God is an idea invented by humans to explain the things we don’t understand (such as our creation) and to enforce certain moral values. There are many aspects to the idea of god that suggest he was invented by humans. For example, isn’t it a crazy coincidence that god takes a human form? Of course humans would invent a god in their own image. I bet if pigs invented a god it would take the form of a pig. It also just so happens that god, the creator of this universe, takes a special interest in humans above all other animals. This makes perfect sense if god is a human creation, otherwise its very odd. And why would the creator of the universe care about concepts that humans have invented such as our sex lives and marriage?
It seems to me that the idea of god is a perfect fit for something that came from a humans imagination. He is all powerful, all knowing and perfect in every way (because why not?) and he rewards those who are good and punishes those who are bad (like some kind of dream hero). If we are very good, he will even grant us a happy life after death (because of course we like to imagine we can go on living after we die). Finally, God gives our lives true purpose and meaning (human lives that is) and guides our actions towards something greater.
It seems like there are far too many coincidences for these stories to be real. God is exactly what you would expect to come from a humans imagination because he makes humans special. This is why I believe that god is just that, an idea from our imagination.
For the most part, Atheists and Christians have equal intelligence. However, like many theists, Christians are more prone to reject new ideas, along with any evidence that supports them, so that old ideas can be preserved. This behaviour holds Christians back in some areas.
If we assume that Fermi is correct in thinking intelligent life could rapidly colonise the galaxy, and if we assume that if advanced life forms had colonised the galaxy we would be able to detect it from earth, then, given the fact that we have not detected any of these life forms, we must be overestimating the chances of intelligent life, or maybe any life, forming within our galaxy.
It is currently not understood how life began on earth. In order for life to start, a molecular structure must have formed that was capable of creating copies of itself. Such a structure could not be built or helped to form in any way because there couldn’t have been anything before it to guide it into the right form. I can only imagine that this structure formed by pure chance. It seems to me that such an event would be astronomically unlikely given the complexity required for any structure to reproduce itself.
But think about this: the observable universe contains at least 12 trillion galaxies, and that’s only as far as we can see. We have no idea how many more galaxies there could be beyond the horizon. The universe could be infinite or there could even be multiple universes. With so many galaxies in existence, even astronomically unlikely events will occur. Life may have started in a couple of these galaxies or it may have started in billions of them. In either case, we would know nothing about it since I doubt we could detect life outside our own galaxy.
This is a possible explanation for why we can’t see any aliens. We may well be the only life forms in our galaxy due to the incredibly small chances of life forming anywhere.
