Ric the 747 “arising from a tornado in a junkyard” that was the work of Fred Hoyle. Fred was an Astronomer, NOT a molecular biologist. He can be forgiven for is GROSS mischaracterization of what the process of natural selection and random mutations actually do.

For my part I think that what we call Life may be very common in the universe as a whole. Let’s face it we haven’t even begun to seriously reconnoiter Mars yet from a biological standpoint. There might be microbial life in many places in our solar system alone.

Sentient beings? Well that’s a horse of an entirely different color! The geological and biological evidence suggests that the hardest thing to do is develop the genetic code and the basic chemistry of life. For most of the history of our planet life didn’t progress beyond algae. About 530 million years ago an event scientists call the Cambrian Explosion happened:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambrian_explosion

All of the animals that are even remotely recognizable to us happened in the years since that event.

For 2.5 billion years life was nothing more than slime, then in a fifth of that time comes all the diversity you see around you.

Does it follow that sentience MUST follow complex life?

I don’t think so…

I think the variables are many and we are the result of the ‘goldilocks effect’: right place, right time, right conditions…

It makes it no less meaningful to me, in fact it makes me appreciate it all the more.

So sentient life may indeed be the rarity but I am convinced that we are not alone in that respect.

Hey Ed, have you ever seen Carl Sagan’s ‘Cosmos’ series?

I highly recommend it to anyone fascinated by these questions!

Seriously, find it some where and watch it, whether theist or not, if you don’t come away from viewing this series without an awe of the The Cosmos…well you don’t have a pulse!

R.

The movie came out in 1977, so maybe you saw the movie or one like it.

Remember seeing any crop circles on the fields of Georgia?

I don’t remember how old I was but when I was a child I remember watched a movie about space aliens and wondering if I came from outer space. I saw the world so completely differently from my family.

who needs space travel

I’ve watched WAY too much of the Transformer movie.