Assuming intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe how many planets in total are inhabited?

Question

I believe intelligent life currently exists on other planets and is impossible to deny based purely on the fact that we exist so why wouldn't it happen some where else. 
How many other planets in the entire observed and/or perceived universe are currently inhabited with intelligent life?

Out of the 8 planets in our solar system we are the one with intelligent life. There are 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (that's 1 billion trillion) stars in just the observable universe let alone what we think is beyond that.

Some stars have no planets at all, some will have a few and some have hundreds or maybe thousands, some of those with planets will have one with intelligent life, some may have a few or many.
Thanks to brainy people we almost certainly know that some do not have intelligent life.
Many will have had previously had intelligent life which is now extinct and some not yet evolved. I'm only interested in how many are out there right now!

Looking forward to hearing answers to something I have always wanted to know.



Crazy Disclaimer:

I do not believe aliens have visited the earth in recent times or even at all ever.

Answer

I believe in alien life, and yes, alien life has visited earth recently (17 tons of alien bacteria descend on earth each year) but I don't believe in sentient life outside of earth.  Let's face it, earth is unique.  Even if you believe in evolution (which by the way, is scientifically unsound.  This alone disproves it: carbon dating only goes back to a maximum of 50,000 years.  Look it up) you do have to admit, humans are pretty unique and it's unlikely anything remotely like us exists out there (OK, I jumped the gun a little: macro-evolution is unsound, micro-evolution happens all the time).  However, I do believe there are complex organisms out there, and I hope I live to the day we meet them.  And to answer your question, the Kepler Spacecraft has discovered about 40,000 life supporting planets, and there are probably millions more out there.

Answer

A fundamental assumption of exobiologists&mdash;those seeking to find life in outer space&mdash;is: There must be millions upon millions of planets around other suns; therefore  intelligent life surely must have evolved on some of them.
But are there other planets? Maybe yes, maybe no. The fact is that other stars, or suns, are so extremely far away that scientists have not been able to prove whether there are any small planets around them.
David Black of NASA&rsquo;s Ames Research Center said that &ldquo;there was still no unequivocal evidence for any planet beyond the solar system to which the Earth belongs.&rdquo; And Dr. Iosif Shklovsky, a Soviet astronomer and corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, reached a similar conclusion, though having previously been enthused about the possibility of extraterrestrial life. By 1978 he explained: &ldquo;It looks as though our sun, that strange and solitary star surrounded by a family of planets, is most likely a rare exception in the stellar world.&rdquo;
One can see, then, that it is certainly unwarranted for persons to speak so positively about advanced civilizations on distant planets. They have not even proved that such planets exist, much less that they have advanced civilizations on them.
All the other planets that scientists have probed are devoid of life. But Earth teems with life, sustained by very complex systems that provide light, air, heat, water and food, all in exquisite balance. It shows evidence of having been specially built to accommodate living things comfortably&mdash;like a magnificent house. And logically, as one of the Bible&rsquo;s penmen argues: &ldquo;Every house is constructed by someone, but he that constructed all things is God.&rdquo; Yes, the infinitely greater and more amazing &ldquo;house&rdquo;&mdash;our planet Earth&mdash;requires the existence of a remarkably intelligent designer and builder, God.&mdash;Hebrews 3:4.
For more information on this subject and others, please go to jw.org official website "Online Library."  Also for free downloads, publications or read online.  You can read online the book "Life How Did It Get Here BY Evolution or by Creation."

Assuming intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe how many planets in total are inhabited?

Answers (2)