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comment by NotPhil
NotPhil  ·  4009 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Are We Alone in the Universe?

    we can reasonably infer that if life happened naturally on earth it can happen elsewhere

Sure, but saying that it could happen isn't the same as saying that it has happened, and even if we assume that it has, and it would only be an assumption, we still can't say how frequently or under what conditions. For all we know, life might be an astonishingly rare, and short-lived, phenomenon. For all we know, we're it, no matter how badly we want to believe otherwise.

    unless we wish to appeal to a divine creator that created life on earth for a specific purpose

We can believe that if we wish, but it doesn't necessarily follow from the premise that life here might have been a freak occurrence.