I consider myself to be Mr. Skeptical, especially here in Hollywood, land of dog psychics and Shirley McClain. But there's one area of, I guess, astronomy (biology?) where I have what may be considered an irrational belief:

I think the universe is teaming with life.

And by life I mean the kind of life that we would recognize as such immediately, either under a microscope or when it steps up to us and says, “Hello.”

Now, I don’t think aliens have ever been to Earth, partly because of Carl Sagan’s explanation of how space-faring species might never meet, and partly because by this point, they’ve intercepted our transmissions of Gilligan’s Island.

But I do think someone, maybe lots of someones, are out there. Heck, I’ve got Seti@Home running on my computer.

I wanted to find out what other people on this board, many with lots of letters after their names, think about the possibility of life “out there.”

(Oh, and I had a more granular set of poll options, but one is only allowed five.)