There HAS to be life on other planets..

[Fort Fun Indiana]

Still arguing with that ignorant strawman

Nope, not arguing with anyone at all.

Stating my point.

you said the rules were arbitrary, and I disagree ... our purpose in life is to love our brothers as we love ourselves, which includes protecting the weak and relieving the oppressed ... healing the sick and feeding the multitudes ... the rules written for these purposes are hardly arbitrary ...

All arbitrary. 100%. Arbitrarily chosen by you. Another person chooses different meaning.

 

[scruffy]

Nope, not arguing with anyone at all.

Stating my point.





All arbitrary. 100%. Arbitrarily chosen by you. Another person chooses different meaning.

Sigh.

Didn't I explain this all already?

"Purpose" is not the correct word

NICHE is the correct word.

Niches are opportunities provided by nature. In most cases they are fleeting, temporary.

They stabilize through dynamic processes, and maybe eventually they reach an equilibrium.

"Purpose" is ex post facto.

When a new niche is occupied, other niches adjust in response.

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

Sigh.

Didn't I explain this all already?

"Purpose" is not the correct word

I don't disagree. But the semantics don't change the point. So I will avoid such trifling by using purpose, as that is the word others are using.

And the "niche" of which you speak is merely incidental to the only, actual "purpose": reproduction.

 

[scruffy]

I don't disagree. But the semantics don't change the point. So I will avoid such trifling by using purpose, as that is the word others are using.

And the "niche" of which you speak is merely incidental to the only, actual "purpose": reproduction.

Not at all. Nothing in biology stands in isolation.

Niches frequently regulate the amount of reproduction.

Game of life. Foxes, chickens, corn. Hungry chickens don't reproduce.

Everything in biology is dynamically regulated by something else. Even the genes. There's no such thing as a selfish gene, it's just more ex post facto anthropomorphism.

The niches help determine whether and how much of its programming the cell can actualize. That's why there are "bodies", which insulate the cell from the effects of remote niches.

Human beings alter niches faster and more thoroughly than any other organism. Such alteration can be positive )like husbandry) or negative (like rat poison).

Nature has conveniently made organisms "die", which means many of the niches remain fluid. There is no "need" for any particular organism, no "purpose" outside of niche dynamics.

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

Not at all. Nothing in biology stands in isolation.

All of it exists to reproduce.

So yes, 100%. The niche acquired is incidental to the effort to reproduce.

 

[scruffy]

All of it exists to reproduce.

So yes, 100%. The niche acquired is incidental to the effort to reproduce.

Nonsense. There are many organisms that don't reproduce. Mules and worker bees come to mind.

 

[g5000]

I’m not talking about little green men, and I’ve never been a believer in aliens, I’ve never seen any evidence to prove to me that there are. However…there are hundreds of billions of galaxies, some say even trillions of galaxies. The odds that when the universe formed, that our planet is the ONLY one that ended up being able to sustain intelligent life would have to be astronomically high. It would almost seem impossible that what happened on on earth didn’t also happen somewhere else, or in many different places.

My thought on this is that if earth is the only place where humans ended up, you’d almost have to believe in creation to believe that.

Thoughts?

From one of my top ten favorite movies:

 

[Carl in Michigan]

Even believers in evolution may be in for a shock

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

Even believers in evolution may be in for a shock

But now consider that there are probably 100 billion earth like planets in every galaxy. And 100 trillion galaxies.

 

[ding]

I don't disagree. But the semantics don't change the point. So I will avoid such trifling by using purpose, as that is the word others are using.

And the "niche" of which you speak is merely incidental to the only, actual "purpose": reproduction.

Whether you accept it or not everything is part of the ecosystem and serves a purpose within that ecosystem. Same goes for stellar structures. Think of the universe as a single organism with many parts because that's what it is.

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

Whether you accept it or not everything is part of the ecosystem and serves a purpose within that ecosystem.

I accepted that. I explicitly agree with it.

Because of course it does. Life is fine tuned to its environment. Again, this is incidental to the selfish genes.

 

[scruffy]

We've Just Seen The First Galaxies in The Universe Being Born

Scientists have just identified the formation processes of some of the Universe's earliest galaxies in the turbulent era of the Cosmic Dawn.

www.sciencealert.com

 

[ding]

I accepted that. I explicitly agree with it.

Because of course it does. Life is fine tuned to its environment.

Then everything serves a purpose.

 

[scruffy]

NASA discovers potentially habitable exoplanet 40 light years from Earth

NASA says Gliese 12 b could help researchers understand the habitability of other planets across the galaxy.

www.usatoday.com

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

Mules and worker bees come to mind.

Mules: And they typically can't reproduce, so their line dies off. And they were produced by what primary drive? the drive to reproduce. the horse doesn't ponder the idea of making a hybrid. It makes babies. Do mules fill any niche?

Worker bees: A "niche" not meant to reproduce. This is true. Yet it happens incidentally in the ensuring of the reproduction performed by the queen, no?

I don't think we much disagree.

I resurrected this thread. It's a decent topic.

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

I’m not talking about little green men, and I’ve never been a believer in aliens, I’ve never seen any evidence to prove to me that there are. However…there are hundreds of billions of galaxies, some say even trillions of galaxies. The odds that when the universe formed, that our planet is the ONLY one that ended up being able to sustain intelligent life would have to be astronomically high. It would almost seem impossible that what happened on on earth didn’t also happen somewhere else, or in many different places.

My thought on this is that if earth is the only place where humans ended up, you’d almost have to believe in creation to believe that.

Thoughts?

The big hurdle from a ball of molten rock to a world teeming with human societies doesn't seem to have been the formation of life. That seems to have happened rather quickly.

The fact that Earth remained stable enough for 4 billion years to produce human society might be very rare.

So we should probably expect to find life early and often, if we ever start to explore the universe. But, intelligent species? Even if there are millions of them, we may have a hard time ever meeting one.

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

Then everything serves a purpose.

Except maybe baby toes.

Their purpose is to fill our socks, I guess.

Point being, call it what you will, doesn't change much.

By your logic, everything happens for a purpose. Okay. But purposes are then sometimes mundane. Sometimes the "purpose" is to bring two massive objects closer together.

So? You have just called everything, purpose.

 

[Cougarbear]

Mules: And they typically can't reproduce, so their line dies off. And they were produced by what primary drive? the drive to reproduce. the horse doesn't ponder the idea of making a hybrid. It makes babies. Do mules fill any niche?

Worker bees: A "niche" not meant to reproduce. This is true. Yet it happens incidentally in the ensuring of the reproduction performed by the queen, no?

I don't think we much disagree.

I resurrected this thread. It's a decent topic.

Life will find away…

 

[ShahdagMountains]

NASA discovers potentially habitable exoplanet 40 light years from Earth

NASA says Gliese 12 b could help researchers understand the habitability of other planets across the galaxy.

www.usatoday.com

Did you watch the TV programme about that?

Except, how long would it take us to get there?

Unless we were all put in sleeping pods, like in the movie “Passengers”.

 

[Cougarbear]

Did you watch the TV programme about that?

Except, how long would it take us to get there?

Unless we were all put in sleeping pods, like in the movie “Passengers”.

I would prefer a worm hole like in “Contact.”