Extra Terrestrial Life

So, aliens then. Lots of people are obsessed with the search for extra terrestrial life, and whenever a new molecule of water is discovered on an interstellar planet they do a press release so people think progress is being made. I for one do not see any reason why there should be extraterrestrial life, but I can think of a very good reason for finding earth-like xenoplanets. But, first things first.

The idea of life arising on other planets because it clearly has done so on this planet is a bit of a conundrum. No one really knows how life began on this planet in the first place, so no one can attest the the probability of it arriving spontaneously on other planets as well. Personally I don't think it's probable enough to expect any form of life other than earthlife in any part of the universe. However I do expect some earthlife on other planets in the solar system, and perhaps beyond.
Life on this planet has been going on for a fair few billion years, and any large meteorites hitting would result in a sort of ejecta cloud of bacteria and rock heading out of earth's gravity well. To reach Alpha Centauri, our nearest neighbour, in two billion years, a rock need only travel at about half a meter per second (on average). Which is possible. So I do expect that we might find some earthlife on moons and planets in this solar system, perhaps even others.
We will not, however, find intelligent, moral beings on other planets. There are several reasons why. The first is God. The creation account states that we are the only creatures made in God's Image, and if there are other moral beings this would be a rather glaring omission. Also, we were given the creation to "fill and subdue". If they are moral creatures too they would have the same mandate which would thus clash and would prove that the Bible was not the word of God. However it is the word of God, so we may be confident that no such first contact will ever be made.
And now we're getting to the second reason why there are no other civilised life forms. For any civilisation even slightly more advanced than us, colonising the Universe would be so easy that the fact we see no evidence of them is very strong evidence that we are the most advanced, if not only, civilisation currently in the Universe.

Now we come to the reason why it's good we're looking for planets that can sustain our kind of life: we can use them. When we learn to manipulate spacetime we will be able to travel anywhere in the Universe, so those planets are bound to come in handy some time.