Are We alone: Ethan Siegal comments (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, February 06, 2017, 15:52 (2846 days ago) @ dhw

Siegel presents a very optimistic case that life could be all over the place:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2017/01/20/can-science-prove-the-existence-...

"We live in a particularly privileged place. We live on a planet that has all the right ingredients for life, including:

"We’re at the right distance from our Sun so that temperatures are conducive to life.
We have the right atmospheric pressure for liquid water at our surface.
We have the right ingredients — the right balance of heavy elements and organic molecules — for life to arise.

"We have the right amount of water so that our world has both oceans and continents.
And life started on our world very early, sustained itself for our planet’s entire history, and gave rise to us: sentient, self-aware creatures.

***

"The claim that's often made isn't merely that Earth is unlikely; it's that our planet, with the confluence of circumstances that gave rise to us, is statistically impossible, even given all the stars and galaxies in the Universe. The emergence of intelligent life is so outlandishly unexpected, given all the factors that needed to occur in just the right particular order, that our Universe must have been designed specifically to give rise to us. Otherwise, the argument goes, the odds of us coming to be would be so infinitesimally small that it’s unreasonable to believe it could have happened by chance.

"This is a very compelling argument for many people, but it’s important to ask ourselves three questions to make sure we’re approaching this honestly. We’ll go through them one at a time, but here are the three, so we know what we’re getting into.

"What are, scientifically, the conditions that we need for life to arise?
How rare or common are these conditions elsewhere in the Universe?
And finally, if we don’t find life in the places and under the conditions where we expect it, can that prove the existence of God?

(At this point he gives a very long discussion of each question, worth reading)

"In the professional opinion of practically all scientists who study the Universe, it is very likely that there is life on other worlds, and that there’s a very good chance — if we invest in looking for it — that we’ll be able to find the first biological signatures on other worlds within a single generation. Whether there’s intelligent life beyond Earth, or more specifically, intelligent life beyond Earth in our galaxy that’s still alive right now, is a more dubious proposition, but the outcome of this scientific question in no way favors or disfavors the existence of God, any more than the order of whether fish or birds evolved first on Earth favors or disfavors a deity’s existence.

"The truths of the Universe are written out there, on the Universe itself, and are accessible to us all through the process of inquiry. To allow an uncertain faith to stand in as an answer where scientific knowledge is required does us all a disservice; the illusion of knowledge — or reaching a conclusion before obtaining the evidence — is a poor substitute for what we might actually come to learn, if only we ask the right questions. Science can never prove or disprove the existence of God, but if we use our beliefs as an excuse to draw conclusions that scientifically, we’re not ready for, we run the grave risk of depriving ourselves of what we might have come to truly learn.

" I implore you: don’t let your faith, whatever it may be, close you off to the joys and wonders of the natural world. The joys of knowing — of figuring out the answers to questions for ourselves — is one that none of us should be cheated out of. May your faith, if you have one, only serve to enhance and enrich you, not take the wonder of science away!

Comment: He gives the impression that life might be everywhere, but humans are another issue. And that is a big jump, considering what we represent biologically.