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Extraterrestrials

Reivax

Critical Thinker
Reivax
Joined
Jan 6, 2011
Messages
259
I'm interested to see how people respond to the following question and how they justify their response:

Do you believe that extraterrestrials exist?

I'm guessing discussions of a similar nature have taken place on this forum, but as I am a new member, I just thought I'd start a fresh discussion and hopefully people can shed some light on the topic.

There has been an increase in UFO sightings around the world, many of which are dismissed as hoaxes, misinterpretations or hallucinations. However, I wonder if in the cloud of fraudulent and misunderstood cases, there are some which deserve some sort of attention.

When searching for such cases on the internet I normally find non-substantial and indefinite cases - so I have my doubts. And as the internet is the closest thing that comes to a God as it is almost omnipotent (except when it rains and Telstra fails to fix old cables), omnipresent and omniscient, I fail to believe that such cases do really exist.

At the moment I have no reason to believe that UFO accounts don't fall into the same nonsensical and anecdotal accounts that ghosts, ghouls and bogeymen do. That being said, I'm always open to the possibility, because; A) I like the idea and B) I find it somewhat plausible that hypothetical alien race(s) older than ours may have just had more time to understand the universe, making them capable of creating ‘spaceships’ with which they are able to visit our pale blue dot of a planet. Common criticisms that I've come across against alien visitation include; the idea that it would simply be 'impossible' for aliens to travel to our solar system, taking into account the unfathomable distance. And simply the lack of substantial evidence that should accompany numerous sightings and/or encounters.


I made 4 main categories that I think people will generally fall into in response to the question:
  • I believe that extraterrestrials exist
  • I believe that extraterrestrials exist, but only as non-sentient life forms (ie. cells)
  • I believe that extraterrestrials exist and visit earth
  • I do not believe extraterrestrials exist

Which category do you fit in?
 
I believe that extraterrestrials exist. I believe that extraterrestrial life could exist within our solar system on the gas giants or their moons. I don't believe that the life would be LGM.
 
Reivax said:
Do you believe that extraterrestrials exist?
Click to expand...
I believe that extraterrestrial life may exist, but that whether or not they do exist, and what forms they make take, is a matter of conjecture.
Reivax said:
I made 4 main categories that I think people will generally fall into in response to the question:
  • I believe that extraterrestrials exist
  • I believe that extraterrestrials exist, but only as non-sentient life forms (ie. cells)
  • I believe that extraterrestrials exist and visit earth
  • I do not believe extraterrestrials exist
Which category do you fit in?
Click to expand...
None of the above. Until a life-form is proven to have extraterrestrial origins, it can not be said to exist. Therefor, I can believe in only the possibility of their existance.

You need to expand your categories, so as to correct the 3 to 1 imbalance in your stacked deck.
 
I think that it is highly probable that ETs exist but highly improbable that they visit Earth.

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I believe that extraterrestial life either exists or has existed in the universe at some point.
I even hope that there is single cellular extraterrestial life in our solar system, most likely in the seas of europe.
In fact some of this life might even have been/be sentient, but the chances of that happening in our galaxy, in our neighbourhood, at exactly the same moment in time as us I consider astronomically low.
 
Reivax said:
I made 4 main categories that I think people will generally fall into in response to the question:
  • I believe that extraterrestrials exist
  • I believe that extraterrestrials exist, but only as non-sentient life forms (ie. cells)
  • I believe that extraterrestrials exist and visit earth
  • I do not believe extraterrestrials exist

Which category do you fit in?
Click to expand...


You missed the category that, I think, most people on these forums (including me) would fall into:

I believe that extraterrestrials possibly or even probably exist, but have not visited Earth.
 
Robert Oz said:
You missed the category that, I think, most people on these forums (including me) would fall into:

I believe that extraterrestrials possibly or even probably exist, but have not visited Earth.
Click to expand...

Ah yes, good point. I didn't really do justice to the uncertainty of extraterrestrial life in my categories. I think I would probably fit into your suggested category.
 
If the aliens don't exist then I'm cancelling my subscription to Squid Fishing Monthly.
 
Probably exist, almost certainly do not visit earth, and most certainly they aren't anal probing NH rural folk.
 
Aliens exist and visit aChosen1 and other people that use small telescopes improperly. :)

Sorry, couldn't resist.
 
Single-celled alien life almost certainly exists. More complex alien life is probable. Intelligent alien life having existed or existing at some point in the future is possible. Intelligent alien life existing at this precise moment is unknowable, but I fall on the side of it being unlikely. Intelligent alien life existing at this precise moment and knowing of our existence is incredibly unlikely. Intelligent alien life knowing of our existence and actually visiting our planet is almost certainly untrue.
 
Extraterrestrial life certainly exists; it's almost inarguable that it doesn't, just on statistical grounds. The same statistical argument applies to intelligent life; it's tremendously arrogant to postulate that we are the first and only intelligence to arise anywhere in the universe.

That being said, the universe is a very large place, and the possibility of two intelligent civilizations being synced up in space and time is pretty small. E.T. is out there, I'm sure of it, but they're not here mutilating cattle, stomping patterns in fields and anally probing backwoods residents.
 
I'm not sure why one has to have a "belief" on this topic at all, other than it's a common social construct, based on countless sci fi movies, UFO flaps, etc. Personally, I don't really have any "belief" or even opinion on the topic, because I don't have much knowledge about the current research in biology, astronomy, etc.

The most I could say is that the universe is large enough, I'd expect that there's life (by some definition) out there somewhere, but I'm not aware of any credible person stating they've found evidence of it, though I might be wrong. What became of those reports on microscopic things on Mars, and life found in old meteorites on earth, or something like that? Maybe that is a belief, but it's a very casual one.

Now, ask me what I believe about legislation on women's property rights in the 1850s, the character of Henry Wirz or the use of sugar as a topical medicine in 1860s military hospitals, and I'll give you a detailed answer, and could easily find someone to argue the opposite belief.

But I expect that most people don't have a belief or opinion on those topics, because none of their friends are talking about it, it's not in the news, and they haven't researched it, so they don't care. Yet those topics have about as little, or as much, impact on our daily lives as the existence of extraterrestials--unless you run into someone who has the opposite belief and wants to discuss it, which I've actually done in multi-page threads on the topics I mentioned.
 
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I believe that extraterrestrials exist.

and i wish they could visit us, but i don't see how they would be traveling those long distances most probably involved.
Not sure what to make of some of the sightings. if there are real ET's hovering or flying around here, they obviously have no interest to let us know of their existence, which makes them rather suspicious :D
 
Based on the sheer size of the universe, I think its very likely extraterrestrial life exists somewhere. In fact it would be more strange if it didn't. However, there's no credible evidence of aliens visiting earth. There's some UFO cases which are intriguing but the remain just that- unidentified.
 
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