So the Pastor at my fairly conservative

[GPV]

evangelical church was making the case that if there was any other life out there, "We should have seen it by now. Why haven't we seen it?"

So I said, "The Prime Directive?"

I had to give him ten points for knowing what that was, but still minus 90 for thinking we're the only ones here. *l*

 

[Dave]

That's one reason, but seriously there is another that has just come to light:

I can't remember who, but someone came up with a formula a few decades ago for the number of intelligent species in the universe. It was based on the number of galaxies, the % of stars like ours, of the same size, number that had planets, planets that were the right size and distance from the sun. Even using the lowest estimates, you still come up with a big number. They then cut that down to intelligent life and those able to make radio broadcasts.

It was this idea that began the whole SETI program.

The only problem is that on Earth radio broadcasts are actually falling now. Since everyone is going for cable and direct broadcasting we are not sending out 'I love Lucy' into space anymore. This reduces the window when we have been broadcasting into space to about 100 years. That reduces the figure in the formula by a large factor too.

There may be life out there, but we may never detect their presence.

 

[McHorde-Trooper]

Originally posted by GPV
evangelical church was making the case that if there was any other life out there, "We should have seen it by now. Why haven't we seen it?"

So I said, "The Prime Directive?"

I had to give him ten points for knowing what that was, but still minus 90 for thinking we're the only ones here. *l*

That's pretty funny. ^_^

Though on a serious note:

If God exists (I believe he does by the way) and
if life (comparable to humans) exists on another
planet then some how God would have to share the
message of salvation with that life form too.
How would that work?

Now God could give a life form visions / revelations of
Jesus and the Bible, but . . ?

Well, I would have to do some more research to do a
good argument, but do you sort of see where I'm going
with this?

I'm not sure why, but this reminds me of a JAG episode where
Bud interrogates a terrorist by talking about Star Trek.