect humans that it at one time called perfect? Would a loving God kill of all life on earth, less a handful of humans and two of most animals when this concept is also all powerful? I could go on and on, but at some point we must have a working hypothesis and the claims about this god concept are not logical when we test for them.

Therefore, we have a working theory for black holes, but not the claims made on behalf of your god concept (nor aliens for that matter).