I don't believe we'll ever be visited ... The life/space/distance coefficient is against anybody's odds.
Having said that, if there is a greenie looking up at the night sky wondering the same thing, we'll then we are their aliens and yes, we do exist.

And I hope that greenie is not a fundy creatard!

We don't have any proof one way or the other.  We also don't have enough experience dealing with life coming into existence [from nonliving matter] to be able to properly compute the odds of it happening anywhere.  Still, the universe is so very large that it seems likely that there may be life on other planets, or (since the universe has been around a while), there may have been life on some planet where it has since all died off, or there might be life on some other planet in the future where it presently does not exist, or all of these.

As for it mattering for us, that seems unlikely, given the extreme distances of space.  The Voyager 1 spacecraft was launched in 1977 and is somewhere near the edge of the solar system, barely into interstellar space.  (Officially, it seems, it made it to interstellar space in 2012.  In other words, it was about a 35 year trip just to the edge of the solar system, which used the gravity of the outer planets to help accelerate the craft.)  It will take an extremely long time for it to get to another solar system, even if it were headed in the direction of the nearest one.  Solar systems are generally almost incomprehensibly far apart.

You can see how far away Voyager 1 (and the closer Voyager 2) is right now at:

http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/where/


Now, if some aliens were advanced enough to make such trips, if they were to visit us, we would likely be totally fucked.  Even if they did not have some virus that was, to them, like the common cold, but to us making ebola look like happy fun time, their technology would be such that they could do whatever the hell they wanted with us.  And they would almost certainly regard us as inferior beings, unworthy of being considered even close to them (and, we are very far from such hypothetical aliens technologically at least).

But, on the bright side, it may be completely impossible for any beings to have such technology, and so we may not need to worry about anyone visiting us at all.

(July 12, 2015 at 4:46 am)robvalue Wrote: I don't think we've been visited by any of them, though (except in the form of little slimy things on meteors).

Reminded me of this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPpQCarlncY

(July 12, 2015 at 2:47 am)Catholic_Lady Wrote: I think they probably do exist, but since I'm not sure on that, I voted on the last option. Interesting post, btw.

I'm curious to know whether you think that if there is alien life and if it is sufficiently like us in cognitive ability and in an ability to think in terms of good/evil, virtue/sin, etc. would there be a need for a Christ figure for that species as well?  Would God have to repeat his self-sacrifice act for each fallen species throughout the Universe?

Or is such a thought too silly to take seriously? 

As for the OP, it seems likely to me that there would be life elsewhere, but of course we don't have evidence that there is and may never have such evidence.

(July 12, 2015 at 1:59 pm)Pyrrho Wrote: it may be completely impossible for any beings to have such technology

You're very wrong about that. If it weren't for the stupid religion, there wouldn't be the 1000 years known as Dark Ages and right now man kind would be colonizing planets in other solar systems. I know it sounds like a science fiction to you but just think about it. Imagine that religion never happened and science was never forbidden thus letting it follow its natural course. And now think about this:
• the first single core CPU was released in 1993 with clock frequency of 60 to 66 MHz. 22 years later there are more than 64 cores CPUs.
• 22 years ago computers used to be huge in size and heavy. Now you can have a supercomputer in your pocket which you use every day to tag yourself on FB. It's called a "smartphone".
And that's just a short period of time - 22 years. At this rate of technological progress, just think what we could do in a thousand years!

Now, imagine there's race out there that never had the bad luck we had with religion and their science was never forbidden. Whatever technological level they've reached, we're still 1000 years behind - just like we were 2000 years ago when "god" arrived in this solar system.
So saying it's impossible another race to be more advanced than us is joke and unserious, to say the least!

As life developed on this planet we know that it is possible so I think it is likely that there is life elsewhere.

I do not however "believe" that there is because the evidence isn't there to answer the question one way or the other.

(July 12, 2015 at 2:25 pm)Crossless1 Wrote:

(July 12, 2015 at 2:47 am)Catholic_Lady Wrote: I think they probably do exist, but since I'm not sure on that, I voted on the last option. Interesting post, btw.

I'm curious to know whether you think that if there is alien life and if it is sufficiently like us in cognitive ability and in an ability to think in terms of good/evil, virtue/sin, etc. would there be a need for a Christ figure for that species as well?  Would God have to repeat his self-sacrifice act for each fallen species throughout the Universe?

Or is such a thought too silly to take seriously? 

As for the OP, it seems likely to me that there would be life elsewhere, but of course we don't have evidence that there is and may never have such evidence.

That's a good question! I have no idea, of course lol. But I have actually wondered about this myself.

I wouldn't have a problem with it or think it's silly if this were the case though. Since I believe God is all powerful and all encompassing and infinite in every way, I wouldn't put any sort of limits on Him in terms of having to do the same thing a trillion times.

(July 12, 2015 at 2:30 pm)downbeatplumb Wrote: because the evidence isn't there to answer the question one way or the other.

Yeah, because having a child without sex over 2000 years ago is so genuine...

I think that, judging by the enormity of the universe, that it's unlikely we're on the only planet that supports life.

I question, however, claims that they've visited Earth and that the abduct people to experiment on them.

I also can not and will not watch this so called "ancient aliens" nonsense.

(July 12, 2015 at 3:22 pm)Beccs Wrote: I think that, judging by the enormity of the universe, that it's unlikely we're on the only planet that supports life.

I question, however, claims that they've visited Earth and that the abduct people to experiment on them.

I also can not and will not watch this so called "ancient aliens" nonsense.

Yeah, I definitely reject the notion that they have been on earth. At least while we have inhabited it.