Free Will and determinism and...

[Preechr]

Kellychaos--

I guess so, if you're coming from the point of view that organisms such as one would find on our planet are pretty easy to develop and support. The argument could go either way. Additionally, using the same logic that makes so many so sure that other life MUST be hiding somewhere out there in that vast expanse, we could easily assume that were that true, we'll never know. The distances involved in interstellar communication just don't work with the time we have allowed to us.

This is more a discussion of fantasy than fact. The truth is, just like I was trying to say before, for all intents and purposes any number of fantastic ideas might as well be the truth of the matter. We are alone in the universe, or not. Either way, the possible existence of aliens should have no bearing whatsoever on your daily life until you see one.

My main point before was that most of us seem to prefer one fantasy over the other in this regard, that extra-terrestrial life does exist. I suggest that we do this for psychological reasons of our own.

Rather than serving as a fireworks show, as you suggested, maybe we could see the stars as the mechanism for delivering to us all the science that has sprung forth from just the simple observation of the universe. I'm sure one of the science guys here could provide us with an impressive list of technological advances we've garnered from our studies of space. Space is a tool, and one that's proven to be extremely valuable to us for hundreds of years.

An example of a similar phenomenon of obvious discoverability can be seen in the studies of the Pacific Rim and it's window into plate tetonics or in the late population expansions into the Peloponnesian Island chains and the wealth of insight this has given us into how societies evolve. It didn't have to be that way. The skeleton and guts of everything we know is completely and almost easily discoverable. Would you say a trail of crumbs leading to a book containing everything you ever wanted to know was just a natural and random occurence that most likely evolved Darwinianly?

Not me.