Sentient life in the universe

Welcome to EvC Zoinks, prepare to be challenged As mentioned before, your interpretation of this chapter is open to question, namely that it does not reference alien life forms but rather a quite imaginative description of one person's encounter with the supposedly divine. Notice the description includes human faces and hands, something one would not expect from an alien life form but more likely a bronze age vision (whatever the cause). Not being an atheist myself, I find it difficult to speak on their behalf. I find your position concerning this subject somewhat irrational. After all you should realize that organic compounds have been found in space and amino acids have been found in meteorites. You should realize that life has been found on earth flourishing 2 miles deep in solid rock, in boiling vents both undersea and on the surface, and under two miles of solid ice in Antarctica.Life, at least in its simplest form, appears to be able to adapt to extreme conditions no worse than Mars, Europa, Ganymede, or Titan may offer. And even this may be an underestimate.It would be a lot more surprising and indeed supportive of some purported micromanaging 'intelligent design' if life is confined to one planet rather than as a natural consequence of physical laws, regardless of the origin of such laws, be they divine or mundane.Now as to intelligent or technological life, it is not impossible, however unlikely, that humans are first, according to some human definitions.

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The idea of the sacred is quite simply one of the most conservative notions in any culture, because it seeks to turn other ideas - uncertainty, progress, change - into crimes.
Salman RushdieThis rudderless world is not shaped by vague metaphysical forces. It is not God who kills the children. Not fate that butchers them or destiny that feeds them to the dogs. It’s us. Only us. - the character Rorschach in Watchmen