Debate Info

install flash for graphs
Yes No
Debate Score:61
Arguments:43
Total Votes:72
Show More Stats

Argument Tags

side graph
 
 yes (39)
 
 No (10)
 
 It's a matter of personal integrity (1)

Debate Creator

lhlnk(39) pic



Are Aliens real?

Do you believe in life out of earth?


Yes

Side Score: 45
VS.

No

Side Score: 16
Vote Up Vote Down
5 points

Planets on which we have found life: One

Planets which we have explored with any thoroughness: One

Not a very good sample size, I'm afraid.

We live in a truly vast universe with billions of stars, and astrophysicists now think that solar systems are the norm rather than an anomaly. So billions of stars, trillions of planets, countless moons. Trying to argue "there is no life out there" is a little like arguing that fish don't exist because you haven't yet found one in the bathtub.

Still, out planet has a lot of plusses that we think might be essential for life. We've got water. We're in an orbital "sweet spot" when it comes to proper temperatures for our type of life. We've got a big ol' moon and while its gravity isn't that strong, it's been enough to keep a number of asteroids from banging into our planet.

But we've found all that on other celestial bodies in our own solar system, too. Mars had water (none on the surface now, but a couple billion years back it probably had oceans.) Europa is one big semi-frozen sea. And they've both got some heat: Mars is also in the "sweet spot," albeit further out and therefore colder - and Europa gains heat from its internal geophysics and the gravitational pulls of other near bodies (a ton of moons and a great big gas giant) that, we're pretty sure, enable it to maintain a layer of liquid water under its frozen surface.

The Discovery Channel, in one of its various space programs, interviewed some of the NASA wonks about the planned Prometheus mission to Europa (since shelved for budgetary reasons.) Discovery asked what they hoped to find. One of the researchers answered, "What do we hope to find on Europa? Friendly whales."

Arguing for funding reconsideration of the Europa flight, Robert Pappalardo, Assistant Professor in the University of Colorado at Boulder's Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences and Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, said: "Europa today, probably, is a habitable environment. We need to confirm this...but Europa, potentially, has all the ingredients for life...and not just four billion years ago...but today."

And that's just the stuff we've found in our own back yard in less than a half-century of minimal exploring. When it comes to space, we're sort of on a scientific par with the flat-earth theorists of the mid-1300s, scratching their heads and saying "it don't look round to me."

On that note, I will conclude with a fun (if apocryphal) story:

When NASA was preparing for the Apollo Project, a group of astronauts were taken out to land bordering a Navajo reservation in Arizona for training on the barren moon-like landscape.

One day, a Navajo elder and his son came across some of the astronauts walking among the rocks.

The elder, who spoke only Navajo, asked a question. His son translated for the astronauts: "What are you guys in the big funny suits doing?"

One of the astronauts replied that they were practicing for a trip to the moon.

When his son relayed this comment, the elder got very excited and asked if it might be possible to give to the astronauts a message to deliver to the moon.

Recognizing a promotional opportunity when he saw one, one of the NASA guys said, "Why certainly!" So they arranged to have a tape recorder brought.

The Navajo elder's comments into the microphone were brief. The NASA official asked the son if he would translate what his father had said. The son listened to the recording and laughed uproariously. But he refused to translate.

Over the next week or so the NASA people played the tape for some other members of the tribe. They, too, laughed long and loud -- but they, too, refused to translate the elder's message to the moon.

Finally, an official government translator was summoned. After he finally stopped laughing, the translator relayed the message:

"Watch out for these a$$&oles; they're coming to steal your land!"

109 days ago | Tagged As: yes
Vote Up Vote Down
2 points

Well given the idea that space in infinite, we must assume that there is a planet just as ours that can support life just as ours.

We can only truly say we have explored 1 planet, but there is a myriad of other planets that could very well bare life.

Whether or not we will ever have the technology to discover another planet that is bearing life is questionable. Especially since we are slowly killing ourselves anyway.

Are aliens real? It is definately a possibility.

104 days ago | Tagged As: yes
Vote Up Vote Down
1 point  

Of course. The universe is infinite; it is impossible that no other life exists, especially if you consider how narrow our definition of life is. Perhaps life on other planets doesn't require what life on Earth requires; perhaps we wouldn't even consider it to be alive. Perhaps it doesn't breathe. Or even exist visually.

