It is reasonable to believe that Alien life exists

Thank you to zucky for accepting this argument. Welcome to DDO and the best of luck to you. REBUTTALS: These are two direct quotes from my opponent: "My argument, which directly refutes the propositions claim, is that the probability of other life is virtually zero." "...the probability of the planet to fulfill the 5 requirements and of the life form to fulfill the 4 requirements is so low that it is extremely unlikely for there to be Alien life forms, and therefor extremely illogical to assume that there are such beings." Virtually zero? Extremely unlikely? Given the scope of the Universe, this seems akin to "Almost definitely". I don't know if he intended to agree with my resolution, but that is what I take from these statements. Regardless, I'll rebutt his other comments in two-pronged style: My opponent is under the impression that Earth-like planets are uncommon. Perhaps... but here is some food for thought: Scientists believe a planet must be in the "Goldilocks zone" [1] for it to sustain Earth-like life. It is interesting to note that earlier in the life cycle of our closest star, the Sun, Mars would have been in said Goldilocks zone and Earth would have been a more Venus like enviroment [2]. (The Azioc/Hadian period [3]) In other words, many billions of years ago, we may have had an Earth-like planet in our own Solar system. IN - OUR - OWN - SOLAR - SYSTEM. That doesn't seem so uncommon to me. ARGUMENTS Lifeforms that exist outside of Earth-like conditions. My opponent also makes the assumption that Earth-like conditions are a REQUIREMENT for life. Here [4] we see Scientists who put some bacteria microbes on the outside of the ISS [5] and when they checked them 18 months later, found many of them still alive. Here [6] we see bacteria living at the bottom of the ocean, that gain their nurishment from basalt rocks. This shows that not even all the life we know to exist needs "Earth-like" conditions to survive. CONCLUSION Remember the resolution. It is my burdon of proof to show that it is a reasonable position to believe life exists outside of our planet, not to prove that life does exist. Given the incredible uncertainly regarding much of the science of Astronomy and Abiogenesis, all I can do to forfill this burdon is show how incredibly likely it is that life does exist. My opponent has taken the position that is extremely unlikely. The strange thing is, this only makes my resolution stronger. If he, my opponent gives some chance to it, however unlikely a chance that is, isn't he argeeing with me? I have researched this thoroughly and have seen nothing that remotely suggests that there is NO life out there. No matter how unlikely one concludes life outside of Earth to be, the fact we exist shows that life can form and become sentient in our harsh, unpredictable Universe So what is more likely, that we are the sole life in the entire Universe or that we simply haven't yet and may never find other life? VOTE PRO SOURCES [1] http://science.nasa.gov... [2] http://www.space.com... [3] http://cas.bellarmine.edu... [4] http://www.bbc.co.uk... [5] http://www.nasa.gov... [6] http://www.windows2universe.org...