I was floating in the pool last night and couldn't help but wonder: What is the purpose for all of the uninhabited planets?

I am coming up blank. What are your theories?



Assuming that there is no Creator, it seems easier to understand why there are no idetifiably inhabited planets.

The purpose of all of these inhabitable planets. What a fundamental questions that comes out to be. The universe is born, maybe a parallel universe or a super galaxy, millions galaxies are formed, stars are created, then planets. What is to make of all of this?

Planets are mainly inhabitable mainly due to the severe disturbance caused by their orbiting stars or galaxy conditions.

It could be that in some grand scheme of things these "uninhabited" planets are their to support the one's with carbon based life. Maybe their gravitational pull with the sun makes life on Earth happen. I really have no clue either.....

PS- Just because we define life in a human way, how do you know that these so called "uninhabited" worlds are not seething with life, maybe just not carbon based human defined life?

Those "uninhabitable" planets supporting our life wouldn't support or be against us if they were in other galaxies would they? As for the ones in this solar system, maybe life did exist, but billions of years ago. As they discover important elements that support and help start life as well as using the Drake equation, they can estimate if life did exist. Direct evidence would also suffice though.

Originally posted by AZLS1
What is the purpose for all of the uninhabited planets?

Why does there have to be a purpose? What if they're just a by-product of natural laws doing their thing?

Assuming that there is no Creator

What does a Creator have to do with it? Who says a creator has to personally create everything for a purpose? Mabey it's more logical for a creator to just set some initial conditions and let it play out, so to speak.

The largest trees start from a tiny seed.

whats the purpose of anything? (thats not man-made). sounds like you were up to no good before you got in that pool...

I'm not sure why you assume that there are so many uninhabited planets. We can only really look at actual planets in solar systems that are very, very close to us compared to the scale of the universe and the distances involved.

True, there is a very specific set of conditions that support our type of life, but given the enormity of how much is out there, I find it inconcievable to imagine that nowhere else does this set of conditions exist. And that's just our type of life. There is no telling what other kinds of life there might be and if we would even recognize it as such if we pointed the hubble right at it.

The Universe is a big, big place. We can only see just a tiny portion of it with any clarity. I would say the jury is still out on your topic question.

Originally posted by AZLS1
I was floating in the pool last night and couldn't help but wonder: What is the purpose for all of the uninhabited planets?

I am coming up blank. What are your theories?



Assuming that there is no Creator, it seems easier to understand why there are no idetifiably inhabited planets.

for humans to have room to expand from earth. duh its so obvious

Originally posted by AZLS1
I was floating in the pool last night and couldn't help but wonder: What is the purpose for all of the uninhabited planets?

I am coming up blank. What are your theories?

We haven't really explored the universe to the extent that we can conclude that there are many uninhabited planets. If you are referring to the planets of our solar system, then there is a possibility that only earth has life, or may be not! There could be life on one or more of the moons of Saturn or may be on Mars. We have just started to explore our own solar system. If you are referring also to planets of other stars, then we don't know much about them either. Life doesn't need a stable, non-extreme environment to develop. Even here on earth, we can see life surviving at the most extreme places, like hydrothermal vents, deep ocear floors, etc. May be its just our solar system that has a lot of uninhabited planets. Other stars might have most of the planets with life, you never know.

Personally I beleve ther is life on almost all the planets of our solar system. Everywhere on earth we look we find life, no mtter how extreme the environment. Europa, Mars, Venus, all could and probably do contain at least microbial life. I expect that once we break through the ice on Europa we will probably find life not much dfferent that what we find in our own oceans.

Hmmm...

To serve as a goal for mankind? They contain enough elements to power our civilization for eternity once our fuels run out. Being 'right there' will give us the motivation to leave the 'ol homeworld and expand.

That, and to of course make things cozy here on earth. Having all the other planets there to make our orbit stable is most handy, as is having the gas giants there to suck up a lot of the cosmic debris that would make life very inconvenient for us otherwise.

And besides that, where else would we have to send all these neat rovers we build?

That's right, they're all there just for our benefit.

How very human-centric.

Maybe this is a cosmic prison.
The other planets cannot be lived on, so we are all stuck here until out sentences run out.... Kinda like sending prisoners to a remote island... They are free within bountries......

I feel that life may be very ubundant in the universe however the steps and hurdles that must be overcome to reach even our level of technology, or even the will of propogating the universe may be the answere.

If god is real, and he/she/it created us in it's image then would we also not be predisposed to evolve and become creators in the universe ourselves?

The true answere to our uniqueness in the universe may be our dreams in sleep and visions of future ideas that just seem to come to life 20-30 years down the road.

Is the question any different whether one believes in a Creator or not?

Perhaps the uninhabitable worlds are the results of trial and error on God/dess 's part, or they may be 'reserved for future expansion' like unused/partially there features on some devices. It might also be a case where, all our neighbors moved out, while we stayed here, and after awhile we simply forgot we even had neighbors. just my 2˘.

It is all about balancing out the universe and solar system, all the other planets are a part of a larger order that have played an huge role on how life evolved on this planet. If it weren't for those other planets and other bodies in the solar sytem life would never have risen on Earth. Also we should explore and manybe even colonize if possible as many planets/satellites as we can for the survival of our species.

[edit on 24-7-2004 by jrod]

Originally posted by AZLS1
I was floating in the pool last night and couldn't help but wonder: What is the purpose for all of the uninhabited planets?

I am coming up blank. What are your theories?

Assuming that there is no Creator, it seems easier to understand why there are no idetifiably inhabited planets.

Well, in the context of the way the question was asked, I would have to speculate, from a creators point of view, what is the point. Suppose we were the test, well, we can't get along with each other, my goodness, can you imagine if there were other planets involved with us as well as different countries & beliefs. It would be chaos.

Oh, it already is.

Even 'dead' planets are very alive in their own way.

Wow. Out of like 25 replies, maybe four of us have understood what AZLS1 is trying to do.

Unlike what the majority of you think, he is not telling us that the greater part of the universe is actually uninhabited. He is not telling us that in reality, a creator only cares about us, or wouldn't have just set up a universe then watched it play out.

This was a ploy to trick fanatical christians.

According to the bible, God created earth, and he created man. Okay. So, he could likely have created _just_ earth, and _just_ its inhabitants, without making the rest of the universe. I mean, why go to the effort? The thing he is trying to get Fanatics to say is that 'God Created the Universe for Us' - because according to the bible, we're the only life out there. He made it all for us. So, once they've said this, he'd rebut 'But, you are honestly that conceited? You really think humans are so special that the ENTIRE UNIVERSE exists for us? If it did, why wouldn't he have made it amazing? If you were to set someone up with their own personal life, that you've created for them, would you make them perfectly average, like our solar system, or would you have given them NOTHING, or perhaps, EVERYTHING? Because if we were really that important, then maybe we'd be given a crapload of habitable, but uninhabited planets. We'd be given unlimited resources, and we'd be given the most unusual and exciting place in existence. For our enjoyment' - See, he wanted to say something along those lines.

He was expecting religious nuts to fall into this giant trap he felt he'd set, but instead, all you non-hardcore-christians came in and fought the fanatical argument for the fanatics, without them having to break their rules, or worry in the slightest. Good job.