Quote:
Originally Posted by karl262
Ideas need to compete with each other. I don't see Lanny being an arrogant dickhead here. No need to get defensive if you feel your ideas are being dismantled.
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I don't know how you "dismantle" the possibility that we are alone, when we only have evidence of life on Earth. You must maintain that it is a possibility, no matter how remote, until facts prove otherwise. If we discover life even elsewhere in our solar system, the scale tips dramatically. There is, of course, the possibility that life on Earth got transferred to, say, Mars through asteroid strikes, but that is a slim possibility. Or that Earth was "seeded" from elsewhere with life. This alone would not disprove that life only originated once. It may be that life only started in one place, but then was spread around the Universe. It is also not likely, but a possibility.
Despite all I've said, I think it is likely for simple life to spontaneously start under a myriad of conditions, and that life probably started several times on the early Earth, which boosts the possibility it could form elsewhere. But I'm not going to close the door on a reasonable theory, just because Lanny attempts to browbeat me into it.