Today is the 10th anniversary of Carl Sagan’s death and to commemorate him some bloggers have organised a blog-a-thon in which (according to Xeni Jardin of boingboing.net) “billions and billions” will participate (??). Sagan certainly was, and clearly still is, a champion to atheists.

Most people associate Sagan with the SETI program, and the famous Drake equation which supposedly tells us the number of extra-terrestrial civilizations we might be able to make contact with. If life just appeared on earth by natural processes, then it follows that it should appear elsewhere in the universe. The Drake equation is (see here for explanation of the terms)…

N=R* fp ne fl fi fc fL

SETI’s wikipedia page describes it has “hard science”, but I prefer what novelist Michael Crichton had to say about it…

This serious-looking equation gave SETI an serious footing as a legitimate intellectual inquiry. The problem, of course, is that none of the terms can be known, and most cannot even be estimated. The only way to work the equation is to fill in with guesses. And guesses, just so we’re clear, are merely expressions of prejudice. Nor can there be “informed guesses.” If you need to state how many planets with life choose to communicate, there is simply no way to make an informed guess. It’s simply prejudice.

As a result, the Drake equation can have any value from “billions and billions” to zero. An expression that can mean anything means nothing. Speaking precisely, the Drake equation is literally meaningless, and has nothing to do with science. I take the hard view that science involves the creation of testable hypotheses. The Drake equation cannot be tested and therefore SETI is not science. SETI is unquestionably a religion. Faith is defined as the firm belief in something for which there is no proof. The belief that the Koran is the word of God is a matter of faith. The belief that God created the universe in seven days is a matter of faith. The belief that there are other life forms in the universe is a matter of faith. There is not a single shred of evidence for any other life forms, and in forty years of searching, none has been discovered. There is absolutely no evidentiary reason to maintain this belief. SETI is a religion.

Ironic that the same people who call SETI hard science, generally call criticisms of Darwinism pseudoscience.