how about if the universe is not teeming with life, but say a handful of planets in the universe have intelligent life. it could be that the logistics of the distance involved will prevent us from ever getting first-hand confirmation of alien life.
you go from saying the chance of life is so infinitessimal, and then switch to well then if life does exist, then where the heck is it all? far far away if indeed it does or will have or has had existence. time will tell, if we live long enough to probe the far reaches of space for planets common to our own.
add to this that if a species like us can explore space, there is potential for colonization on worlds which possess many but not all of the necessary traits to instigate life on its own. many worlds might have life, if a race were to evolve enough to adapt/terraform planets to suit themselves. and if we can live in space-faring vessels, we could find others doing so in a star system nearer us than a goldilocks planet where the miracle of life took place.
and if such a race reached far enough into space, it might stumble on another habitable planet that also happened to house life, like little old earth. i don't think it's like star trek, or like scientology,
but there's probably some kind of aliens somewhere.
