...at least any time soon.
Whenever there is talk about alien contact, the same argument gets dragged out - "It is possible!". It relies on the universe being vast and that somewhere life should happen - that we can't possibly be alone. This argument is (IMO) sound. Yes, the universe is vast, and it is quite probable that we won't be the only ones to evolve in it. However, this same argument is also (again IMO) the reason why YOU won't get to meet those aliens.
The universe IS vast. Heck, it's humongous. You have no idea how damn big it is. You also have no idea how mind-staggeringly long it's been around and how much longer it's going to be around. This is a clear case of Lack of Scale [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale], both spatially and temporally. Also, life itself is a somewhat unlikely occurence that requires specific conditions to happen (otherwise we'd have all over the Solar system). And let's face it, when we're talking about alien contact, we don't want a few bacteria or some lichen; we want spaceships and teleporters!
So, let's see what needs to happen for alien contact to take place.
1. Life - Fairly unlikely, since it requires specific conditions to occur. A planet has to be just right and if any of a number of factors is off, the whole thing is out the window (and not just carbon based, oxygen breathing life).
2. Technology - Again, this requires the conditions to be even more specific. Not only does the planet have to meet the requirements to create life, it has to provide resources and environment suitable for technological development.
These two, while not likely, are bound to happen. As we stated, the universe is DAMN big so statistically there should be at a number of such planets around. However...
3. Location - It has to happen somewhere in our general area. Like, say, our Galaxy. They need to get here and they need to find us first. We have a bubble of radio waves going out into space for the last century, but that's a VERY small bubble. It's like a pinprick on the galactic map (even more insignificant in the universe as a whole). They need to stumble across that pinprick to even have a chance of finding us. Beyond that, they'd have to stumble across us, which is even less likely seein how DAMN BIG the Universe is...
4. Time - And here comes the biggest kicker! This alien civilization has to take place at exactly the same time as ours! This is trickier than it seems since it's again a matter of scale. The universe is 13 billion years old. We've had written history for what, 5-6 thousand years? That means that the entire existance of the human race is less than an eyeblink by universe's standards. Galactic Empires could have risen and fallen over and over again while dinosaurs roamed the Earth. The entire Star Trek saga could have played out hundreds of times just in the time it took us to evolve from monkeys to humans. And 10 thousand years from now, when the last human dies in whatever disaster we concoct, a space fish might be clambering for the first time to the shore of some distant world to begin the evolution into a technological race. We would have "just missed them"...
Also, we need to catch our aliens at the "sweet spot" between "Developed Advanced Interplanetary Space Flight" and "Nuked themselves into extinction"...
So, to recap the whole thing - We need an unlikely planet (Life) with unlikely circumstances (Technology) to be somewhere near us (Location) at the same fraction of time we happen to occupy (Time).
The point I'm trying to make is that while life on other planets can happen, will happen and probably HAS happened, YOU aren't going to see it. You have better chances of spontaneously turning into a tapdancing chipmunk...
Thank you for reading and if you managed to get through the whole rambling rant...
EDIT: Clarification! Since many people seem to be skipping my post and reading only the title - I'm not saying we are alone in the universe. I'm not saying God made us and only us. Heck, I'm not bringing God into it at all. I firmly believe that other species exist!
Whenever there is talk about alien contact, the same argument gets dragged out - "It is possible!". It relies on the universe being vast and that somewhere life should happen - that we can't possibly be alone. This argument is (IMO) sound. Yes, the universe is vast, and it is quite probable that we won't be the only ones to evolve in it. However, this same argument is also (again IMO) the reason why YOU won't get to meet those aliens.
The universe IS vast. Heck, it's humongous. You have no idea how damn big it is. You also have no idea how mind-staggeringly long it's been around and how much longer it's going to be around. This is a clear case of Lack of Scale [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale], both spatially and temporally. Also, life itself is a somewhat unlikely occurence that requires specific conditions to happen (otherwise we'd have all over the Solar system). And let's face it, when we're talking about alien contact, we don't want a few bacteria or some lichen; we want spaceships and teleporters!
So, let's see what needs to happen for alien contact to take place.
1. Life - Fairly unlikely, since it requires specific conditions to occur. A planet has to be just right and if any of a number of factors is off, the whole thing is out the window (and not just carbon based, oxygen breathing life).
2. Technology - Again, this requires the conditions to be even more specific. Not only does the planet have to meet the requirements to create life, it has to provide resources and environment suitable for technological development.
These two, while not likely, are bound to happen. As we stated, the universe is DAMN big so statistically there should be at a number of such planets around. However...
3. Location - It has to happen somewhere in our general area. Like, say, our Galaxy. They need to get here and they need to find us first. We have a bubble of radio waves going out into space for the last century, but that's a VERY small bubble. It's like a pinprick on the galactic map (even more insignificant in the universe as a whole). They need to stumble across that pinprick to even have a chance of finding us. Beyond that, they'd have to stumble across us, which is even less likely seein how DAMN BIG the Universe is...
4. Time - And here comes the biggest kicker! This alien civilization has to take place at exactly the same time as ours! This is trickier than it seems since it's again a matter of scale. The universe is 13 billion years old. We've had written history for what, 5-6 thousand years? That means that the entire existance of the human race is less than an eyeblink by universe's standards. Galactic Empires could have risen and fallen over and over again while dinosaurs roamed the Earth. The entire Star Trek saga could have played out hundreds of times just in the time it took us to evolve from monkeys to humans. And 10 thousand years from now, when the last human dies in whatever disaster we concoct, a space fish might be clambering for the first time to the shore of some distant world to begin the evolution into a technological race. We would have "just missed them"...
Also, we need to catch our aliens at the "sweet spot" between "Developed Advanced Interplanetary Space Flight" and "Nuked themselves into extinction"...
So, to recap the whole thing - We need an unlikely planet (Life) with unlikely circumstances (Technology) to be somewhere near us (Location) at the same fraction of time we happen to occupy (Time).
The point I'm trying to make is that while life on other planets can happen, will happen and probably HAS happened, YOU aren't going to see it. You have better chances of spontaneously turning into a tapdancing chipmunk...
Thank you for reading and if you managed to get through the whole rambling rant...
EDIT: Clarification! Since many people seem to be skipping my post and reading only the title - I'm not saying we are alone in the universe. I'm not saying God made us and only us. Heck, I'm not bringing God into it at all. I firmly believe that other species exist!