Did you ever notice how materialists like to have it both ways on the probable exist of other intelligences? Consider a recent exchange between Kairosfocus and that fount of materialist hypocrisy Ed George in the context of a discussion of the semiotic code instantiated in every living cell:
KF: It is noteworthy that algorithmic, alphanumeric code — a linguistic phenomenon — remains stubbornly as only the product of intelligence.
EG: [T]o the best of our knowledge, it remains stubbornly as only the product of human intelligence.
Ed reasons as follows: KF has no warrant to infer that the staggeringly complex, sophisticated and elegant genetic code – a semiotic code far beyond our present ability to replicate – is the product of an intelligent cause. Why? Because the only intelligence we know of is human intelligence. Human intelligence is obviously not a candidate for the create of the genetic code, because humans are a result of that code, and therefore cannot be the source of that code.
The point of Ed’s comment is the only intelligence we know of – human intelligence – could not have created the code. Therefore, the code could not be the result of intelligence, and if follows that a non-intelligent cause – i.e., a blind, unguided natural cause – is the only viable candidate for the creation of the code.
So when it comes to the genetic code, Ed is certain it could not have been created by intelligence, because as far as we know human intelligence is unique in the universe, and we have no warrant to believe there is any other intelligence that could have created the code.
But what about that heuristic much beloved of materialists known as the Principle of Mediocrity. Wiki describes the principle as follows:
The principle has been taken to suggest that there is nothing very unusual about the evolution of the Solar System, Earth’s history, the evolution of biological complexity, human evolution, or any one nation. It is a heuristic in the vein of the Copernican principle, and is sometimes used as a philosophical statement about the place of humanity. The idea is to assume mediocrity, rather than starting with the assumption that a phenomenon is special, privileged, exceptional, or even superior.
The famous Drake Equation has its roots in the principle of mediocrity. Using that equation, Drake estimated there were between 1,000 and 100 million intelligent civilizations in just our one galaxy (much less the other billions of galaxies in the universe).
So when it suits them for minimizing human exceptionalism, materialists eagerly conjure the possible (some some highly probable) existence of millions of intelligent civilizations.
Here is the hypocrisy: When it comes to inferring the existence of other intelligent civilizations, materialists are happy to speculate that there might be millions of such. But when it comes to inferring intelligence as a cause of the genetic code, they insist we cannot possibly consider that it is possible for any intelligence but human intelligence to exist.