Most people think that agnosticism only applies to believe in a god or gods. And perhaps in an afterlife. But for me, it extends much further, to a question of consciousness.
We have that consciousness here, on Earth. But does it exist e?
The whole story of life on earth for the last several billion years, from single celled flotsam to complex thinking animals, is so unlikely that it resembles science fiction.
On one hand, the law of large numbers. After a century of observation we now know that there are approximately septillion stars in the known universe. These are distributed amongst trillions of galaxies. Many of these stars have planets orbiting.
How can we think that this is the only place that sparked life?
On the other hand, the greater universe is hostile to life. And the idea of random strands of the nucleic acid in protein suddenly having the properties of consciousness is rather absurd, as noted above. Science fiction with an unbelievable plot.
And yet, here we are.
Then read something that mentioned the multiverse concept and I thought "if the universe is all that is, it must also take up all-space." Which led me mentally to the expansion of "the universe" which implies that the known universe is surrounded by... what? Empty space?
And finally to this: the entire universe is immensely unlikely.
As an agnostic, I have no proof of any living consciousness that could provide a root cause for any of this.
I also can't prove there is not such a consciousness.
The facts I do have: the universe exists. It is unimaginably huge and contains a myriad of strange objects. Massive areas that consume matter. Giant balls of burning gas. Orbs of various sizes orbiting other orbs.
And, way out on a spiral arm of a single galaxy, orbiting a small nondescript star, is Earth, where proteins congealed in brackish water, giving birth to our biosphere.
All the rest is speculation.
And why should I, or anyone, care?
I don’t really care if “space aliens” have been here or will ever be here.
I do care if intelligent life exists elsewhere because it is so precarious here. And if our earth is the only place this crazy thing happened then it makes the ecocide an even greater crime. The demise of earth life would mean that nothing alive is left in the vast darkness.
That stars are born and die with no eyes to see or mind to wonder.
I know that there is little chance of ever knowing. But, in the absence of a god, another living planet somewhere out there would be a miracle on its own right.
Annabel Asher: Absolutely, I believe there is abundant life. Even as Walt Whitman early observed, "There are millions of suns."
More than that we cannot say.
NASA and astrophysics departments of great universities accelerate their studies of potential life.
The limitations on our knowledge are tremendous. The wavelengths we humans receive are quite limited -- sound, sight are on a narrow edge of much wider wavelength spectra.
Moreover, the immensity of the Cosmos we receive with our most advanced telescopes and instruments are often billions of light years away.
Which means, those phenomena have evolved billions of years farther.
Which means, I suppose, the answer, if we EVER get it within our own relatively narrow bandwidth, may be a long, long way in the future.
But with so many galaxies, each with so many suns, each with the possibility of so many solar-systems, I think it would be foolish to adopt a dogma that the only life is what we see.
Having said that, I do not know how much of the life has intelligence. Assuming the intelligence of the life, are they civilized? If civilized, are they BENIGN?
I don't know.
Having said that . . . There was the "Twilight Zone's" Episode: "To Serve Man":
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x80j7it
When this was broadcast, Armando was 11. I only saw it within the past five years. It is still memorable to me!
HOPEFULLY, we won't have THAT kind of an encounter! LOL!