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Point taken, TL. I understand what you're trying to say. But all I know about the micro organisms on Mars is some fuzzy picture taken there of some worm-like thingie. That's not convincing enough for me to be hard evidence of extraterrestrial life.

I also understand your opinion on probability, but why spend all that money on looking outside, when we don't even know half of what's going on on the inside? Of course you will say that's an entirely different discussion, but it really makes me wonder.

To go on about probability: I though we were discussing whether or not we believed in aliens; probability is another thing. Of course there's always a chance that aliens exist somewhere in the galaxy. What I was merely saying is that just stating that they are there (what Ziroc did) cannot simply be said just like that. Facts are necessary to support such a thing.
Aliens existing yes or no, or the probability of aliens existing are two different things.

As far as the probability goes, I already stated in my first reply that Drake's Equation deals with that matter. Understandably, and I feel that he is incorrect, Ziroc pointed out that Drake's Equation took oxygen as a 'must-have' for extraterrestrial life, which he does not, as you can see below.

N = R* • fp • ne • fl • fi • fc • L

Where:
- N = The number of civilizations in The Milky Way Galaxy whose electromagnetic emissions are detectable.
- R* =The rate of formation of stars suitable for the development of intelligent life.
- fp = The fraction of those stars with planetary systems.
- ne = The number of planets, per solar system, with an environment suitable for life.
- fl = The fraction of suitable planets on which life actually appears.
- fi = The fraction of life bearing planets on which intelligent life emerges.
- fc = The fraction of civilizations that develop a technology that releases detectable signs of their existence into space.
- L = The length of time such civilizations release detectable signals into space.

No oxygen in there, Ziroc, as you can see. [img]smile.gif[/img]

As you can see above, it depends on a lot of matters if life will evolve on a planet, or in the known universe. I don't know if you have ever thought about it, but the fact that we are here, discussing this topic, is something that has happened due to a coming together of certain circumstances. If one of those circumstances hadn't occurred, we'd not be here. If we would have two suns instead of one (which was a very close call, because Jupiter could have become one), we would not be here. It's just a very slim chance we're facing here. And then you'd have to calculate that that very same slim chance of life occurring on other planets outside of Earth would be there, well it's unimaginably small.
That's why I'm not convinced of extraterrastrial life, although I hope there is life outside of Earth. I wonder if all of you guys make a distinction between thinking aliens are there, and hoping they are there, because in this matter they might be taken together, when that shouldn't happen.