It's all endless! All of it! Now excuse me while I light my spliff. ;)

112 days ago | Tagged As: yes
Vote Up Vote Down
1 point  

It's extremely unlikely that the earth is the only fluke in the universe on which life has developed. Will aliens be little green men with misshapen oversized heads? Probably not. Perhaps life will be single celled. But with the universe as crazy-largen as this one, it'd be incredibly strange to be the only ones out there.

112 days ago | Tagged As: yes
- ThePyg(3123) Supported
Vote Up Vote Down
1 point  

actually, it's very unlikely that life was developed... yet it was.

the odds of it happening once is considered technically zero... so happening twice...

111 days ago | Tagged As: yes
- Avedomni(62) Disputed
Vote Up Vote Down
1 point  

actually, it's very unlikely that life was developed... yet it was.

the odds of it happening once is considered technically zero

Do you have a source for these probabilities? Because, so far as I'm aware, the only planet on which we can say definitively whether or not life developed is Earth, and it happened there. So our sample size is 1, and that planet developed life, meaning that so far "every" planet that we can test has successfully developed life.

111 days ago | Tagged As: yes
Vote Up Vote Down
1 point  

Yes, aliens are real. A bunch of them cross the border every day ;)

111 days ago | Tagged As: yes
- MKIced(1756) Supported
Vote Up Vote Down
2 points

I was going to say that in either similar or completely different words. lol. You stole my idea..... before I thought it.:)

111 days ago | Tagged As: yes
- DaWolfman(1420) Disputed
Vote Up Vote Down
1 point  

the description says do you believe in life outside of earth, not Mexicans.

;)

104 days ago | Tagged As: yes
- joecavalry(8879) Supported
Vote Up Vote Down
1 point  

You mean "do you believe in life outside of earth, not Mexico" ;)

104 days ago | Tagged As: No
Vote Up Vote Down
1 point  

Perhaps not in our solar system but somewhere out there, there is life of some kind. If you've ever read the book, "The Interrupted Journey" by John G. Fuller, you've got to believe it.

109 days ago | Tagged As: yes
Vote Up Vote Down
1 point  

I don't believe that we're unique in the universe given its apparent scale. I think there's probably life as we know/could recognise it elsewhere but possibly, we'll never find it.

108 days ago | Tagged As: yes
Vote Up Vote Down
1 point  

Probably.

Have we ever seen or been in contact with them? No. and we probably never will.

Is there some huge secret the Government is keeping from us? No.

108 days ago | Tagged As: yes
Vote Up Vote Down
1 point  

Im sorry in all of the galaxies and on all the worlds it would be hard for me to not believe there is life out there I'm not saying they are three foot green men who come to are planet and probe people or that they are any more advanced then us but I do believe there is something out there.

107 days ago | Tagged As: yes
Vote Up Vote Down
1 point  

Ever seen inside the dilated pupil of your eye? Or any ones for that matter....in a centerd position there should be on sphericle jagged star looking node/membrane thats conected too the outside of what apears too be a quazer esque cloud...Genetic indifrence dosent aslways change the way we see things...but it shure is tricky.

74 days ago | Tagged As: yes
Vote Up Vote Down
1 point  

The idea, that in a universe SO BIG that this planet is the only one with life and this is it in the way of life, is just the most ridiculous claim i have ever heard to be honest!

Even if life is uncommon, it will almost certainly be out there.

I believe Microbial life may be around and about, and then similar planets to Earth with thriving life and possibly intelligence are dotted about.

48 days ago | Tagged As: It's a matter of personal integrity
Vote Up Vote Down
0 points

If Mars can have(had) bacteria and if we can have multiple forms of life then somewhere far away in space there is a good chance that they have/had life as well.

The chances of life occurring on a planet is practically zero, but seeing how both the universe and time are practically infinite doesn't that mean that life somewhere else has/had to exist?

111 days ago | Tagged As: yes
Vote Up Vote Down
2 points

Im skeptical when it comes to aliens.

Until the scientists say they have found alien life I hold that there are no aliens. Aliens were really the invention of TV producers to create new story lines.

111 days ago | Tagged As: No
- Bradf0rd(1299) Disputed
Vote Up Vote Down
0 points

On the first day man created god.

On the second day man created television.

On the third day man became a television producer.

On the fourth day television producers created aliens.

On the fifth day, chrisbacon11 knew this.

There were no other days. Just Monday through Friday, NOW GET BACK TO WORK!

107 days ago | Tagged As: yes
Vote Up Vote Down
1 point  

Need to be more specific (foreigners are aliens too), but I will discuss space aliens.

