Why life exists could just be that life is inevitable given the proper mix of organic molecules, warm enough temperatures, energy and time. Life has more than likely taken hold on planets and/or moons of other stars, just as it has here. There are so many planets being discovered beyond our star system, that they are the norm, rather than the exception. I feel that life, too, will be found to be common, as well. As for intelligence, one could question whether the average of all human's minds would be considered "intelligent" on an advanced, more civilized alien's wisdom scale.

Life is a happy consequence or accident. Time is just how change is measured. For planets to form without life around newly ignited stars will require time/change, whether life is ever there or not, for motion and orbits and gravity to do their evolving work.

And yes, if a tree falls in the woods, and no one is there to hear it, it does, still make a sound. Nature does NOT need humans to exist and change, period. 

I really like watching Doctor Who, especially the newest ones from 2005 on. Most are masterpieces in their own right, for emotionally involving the viewers, not just fascinating them with gee-whiz special FX and sci-fi gadgetry. The stories are very engaging, even if they are very British centered. But the Tardis is very ancient indeed, according to Doctor Who lore, so old as to go back to before the Earth itself formed and not violating the above rules.

But, fantasy is fantasy. Best we can hope for right now, tho. I'm sure most of us would agree, mankind has NOT matured enough to be responsible with anything as powerful as Time Travel, anyway. 

Those who would discount Big Bang Theory with Static Universe, or (a cosmos that stays the same forever), would latch onto any weakness in accepted theories, so I was just curious if this kind of comparision is even possible given the 150 years or so since photography was invented. 

Despite all this, he gets almost zero media attention. Why is this???? Because of his chances?

He is also from Texas, I believe, but so are a lot of decent people. The North American Union is a bad idea, right now, for a multitude of reasons. It seems the Bushies want all of us to just give away our heritage to the highest bidders. Ron Paul would stop them. Give him another voice, please! 

We're talking about many more jobs going outside our borders and more of our GNP going to other countries, as well. Canada & Mexico probably have been told this will all be good for them, but look who's telling them that. Biggest set of LIARS we've ever been led by.

It's strictly for profit and control, again, nothing more altruistic (when is it ever?) than that.

Greed, power, greed, money, control . Neo-conservative, fascism at its finest. Let's all do nothing and watch, shall we???? Come on, you sheep, wake up!!! and stop being led around by the nose & stop trusting the current puppet masters. The livelyhoods you help to save could be your own.....

I took physics and chemistry and algebra and took some tech school electronics & engineering in the early 80's. Kinetic & potential energies are easy concepts for me to grasp, but why does mass attract itself. Einstein describes what happens and his theories are so far correct in our current understanding of physics and he makes an attempt at WHY that is really just a description of what will always happen. Warping of space-time by mass is really a very weird concept that could explain what is happening with planetary orbits and the sun's (or any star) gravimetric pull. It describes exactly what will happen for planning spacecraft probes tragectories. This is not an explanation of the why, however. Why does matter attract itself like a "tractor beam" if you will?

this is a BIG PICTURE type question, not some high school physics question you can look up the answer to in ANY textbook. I feel if we could really understand WHY gravity does what it does, we could have a much easier time traveling in space and perhaps improve life here, too. Describing what nature does is easy, why it does it is much harder. Thank you for all your responses. Keep them coming if you think you GET my questions. I am 47 and a man, by the way.