Are We alone: Paul Davies comments (Introduction)

by David Turell , Tuesday, May 24, 2016, 20:27 (3104 days ago) @ dhw


> dhw: I think he is pointing out that the odds are irrelevant. We can't know unless we actually find alien life.-No I think he makes the odds relevant because he openly questions are we alone, with a clear suggestion we might be. There are two meanings to 'alien', see below-> dhw: How would we know that a microbe was “alien”? Scientists are discovering new microbial species all the time as they explore different environments.-Note two meanings to alien: 1) not from our group but the same as us; 2) totally differing life forms not following our biochemistry
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> dhw: Whether we found alien life or not wouldn't make any difference to either side. Theists could claim that God naturally made more than one experiment, and atheists would continue to claim that life arose spontaneously.- You miss a point: More than one colony of humans in the universe would take away from the specialness of this colony. Would Catholics accept that Jesus had several clones? Would the Jews like the fact that there are 'chosen' people all over the place? And so forth.