Does a Universe Without Any Life in it Make Any Sense?

An interesting question. Would a universe without any life in it make any sense? It doesn't seem like it would. Why would it be here? What would its role be? We can take this one step further. Considering how unbelievably large our universe is, does it make any sense that we are the only life in it? We know that life will evolve naturally if the conditions are right. All you need is proper temperatures, a reasonable atmosphere with oxygen and water, and life would eventually appear. It would be a long way from advanced life as we know it, but still it would be life. Furthermore, we know that this life would evolve and develop into a higher form. With survival of the fittest this only makes sense. But I'll admit it's a long ways from very primitive forms of life to an advanced form like us, but time is on the side of the advancing forms. Millions, even  hundreds of millions of years are but a blink of the eye when we're talking about the universe. What does all of this mean?

We have discovered dozens of planets in our tiny corner of the universe, and some of them have conditions that are "almost" satisfactory for life. If we extrapolate this to the rest of our galaxy with it 200 billions stars we should have at least hundreds of millions of planets, and if only one in a thousand have conditions satisfactory for life we'll still have thousands of planets that could contain life.
And I'm talking only about our galaxy. There are at least 200 billion galaxies out there. It's unlikely that we will every be able to communicate with the life in other galaxies because of their tremendous distances, but that doesn't mean that they're not there. And, of course, there is the possibility that one day we'll discover a way to get through to them. Anyway, it gives you a lot to think about.

Barry Parker, author of "Learn from Yesterday, Live for Today, Hope for Tomorrow

The "Ultimate Questions" About Life and the Universe

As a scientist I've often thought about some of the "ultimate questions" (as I like to refer to them) related to life and the universe. They are questions that are very difficult to answer, and indeed, most of them may never be answered. Nevertheless, they're worth thinking about seriously. (Some of them have to do with religion, and I don't want to step on anyones feet. If it appears that I have, I appologize)

I'll list several of the major ones I can think of, and I'm sure there are many more. I'll also comment on some of them, and will write longer blogs related to them later.

Here goes:

1. Are we really at the center of the universe?
      By this I mean: Was the universe created just for us?  This, of course, was the belief many years  
      ago, and many people still believe it.

2. Why is the universe so big (if it really was created just for us)? Indeed, does it even have an end?

     We are really a very insignificant speck in the universe. There are more stars in our observable
      universe than there are grains of sand in all the beaches in the world. And many of these stars
      have recently been shown to have planets.

3.  Does a universe without life make any sense?

     To me it doesn't. If there were no life in the universe -- what would it be here for?  Are we the only
      life in it? It seems unlikely.

4.  Is it possible that the universe just came into being on it own?

     We know for a fact that it is 15 -20 billion years old. So what was here before it existed? Also, is it
     possible that there is no "supreme being"  (i.e. God) behind the making of the universe? It seems
     impossible, but we have to ask if it is possible (by the way, I'm not an atheist).

5.  What would the discovery of other advanced life in the universe do to our views on life, religion,
     and the universe? What would it mean? What would their beliefs and religions be like?

6.  Are the "God" of the Bible and the "Supreme Being" that created the universe the same?

    You can no doubt think of many other questions of this type and I'd like to hear them. I think this is a good start, however.


  Barry Parker, author of "Learn from Yesterday, Live for Today, Hope for Tomorrow"
                        Website: Barryparkerbooks.com