1.There has yet to be any definitive proof that shows that they exist. No DNA, no bones, no spacecraft, nothing, except for blurry videos and conspiracies which don't constitute as anything.

2. Life has not been found to exist on any other planet except ours.

3. It is impossible to prove that there are millions of universes. Start counting and prove me wrong if my statement is false.

4. You cannot discount the fact that people lie and exaggerate, especially if it puts them in the limelight.

109 days ago | Tagged As: No
- iamdavidh(1849) Disputed
Vote Up Vote Down
3 points

1. True, but you would agree that here on this one planet, multiple different kinds of life have developed correct? It would seem odd don't you think, if life were so rare, for it to be so numerous? But your first point is correct.

2. Again true, but we have not explored any other planets. I mean, it would have been silly of the Europeans to have assumed no life existed in the Americas, before they even set foot their wouldn't it? And they would have been wrong too.

3. Here's where you go terribly terribly wrong. Universe = everything we know of. So as far as we know there is one. Certain theories, like string theory, postulates thare are 12 to infinite Universes, other theories say just one.

But in our one Universe there are between 10^22 or 10 ^24 stars

As hopefully you already know (I notice you're a Palin fan, so I'll go slow) stars are kind of like our sun, they can vary in size, but our sun is pretty average. Here's what 10^23 looks like (for an average)

1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

Now we can't really comprehend the enormity of that number with our small brains, we can label it, but the human mind simply is not capable of imagining something so large.

But next time you're on a beach, pick up a handful of sand and see all of the grains their in your palm.

Then look at the entire beach.

Then think of all of the beaches in this whole big world.

On our entire planet there are apx 10^18 grains of sand.

There are way, way, way more stars in space, than grains of sand on all of earth.

And each of these stars has planets.

Considering this, it would be nearly impossible for us to be alone. Just the sheer size of it means there almost has to be a whole lot of life out there no matter how slim the chances of life ever starting may be.

4. True, considering the distance between stars and galaxies, it is unlikely that two intelligent life forms would find eachother. And I certainly doubt that us, in our short history have run into something intelligen from somewhere else.

But people have only been around a couple million years, give it time. It's bound to happen unless we kill ourselves first.

108 days ago | Tagged As: yes
- Avedomni(62) Disputed
Vote Up Vote Down
2 points

And each of these stars has planets.

To be fair, this has not been confirmed and seems unlikely. While most stars probably have at least one planet (including Jovians), it is far from true that all stars definitely have planets.

108 days ago | Tagged As: yes
- asdf789(341) Disputed
Vote Up Vote Down
1 point  

1. agreed my statement is true

2. agreed my statement is true; satellites have gotten past Pluto and have not found any form of visible life

3. Wow, thar is sumthin cald a Sun? I neber new that! Wut? Tha Sun is a star? Now u dun got me all confuzed. The name is a joke. I am a republican, but I am not in favor of Palin. Next time don't call someone a retard until you get your facts straight. I misspoke when I said universe, I meant galaxy. Yes, I have heard of something called a "Sun" and know that it is also a "star." You are saying that it is impossible for us to be alone, yet you have no empirical data or any other data whatsoever to back this claim up. Just saying that "well, there are a lot of planets out there and you never know" does not make up the fact that you have agreed with my first two points.

4.agreed my statement is true

Again, show me rock hard, concrete evidence that proves space aliens exist. Remember, you are trying to prove to me without a reasonable doubt that space aliens exist. If we don't have any solid evidence that they exist after being around for 2 million years, what makes you think the next two will be any different?

108 days ago | Tagged As: No
Vote Up Vote Down
1 point  

The X-files, Star Trek, Star Wars all portray life on other planets, and the drunk claims to have been abducted and so we must believe life does exist. What do these things have in common? Both are fiction. Dead cows and crop circles, do you really think this is proof? Proof that they do not exist is in that second cup of coffee, daylight and sober the bogeyman is gone.

107 days ago | Tagged As: No
Popular Debates in Science: Nuclear power plants.... U.S. should put an end to war on drugs, legalize pot? Does God really Exist???


bottomAd


About CreateDebate
The CreateDebate Blog
Take a Tour
Help/FAQ
Newsletter Archive
Sharing Tools
Invite Your Friends
Bookmarklets
Partner Buttons
RSS & XML Feeds
Reach Out
Advertise
Contact Us
Report Abuse
Twitter
Basic Stuff
User Agreement
Privacy Policy
Sitemap
Creative Commons



©2009 CreateDebate, LLC All Rights Reserved. User content, unless source quoted, licensed under a Creative Commons License.