Aliens

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
Carl Sagan

Is Sagan a Christian?

Ummm... No.

The only answer that can be given to this question is: Probably.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
Carl Sagan

Is Sagan a Christian?

Ummm... No.

Of course Sagan was an atheist, but StatesRights wants to apply the statement to God.

I figured it as much. Of course that statement could well apply to all religions, or for the Flying Spaghetti monster...

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Or, a civilization has the technology to send a small exploration group with the capacity to grow/create their own food supplies and is willing to reproduce while traveling, knowing that their children, grandchildren, etc will grow up never knowing what it is like to have seen their home world.  Of course, you then risk the medical side-effects of inbreeding, so who knows how healthy these individuals are by the time the find another planet with life on it.

Also you have to take into effect if you send huge generation ships, with 10,000 or more people on them, 650 years is plenty of time for civilization to collapse and for the population to revert to barbarism.

Lucky then that science is making such leap and bounds in human hibernation science

I voted option three. No-one more than me would like to see contact with another intergalatic civilisation (if we call the mess that is our home a civilisation) but realistically the odds are very short. Wixted put it very clearly I think.