Actual Infinities

[Mudhammam]

Extraterrestrial beings do exist. The probability that we are alone in the universe(s) is basically zero. For this to be the only planet with life in the entire universe(s) is so ridiculous it would also make it seem as though we had been put here.

I'm willing to wager that the probability that this is the only planet with life is pretty much 0. Like so close to zero it's basically zero.

Based on what? 1. We have no idea how life got started. 2. We have no idea what a definition of life might include elsewhere. 3. The parameters that allow for life on earth, of which we are aware, are extraordinarily tenuous. There's something like over 250 conditions that have to be present, some within a very, very narrow window. I think it would be less shocking to discover that we are alone and that we got almost miraculously lucky than it would be to learn that our universe is particularly and peculiarly fertile for the emergence of potentially sentient or intelligent beings.

[Edwardo Piet]

Based on the fact that however rare the conditions of life are the vastness of the universe(s) is so large that it would be virtually impossible for this to be the only planet with life. However unlikely life is the size of the universe(s) is far greater.... we haven't come into contact with life but that's easily explained by the vastness of the universe + life being rare therefore making huge vast amounts of space between us and all the other life in the universe.

For this to be the only planet with life in the entire universe or universes that exist seems one of the most absurdly unlikely things imaginable, it must be about as unlikely as God existing the odds are so small. It's basically zero.

I would consider the claim of no life in the entire universe(s) besides life on this planet to be a claim as extraordinary as a claim for a supernatural being of some kind, and I think it would require pretty much equally extraordinary evidence. In both cases we are dealing with something with a probability next to zero. Chance God exists= almost zero. Chance we are alone in the entire universe(s) on this one tiny tiny little planet in the most gigantic vastness that is the entire universe(s) = almost zero.

You really have to think about how big the universe is and how small the earth is and the fact there may be other universes too.

[Reforged]

A popular claim made in conjunction with the Kalam argument for God's existence is something like the following: past time cannot terminate in an infinite regress because it would take an infinite amount of time to arrive at the present moment, and one cannot reach the end - which would be the present - of an actual infinity. It's often stated that only potential infinities can exist - that is, a future continuance of time which never ceases - but not actual infinities. Is there any validity to this latter assertion? If so, how can an omniscient being, with actual infinite knowledge of the potentially infinite future, avoid the very same predicament imposed by actual infinities?

The symbol for infinity is oroboros; a snake eating its own tail. So what if time went in a loop?  
Example; the end of the universe creates another big bang exactly like the one that started the universe creating a universe exactly like the one which ended. God exists as part of the universe but is the only thing that isn't destroyed and reborn. He knows everything that has happened and everything that will happen so technically his knowledge would be infinite if alittle repetitive. 
In this way the universe, God and Gods knowledge of the universe would be eternal.

I should of dropped my integrity, become a "professor of spirituality" or some such nonsense and written a book based on the concept. Every wingnut from fundamentalist Christianity to Scientology would of lapped that shit up. 
I would be minted by now, seriously.

[robvalue]

I don't write off the possibility of time running in a loop. I don't write off many possibilities at all, because I feel we have so few pieces of the puzzle.

We're stuck with a fixed perspective and filters that can't be bypassed. We live only in our interpretation of reality.

[I_am_not_mafia]

I entirely agree with Evie here.

The sole defining characteristic of shared by all life is that it has a metabolism. We just need to widen our perception of what life can be and be ready to recognise entirely new forms of it. There is absolutely no reason to think that life only exists on this planet, and there is plenty of reason to suspect that panspermia is correct.

It would be scientifically more significant to find that we were the only life in the universe, although how you would be able to determine that I don't know. Our brains, societies and technological achievements are part of same arrow of time extending back through evolutionary, geological and cosmological time scales whereby complexity increases locally to more efficiently degrade thermodynamic gradients and maximise entropy globally. It is ludicrous to think that we're the most advanced point of that process anywhere in the universe.

Human history can be fitted within 10,000 years give or take. Compare this to dinosaurs walking the earth 65 million years ago, or the fact that the Earth is 4.5 billion years old. Another species could have evolved on another planet just 100,000 years ago and managed to navigate through its own long emergency and would be unimaginably advanced compared to us.

What is in doubt though is whether we'll ever find another intelligent species and whether we can ever achieve travel freely among the stars.

[robvalue]

I agree. It kind of becomes the "no true Scotsman" if we just announce that other forms of "life" aren't true life forms™. Abiogenesis study (I believe) indicates more of a spectrum.

[ignoramus]

Statistically, a "normal" person is a religious person.
PS, what do theists think is faster? The speed of light or the speed of prayer?
Do they compensate for lag when they pray? How far away do they think God is if not in their heads?

[robvalue]

Lol good point!

Muslims seem to think that prayers will curve around the Earth towards Mecca, rather than going off into space at a tangent. That came up before

[Alex K]

Lol good point!

Muslims seem to think that prayers will curve around the Earth towards Mecca, rather than going off into space at a tangent. That came up before

If you're exactly at the opposite end of the earth, do you have free choice of orientation?

[ErGingerbreadMandude]

Although the possibility of other intelligent beings are highly likely, the possibility of humans beings being the only intelligent beings cannot be entirely dismissed.