Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Justin Hale]

The Milky Way - our galaxy (img) - is considered "average". Our galaxy has 200 billion stars at least (could be twice that). Some galaxies are absolutely mammoth (like Andromeda) and contain 1 trillion stars and some contain a "mere" 10 million. However, the average is somewhere in the region of ours.

Well, it gets better. In the observable universe - highly likely to be a microscopic fraction of the whole (assuming there is a whole - Prof Hawking says there is) - there are 140 billion galaxies. There are estimated to be more stars in space than grains of sand on Earth.

According to the famous Drake Equation, the number of planets with advanced civilizations on them, in just our galaxy, are, at the most conservative estimates, likely "somewhere in the millions".

So, given that our galaxy is neither huge nor small but kind of average, we can calculate the number of planets likely to contain advanced life.

But, let's be insanely, ridiculously conservative and cautious. Let's say there are 100,000 planets with advanced life (10% or less than calculated by Drake's Equation) in our galaxy and this is a pretty average reflection of the way things generally are.

100,000 planets x 140 billion average galaxies = 14,000,000,000,000,000 (14,000 trillion) planets with advanced life on them. And remember, I was ridiculously conservative with my inputs. Also note, I haven't included moons. Moons are probably vastly more numerous than planets - Jupiter and Saturn, combined, have over 100.

How ought a Christian reconcile this with Jesus? How ought a Muslim reconcile this with Mohammad? How ought Jews reconcile this with Moses? What I want to see is Daves theists reconcile religion with knowledge. Are you smart enough? Or is your faith simply the result of having no knowledge?

[PeteJB]

As you know, there is a lot of real estate out there. What you say maybe true. There may very well be 100,000 civilizations in our very galaxy. But that doesn't mean we will ever know of their existence. There is just too much distance between us and them, that's if to say they are any more or less advanced than we are.

[VanIslander]

the size of the universe is cited by alien watchers as evidence that aliens MUST exist... sure, I buy that, and thought it obvious when I was 13 years old; what I never bought - and I rolled my eyes and groaned at Close Encounters of the Third Kind when I saw it on video - was the likelihood, nay, the statistical chance at all that life on another planet in the universe would find its way here and now: THAT to me is as implausible a belief as any people's religious dieties

the last remnant of self-centredness inherited from religious points of view

[itaewonguy]

From what I know of the bible! Perhaps theists could say...
Well GOD never told Jesus of the universe! Jesus was on a need to know basis! And he didn�t need to know about other life forms on other planets god made! God just told him to do your duty here and leave the universe to me!

Now if I was a Christian, I would say, well GOD created it all... he spread his seed like a man at a brothel! Created life on 1 trillion planets!

If there is a god! I would believe there is more than one god!
Who is god? To the human is the one that created us! And this universe and whatever other question we need answered! Our god is probably the Aliens from the Andromeda region who for an experiment decided to create life on this habitable planet! Now of course your next question is
Who created them, who created them, and who created them etc...? Etc...
Until we reach the very first! To me that�s not important!
This could be life 101 and we are not ready to understand the equations until we reach life 501 or 901.

But my question to you Justin is this...
I know you are an Atheist but I also know you believe in other life forms on other planets, I�m going to assume you believe in intelligent life on those planets... so my questions is this..





Do aliens ask questions if god exists?

[reimund]

Why don't we argue this once we actually find life in other planets?

[VanIslander]

[ED209]

We could travel those distances if we were able to adapt ourselves for such a journey. Like the monolith in 2001 A Space Odyssey. As humans we'll never know. We need to transform

Christianity survived Galileo, evolution and germ theory, it would easily survive a close encounter. Aliens do not falsify an already unfalsifiable God hypothesis and the bible not mentioning aliens doesn't mean it claims there are none. Especially since many Christians don't take the bible literally anyway, aliens would not challenge their beliefs. God to many Christians is not the god we see in the bible, but a personal god reflecting their own hopes and fears.

[laogaiguk]

Two things...

There is no "belief" in aliens. Aliens are a statistical probablity. Just like the chances of winning the lottery are extremely high but even if we had never heard of someone winning, we know that statistically, it will most likely happen somewhere. It is not a belief. Statistically, there is also a chance of a God too. Actually, literally, if there was a God, with the definition of alien, God would be an alien, so the two questions there are the same
Now, if you are arguing for a specific God, say one from a book 1800 years old written by what we would consider ignorant, superstitious people in a time that an empire was losing control based on stories passed down for hundreds of years seen by peasants at the time about a God who kills hundreds of innocent children because their parents pissed him off or will send you to eternal hell if you don't accept him based on nothing, then that's a diiferent story with no proof behind it!

Number two:

People a long time ago would have thought traveling to China in a day is just crazy talk. Or how to cross the ocean safely was impossible. Most people would have looked at you funny if you said cities would no longer need stables inside them. I mean, how can a society function without horses??? Small minds. Try to think beyond them people. The distance only seems far to you. It will be inconsequential in the future (though I doubt we will see it).

[bassexpander]

As a Christian, I have no problem accepting the probability of life on other planets.

God is infinite. How can you, as man, pretend to even begin to understand or question Him? We can try, but we'll never fully understand. Nothing wrong with trying.

[laogaiguk]

[RACETRAITOR]

[VanIslander]

[RACETRAITOR]

[mindmetoo]

Some christians I think would have no problem. Just as Jesus didn't appear to the hill tribes in New Zealand. The fundies have to bend over backwards to explain why generations of hill people died and went to hell because they had no chance to accept jesus as their personal savior. Fiveeagles explains today, however, non christians go to hell out of their own ignorance. Since even hill people can get to a PC bang and google on "jesus", they now have no excuse not to accept jesus as their personal savior and truly deserve hell.

Catholics believe their is salvation in all major religions. Space aliens being good space aliens are going to heaven as surely as hindus being good hindus.

True fundies of course reject the notion and if there was clear evidence would conclude it's a plot by satan. Satan buried those dino fossils, right? If he can do that...

[Tiberious aka Sparkles]