Aliens

[??????????]

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...

That statement can obviously apply to God or any religion.

[Gabu]

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
Carl Sagan

In that, he would be wrong (or at least poorly expressed). Until evidence can be provided, there is no reason whatsoever to presume anything. I am perfectly open to the possibility of life beyond Earth, but the lack of evidence currently points to it not existing.

"Sometimes I think the surest sign of intelligent extraterrestrial life is that none of it has ever tried to contact us."

- Calvin, Calvin and Hobbes

[Person Man]

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
Carl Sagan

In that, he would be wrong (or at least poorly expressed). Until evidence can be provided, there is no reason whatsoever to presume anything. I am perfectly open to the possibility of life beyond Earth, but the lack of evidence currently points to it not existing.

"Sometimes I think the surest sign of intelligent extraterrestrial life is that none of it has ever tried to contact us."

- Calvin, Calvin and Hobbes

We need to contact them.

[Gabu]

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
Carl Sagan

In that, he would be wrong (or at least poorly expressed). Until evidence can be provided, there is no reason whatsoever to presume anything. I am perfectly open to the possibility of life beyond Earth, but the lack of evidence currently points to it not existing.

"Sometimes I think the surest sign of intelligent extraterrestrial life is that none of it has ever tried to contact us."

- Calvin, Calvin and Hobbes

We need to contact them.

I don't think you quite understood the quote.

[Speed of Sound]

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
Carl Sagan

Is Sagan a Christian?

He is one of the few well known members of the fantastic association of Secular Humanism, as far as I know. (I have no bias! >_>   <_<)


As for what we're talking about, I hope so sometimes and hope not in others, but either way, it is likely, speaking scientifically.

[Person Man]

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
Carl Sagan

In that, he would be wrong (or at least poorly expressed). Until evidence can be provided, there is no reason whatsoever to presume anything. I am perfectly open to the possibility of life beyond Earth, but the lack of evidence currently points to it not existing.

"Sometimes I think the surest sign of intelligent extraterrestrial life is that none of it has ever tried to contact us."

- Calvin, Calvin and Hobbes

We need to contact them.

I don't think you quite understood the quote.

I know. but still...we need to contact them ourselves.

[Bacon King]

How do you propose we contact them, Weasel? You say it like nobody's trying to do that already. What about SETI and other such organizations?

[Person Man]

How do you propose we contact them, Weasel? You say it like nobody's trying to do that already. What about SETI and other such organizations?

They just hear, they aren't actually sending messages.

[Gabu]

How do you propose we contact them, Weasel? You say it like nobody's trying to do that already. What about SETI and other such organizations?

They just hear, they aren't actually sending messages.

So what do we do, send them a radio transmission saying "hey aliens, please contact us"?  They obviously aren't going to understand English.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

I haven't seen anything convincing in the solar system - and I doubt we'd have 2 planets in the solar system w/ life - but I'm open (and kinda want) to life outside of the solar system.

[MODU]

How do you propose we contact them, Weasel? You say it like nobody's trying to do that already. What about SETI and other such organizations?

They just hear, they aren't actually sending messages.

Other organizations have beamed messages to key stars and galaxies which are theoried to have life (how they determined that, I don't know).

[nlm]

How do you propose we contact them, Weasel? You say it like nobody's trying to do that already. What about SETI and other such organizations?

They just hear, they aren't actually sending messages.

Other organizations have beamed messages to key stars and galaxies which are theoried to have life (how they determined that, I don't know).

My understanding (which may be out of date - which is most likely) is that since the launch of orbital platforms observatories, we have had the ability to pick up smaller mineral (rock) based planets (as opposed to gas based planets) due to changes in light emmisions from stars being viewed as the planets pass in between the star and us. How they can tell that they are rock based is something I don't know - but they say they can. Then based on projected distances from the star to the planet orbiting it and data on that stars output they can estimate surface conditions on that planet and take some sort of guess as to if it could support life. I'm sure I'm wildly over simplifying this.

[Person Man]

One that will be able to reliably find earth-like planets wont be available until the end of next year. I doubt anyone has actually sent mesages into space, though.

[MODU]

I doubt anyone has actually sent mesages into space, though.

Here is one of the groups that provide the service:  Deep Space Communications Network

[Person Man]

have they actually produced any transmissions yet? I know that Kepler isn't up yet and someone has already tried to use that as an example, the Euros have COROT, but that isn't that much better than ground-based apparatus.

[MODU]

have they actually produced any transmissions yet? I know that Kepler isn't up yet and someone has already tried to use that as an example, the Euros have COROT, but that isn't that much better than ground-based apparatus.

Yup, for a few years now.  Not sure if they are still broadcasting though.  Haven't seen any news about their operations lately.  A few other groups are broadcasting though.  Most use radio signals, but some have tried using lasers as well.  The problem with radio is that after a while, the signal is distorted by background noise.  So if someone was trying to contact us or vice versa, we might never know.