Are we alone in the universe?

I think that there is other life out there some wheres on another planet cause it is a really big universe that we live in and there is no way that we can be the only planet with life and if we were don't you think that that would be a terrible waste of space.

It is a difficult question. As I read your discussion my thoughts went right to Texas. How almost the whole town says they saw a u.f.o. What makes me think though is that the military showed up. When they show up doesn't it make one thing that it was possible that they did actually see something. And that now the military is now trying to cover it up. I do believe their is life on others planets. It would be pretty closed minded for one to think that will all these planets that earth is the only one that have living beings. I do not believe in little green aliens, or aliens that we see in the movies. I believe if their is life on other planets that the inhabitants are similar looking to us. Lets not forget the movie "fire in the sky" they say it was based on a true story and the men who saw the life from other planets. They took lie detectors tests and everyone of them passed. So they truly believed that they did see something. If you have not seen it I would suggest that you do. It was a very good movie. And it does get you thinkinh. Good discussion i can see you getting alot of mixed responses to this.

as you say, the universe is vast. There are billions of stars and to judge by current research, which has discovered more than 200 extra-solar planets so far, it would seem that most stars have planets. That being the case, the odds are that there is intelligent life out there somewhere. But the life of stars and planets is measured in billions of years whereas the life of an individual species only in thousands of years and our species has only reached a relatively advanced technological level within the last 30 to 50 years. Civilisations rise and fall with a life span of centuries and the technological phase of a civilisation may be very short before it collapses from overpopulation or shortage of some vital resource. The only chance that our or any species has of avoiding such collapse is to get off the planet and become a space travelling civilisation with access to the limitless resources available out there. at the present time, we do not have the technological ability to do that, but if we do not do it within the next 50 years, before our present oil based civilisation collapses, then we will never do it. That means that any intelligent life out there will be either planet bound having, like us not reached a technological level high enough to build a space travelling civilisation, or have reached that level and have succeeded in doing that. The chances of such a space travelling civilisation existing close to our sun are literally astronomical given the huge scale of the galaxy and the short life span of any civilization means that even if such a civilisation did exist close to our sun, it would still have to co-exist in time and bear in mind that only 200 years ago we were still moving around on foot or animal back or in wind powered sailing vessels. 200 years is a very short time span even in human historical terms.