Quote Originally Posted by BlueBlazer
Interesting to muse on.

I saw a program dealing with the formation of the Earth and the beginning of life here. According to the scientists interviewed, we now believe that the essential building blocks for life were delivered via star dust bombarding the Earth. If that is true it is inconceivable that similar conditions have not already occurred on other planets meeting the other requirements for life.
exactly. anyone who thinks there are not likely to be other Earths out there are just not thinking period. They could be rare, they could be quite common, but they are almost certain to exist, and the evidence as BlueRazer mentioned suggests they are more on the common side of things. We should soon discover many Earth-like worlds. Yes I am optimistic but that does by no means mean unrealistic. Would you rather live your life believing that anything is possible or that nothing is possible? The latter would be a morbid depressing way to live, so I choose the former. Progress never happens under the leadership of pessimists, if it was up to them, we would all still be living in caves. Unfortunately, our leaders are not optimists either but somewhere in between, or we would already be living elsewhere in the solar system or even around other stars.