further clarification
Not quite. I'm not anti-life. I think the universe MAY literally teem with life, for all that a semi-informed opinion's worth. I think you meant to say that I'm a "complex life is rare" bigot or whatever.
My 1 in 1,000 was not an opinion. I said IF. That is, if Kepler showed that TERRESTRIAL planets were rare, then TERRESTRIAL Planet Finder would most probably NOT get its $2 Billion (plus, most likely) funding. The 1 in 1,000 was a for example figure illustrative of the point I was making. If odds are 1 in 1,000 stars have terrestrial planets, you don't spend 2 billion dollars to look at 80 star systems.
-philw (terrestrial is ~0.5 to 2 Earth masses in the liquid water temperature zone)