Bit by bit, Earth seems more and more rare

Kenneth Hynek • 11th Aug 2008 • The Sciences • angel, atheism, Battlestar Galactica, demon, Earth, Firefly, Religion

The latest bit of evidence for Rare Earth has to do with the conditions under which our solar system formed, and how the conditions which enabled a life-sustaining planet to emerge here have been notably absent in pretty much every other observed planetary system.

As a Christian, I should note that I fully accept that sapient, non-human entities exist. In fact, I can think of at least two such species: angels and demons. As to other…erm…biological creatures existing elsewhere in the Universe, I’m rather more agnostic — in fact, I don’t really care if they exist or not. If they do, it’s probable we’ll never meet them anyhow. If we do, I highly doubt that it will be the final death-blow to god-belief and Religion that those of an atheistic bent often seem to think that the discovery of intelligent alien life will be.

But I will say this: if there are other sapient species out there, I rather doubt that there are a lot of them. Should humanity ever take to the stars, I imagine that our experience will be more like that of the characters in e.g. Firefly or Battlestar Galactica — human beings, effectively alone amongst the stars, save for the antagonists that they have made for themselves.