Reply #133: Very possible: I reconcile it thus.

[anigbrowl]

I'll go so far as to say I'm 99.9% certain life exists elsewhere, on account of how it's apparently such a huge universe and life as we know it is sufficiently flexible the chances of an environment very similar to this one existing elsewhere are very high - that is, there does not seem to be anything fundamentally unique about our planet.

I can't measure or detect life elsewhere at present, only infer it; but I can think of ways to test it. We already listen for radio signals and are starting to get good at detecting planets elsewhere, even though they're tiny compared to stars. Given sufficient resources and time, we can just keep studying or venturing farther into space and actually test the theory.

Now religion, on the other hand, asserts that there is a god (and possibly angels etc. depending on what exact religion you believe in), that we have souls, and that divine beings are acutely interested in the condition of our souls...right here, right now. Your actions here, today, supposedly lead to consequences for your soul. It's the here and now part I'm having trouble with. If such things are real, why aren't they measurable? If such things are unknowable, how are we to distinguish between a thing and the idea of a thing?