I've been (mentally) far away from FR, spending my efforts where they can actually make a difference and where the needs are great. So -- I've just temporarily wandered (Thanks for the invitation!) into this discussion and would like to share some of my views on things extraterrestrial.
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Considering that -- everywhere we look beyond our own (incomprenhensibly huge) galaxy -- we see views like this:
I find it to be astoundingly arrogant for any of us on this third-rate ball of mud to insist (or even harbor the [unfounded] belief) that our Lord and Creator was so profligate and wasteful as to leave the entire rest of His unimaginably vast Creation unpopulated. I certainly find no Scriptural basis for such a belief.
(BTW, that photo does not contain a single star (sun). Every object visible there is a huge galaxy (like the one in the center) made of billions of "suns"!)
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I have encountered folks (even here on FR) who express a vague feeling that photos like the one above above are, somehow, "approaching blasphemy" -- because such objects are not mentioned in Scripture.
But...
Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Nowhere in Scripture do I find the word, "galaxy". How many galaxies could the recorders of God's revealed Word (who lived in the northern hemisphere) see? (*See "NOTE", below.*)
More importantly, did the language in which they recorded God's Word even have a term for "galaxy"? I haven't found any evidence of such a term...
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Obviously, our physical bodies and brains were wonderfully optimized for survival on and dominion over this particular planet. (Not "perfected": I just had to scrub my leg with strong surfactant because I brushed up against poison ivy...) '-)
But, many here would agree with my belief that is is my spirit (and not my physical body) that was "made in the image of God" [Who is 'Spirit'].
So, when my soul (spirit) makes that final "rotation onto the imaginary axis" {Inside joke} and crosses the boundary into the Heavenly realm, I am prepared to stand there, in my "heavenly body", arm in arm and singing praises to our Lord in sweet harmony with other creatures "made in the image of God", whose lives in this universe were spent in physical bodies that were optimized for life in conditions that would destroy us "carbon-based earthforms" instantly.
"ETs"? I will not dishonor our Creator by insisting that they were/are not in His grand plan and design. However, I'll keep a sharper watch out for rattlesnakes than for "visitors from outer space". The universe is just. too. big...
*[NOTE:]* The recorders of Scripture could, of course, see that great "milky river of stars" that is our own Galaxy -- viewed from the inside-out. And, they certainly could see with their unaided eyes a faint, blurry spot in the constellation of Andromeda (what we call "M31").
THAT's IT!
But... until we developed mechanical extensions of our senses (telescopes) -- or wandered into the southern hemispher to see the "Magellanic clouds) there was no concept that other galaxies existed (or that a name for them was even needed).
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The above photo is "not Scriptural"? Big surprise...