Habemas Papem!

[Sava]

I hope this guy goes all social justice on us. It will be hilarious watching the Republicans fight the pope. They'd lose all those social issue catholics overnight.

[Ben Kenobi]

They'd lose all those social issue catholics overnight

Yeah, folks like me would really leave the republican party and go vote Dim.

[Sava]

I'm talking about the sane people who actually try to live by Jesus Christ's example.

[kentonio]

I'm talking about the sane people who actually try to live by Jesus Christ's example.

It's funny, I was just looking at a picture of the pope in his huge gold cape and jeweled hat, and wondered how much extra support he might get if he just came out in a simple white robe instead.

[DaShi]

He should just come out.

[kentonio]

He's waiting till the end of the school holidays.

[Elok]

It's funny, I was just looking at a picture of the pope in his huge gold cape and jeweled hat, and wondered how much extra support he might get if he just came out in a simple white robe instead.

Actually, I read that he declined to wear a lot of the bling he was supposed to have on for that first appearance on the balcony. Incidentally, if you think all that shiny stuff is enviable, you've plainly never had to wear three layers of brocade in a closed environment full of people and lit candles. Bet that hat's really freakin' heavy too. A priest once told me there was a subtle theological lesson in there.

[Imran Siddiqui]

It's a matter of biochemistry, a little physical chemistry, physiology and geology. We know it's possible to have life in some form in significantly different environments, but the conditions for intelligent life in some form will tend more to the ideal, not because "it has to be like us" but because the environment has to support the widest possible range of organism development.

Agreed, esp with the "tend more to the ideal". I wasn't criticizing the there is intelligent life elsewhere part, but the certainty that there definitely was.

[Ben Kenobi]

I'm talking about the sane people who actually try to live by Jesus Christ's example

You're talking about Republicans?

[Sava]

You're talking about Republicans?

No. They are the ones who have turned their back on Him. Old Testament bull**** isn't what Jesus is about. READ YOUR ****ING BIBLE YOU STUPUID ****

[kentonio]

Actually, I read that he declined to wear a lot of the bling he was supposed to have on for that first appearance on the balcony. Incidentally, if you think all that shiny stuff is enviable, you've plainly never had to wear three layers of brocade in a closed environment full of people and lit candles. Bet that hat's really freakin' heavy too. A priest once told me there was a subtle theological lesson in there.

As opposed to the blatant lesson it teaches poor people everywhere? Oh gee rich people have it really hard, all those jewels are heavy!

[Dr Strangelove]

I hope this guy goes all social justice on us. It will be hilarious watching the Republicans fight the pope. They'd lose all those social issue catholics overnight.

He's already promised to NOT turn the Roman Catholic Church into "a compassionate NGO".

[Uncle Sparky]

6 months. I give him 6 months. There will be a new pope for Christmas.

[Sava]

He's already promised to NOT turn the Roman Catholic Church into "a compassionate NGO".

bah
so he's just another child raping ****bird

[MichaeltheGreat]

Agreed, esp with the "tend more to the ideal". I wasn't criticizing the there is intelligent life elsewhere part, but the certainty that there definitely was.

I think it's pretty certain. What we didn't know 20 years ago was how common planetary formation was, and whether the sun's accretion disk formation was in any way unusual. Now we've found that accretion disks are the norm and planetary formation is not only incredibly common, it happens in a much greater variety of ways that we believed possible. The one other condition is that it has to be in galaxies and star forming regions which are "middle aged" as we only get elements heavier than iron (needed for some enzymes and catalytic reactions) from supernovae, so there has to be enough prior stars to supernova and then disperse that mass of transferrous elements into space. Every galaxy and globular cluster where we've been able to observe significant numbers of individual stars has plenty above the Chandrasekhar limit, so it's not like supernovae are rare, but there's basically no possibility of complex life until you have second generation stars in a given area.

Even with that caveat, you have ~10¹⁰ galaxies with an average of 10¹¹ stars each, so even if you say intelligent life developing on a given planet is a trillion to one odds, and it's period of existence in the lifespan of a planet is 10^-6 of a typical planetary lifespan, that still leaves a ton of places with intelligent life concurrent with us. We'll probably never communicate with any of it, but that doesn't mean it's not out there - the candidate locations are simply too many.