After all of This Time Searching for Aliens, Are We Stuck With The Zoo Hypothesis? – Universe Today:
[D]espite decades of observation and SETI surveys, there is still no definitive evidence that advanced extraterrestrial civilizations are out there. For the most part, these have consisted of radio SETI experiments that have observed distant stars and galaxies for indications of radio transmissions.
[…]Alas, these searches have found no compelling evidence of technosignatures within our galaxy or beyond. According to Crawford and Schulze-Makuch, the “Great Silence” we perceive when we look out into the Universe can only mean one of two things. First, there’s the possibility that the Hart-Tipler Conjecture is correct, and there are no advanced ETC out there. Similarly, it may be that intelligent life (or life in general) is rare in the Universe due to the odds being stacked against its emergence or evolution (aka. the Great Filter).
If neither of these scenarios is true, we are left with only one answer: the Zoo Hypothesis is correct and advanced civilizations are keeping their distance to avoid being detected.
Go check out the full article at the link. It’s a great overview of the whole question of why we aren’t detecting any other Intelligent Life in the galaxy.
I talked about this in my sermon this past weekend. The article above lists the various proposed “solutions” for the Great Silence. From a theological perspective, it could really be that we’re just that special. (And if that’s the case, life is so insanely precious that we really need to do everything we can do to preserve every living thing we encounter.)
If they are more advanced, surely they would avoid being detected in order to avoid being infected. That is, if being “advanced” means being more in accord with the will and nature of our Creator than the human species on earth currently is.
Of course we are special! But it would be unwise to become a bit elitist about God’s plans or claim knowledge of an unknowable God.
It feels too arrogant to me to say the Lord created the gigantic universe, maybe unlimited parallel universes, and it’s just about us. Also, too arrogant to suggest that we’d know if we’d been visited or be sure we haven’t seen life.
My take is that God was NOT the Creator (Big Bang a quantum event for which there is no predictable outcome), and that God played no role in evolution of life on planet earth. However, this is not to be used dismiss God as having no role in the Creation. For me, God’s role was simply to love the creation into existence and let it be! The moment we invoke God as intervening, we are left with the theodicy problem–which I believe is totally a product of one’s God imagery. If your God is the “Big Guy in the Sky”, in control of everything, you will have a problem with God.