Christianity vs UFOs

[Myrddraal]

Universe is infinite, check. Density is finite (perhaps not at big bang), check. I knew that, but I didn't know that matter was considered to be infinite.

Please correct me if I'm wrong in this next paragraph, though I'm familiar with physics I'm not familiar with astrophysics so I might say things which might be commonly known to be wrong, but here goes anyway:

I'm not sure that the existence of infinite matter is an obvious next step for the physicist. It seems to me the universe has to be infinite almost by definition, since the universe is not defined by anything more than our three(/four) dimensions. I don't see the next step (saying that matter is therefore infinite) as obvious. Is it then thought that there was infinite energy in the Big Ban? As I'm sure you appreciate there's an awfully big difference between a very very large amount of matter and an infinite quantity. That was the essence of my previous argument: we must not be so daunted by the size of the universe as to apply arguments which are only valid when considering infinite systems.

Do you still say intelligent life is unlikely, or even that our model is flawed? It would be mind-numbing if we were the only ones out there. As I said, only the existence of God could explain the absence of intelligent life in places other than Earth.

Well if the number of potential inhabitable planets is truly infinite (something I'm naturally dubious about) and there is some non zero probability that a planet supports intelligent life then, as I said, the logical conclusion is that there is an infinite number of intelligent species 'out there'. The only explanation for intelligent life being truly unique to earth would be some external force (which we can call God if you like ).

My point was that if the number of planets is finite, however large it is we cannot make any reasonable or logical conclusions as the the likelihood of the existence of other intelligent life. We cannot conclude that it is unlikely, but more importantly a large universe (however large) is not sufficient to make the existence of other intelligent likely. This is an argument which I've heard put forward a lot, most often in the form "The universe is really really big therefore there must be intelligent aliens". This is the argument which I'm saying is flawed.

As to it being mind numbing, the possibility of us being the only intelligent life-forms in a finite number of planets is not nearly as mind numbing as a universe with infinite mass