Are we ready to know about aliens? [Archive]

View Full Version : Are we ready to know about aliens?

DinoCrisisFan

January 21st, 2011, 02:20 AM

Magus

January 21st, 2011, 02:28 AM

No. As a skeptic, I do not believe that intelligent extraterrestrial beings are even in the vicinity of our galaxy. I am all for empirical evidences.

CMEBACH

January 21st, 2011, 04:06 AM

i think that as a species we are not advanced enough to deal with another set of intelegent beings. look what happened when columbus dicovered the new world we got disease and wars and now some 600 years in the future more wars if we cant handle ourselfs how can we handle others.

Suicune

January 21st, 2011, 07:53 AM

I honestly don't care, if people really want to know, so be it.
But I'm not going to ask the government to tell me something I want to hear.

Continuum

January 21st, 2011, 11:14 AM

It's for the bad. We already have too much clichèd sub-cultures in hand.

Amnesiac

January 21st, 2011, 08:59 PM

>implying the government is hiding evidence of alien life from us

Hurr durr. You haven't provided a shred of evidence to support that conspiracy.

Syvelocin

January 21st, 2011, 09:17 PM

If the government is hiding something, the fuck, they should spit it out already.

I don't believe in aliens, neither do I reject them either. My theory, if we're here then it shouldn't be impossible for there to be other intelligent life somewhere in the universe. But I'm not one of those freaky enthusiasts either.

Camazotz

January 21st, 2011, 09:26 PM

I most certainly believe that life exists somewhere in the vast amount of space that makes up our universe. But the probability that they have technology far superior to our own is unlikely, considering how long it would take to create a working civilization, let alone creating space shuttles that travel almost the speed of light. Not only this, the technology it would take to visit Earth and keep it a secret from everyone and somehow manage to contact the government without alerting its citizens is highly unlikely. If the government knew about extra-terrestrials, we would know about it by now.

Ryhanna

January 21st, 2011, 10:53 PM

I think it's time the government stops lying to us and releases the truth that extraterrestrial life does exist. Most people already believe that we are not alone, and so we have already made half the journey. Now all we need is for the government to confirm it. And if they don't, hopefully WikiLeaks or some other leak organization/person leaks the truth. Do you think humanity, the American people, and you personally are ready for the truth?

What makes you believe the government is hiding knowledge of the existance of ET's?
I'm on the fence about whether humanity is ready to know about life outside our planet. I think there's some of people who have been expecting their TV's to break into a news broadcast about the discovery of aliens for a long time. But I think the majority of the population would still find it a HUGE shock.

On the whole, I think we have a lot of issues to sort out with each other before we even think about dealing with people from another planet.

Rainstorm

January 21st, 2011, 11:18 PM

"And in other news, WikiLeaks released documents revealing extraterrestrial life. The US government has not provided a comment as of late."

Honestly, the chance of the government even having information on them is slim to none.

Modus Operandi

January 22nd, 2011, 12:19 AM

On the whole, I think we have a lot of issues to sort out with each other before we even think about dealing with people from another planet.

This.

The infinite scale of the universe both works for and against the case for extraterrestrial life: while it is almost certain that intelligent life exists SOMEWHERE in the universe, because the universe is infinite, odds are VERY good that these beings are INCREDIBLY far away from us.

Sebastian Michaelis

January 22nd, 2011, 01:54 AM

ehh I dont care

Skeptical Bear

January 22nd, 2011, 02:07 AM

Compared to the universe, we're just fucking atoms. So I believe there are aliens and more life outside of earth. I personally think that the majority of the people who haven't seen them and believe they aren't real, are not ready to hear the truth that the gov wants to hide. The world would be in chaos. Unless they come to attack. There shouldn't be a reason to panick.

Skeptical Bear

January 22nd, 2011, 02:13 AM

Amnesiac

January 22nd, 2011, 02:33 AM

You don't what kind of government we have then. They have hidden so much bull shit from us. They have the most professionel people working in there. Now if you need science to believe in something. That's you. I don't need to convince anyone.

The question is, do you have ANY evidence at all to back up your claims about the government? If not, then you shouldn't be mentioning them on a debate forum.

Ryhanna

January 22nd, 2011, 03:26 AM

lengthy_brochure

January 22nd, 2011, 04:18 AM

I have deleted the contents of this post

PJay

January 22nd, 2011, 07:46 AM

I voted other because the question makes a big assumption. In my view it really depends what sort of alien we might be talking about here too:

is inter stellar flight impossible and we're just picking up fossil radio transmissions,
or can they bring a fleet of destroyers into our solar system? If you assume a superior race is already in contact with the government (which I don't believe) then it would be sensible to handle that diplomatically and quietly, without some paranoid redneck whipping up a lynch mob to go attack them
or are they godlike space hippies and the rest of the universe considers us apes or bacteria? Again, this would be a tad depressing and might lead to social unrest.

There have been UFO sightings by plenty of reliable and multiple witensses like miltary pilots etc. This tends to make me think something might be going on, so I'd really like to know what that is all about even if the explanation windws up coming from psychology or climatology or whatever.

So I think there should be (and probably already is) proper research into these things and it should be open to the public.

There are some extreme scenarios where this might not be a good idea because 'we' probably aren't ready, but I don't think anyone trusts politicians enough to make that call for us.

huginnmuninn

January 22nd, 2011, 10:07 AM

considering what some people do to people of a different color or religious belief then what would we do to a different species thats smarter than us? If the aliens had the ability to reach our planet then they would probably look at us like we are inferior because of our technology. No i dont believe we are ready to meet an alien species.

I'm going under the assumption that aliens are real.

embers

January 22nd, 2011, 05:03 PM

There is bloody heaps of evidence lying around about the existence of intelligent extraterrestrials that have made contact with us, but the problem is none of that really counts as proof. Sure, OP, you can make yourself sound all dramatic like Mulder from the X-Files, but the chance that the elaborate conspiracy so many people like you believe in is true is very slim.

Let's have a look at the evidence, starting off with thousands of years ago.

So the first few pieces of 'evidence' from the website http://www.crystalinks.com/ufohistory.html makes quite a few assumptions when suggesting that the ancient art is actually aliens from outside our planet, but scrolling down, the stories become more credible / believable.

You can see from the ancient artworks that almost all the flying objects, from all different cultures, seem to take on similar or identical shapes. UFOs seem to pop up in a lot of religious art too.

The Bible, both Old and New Testaments, is filled with accounts of encounters with divine beings. Abraham and the 'smoking firepot' and a flaming torch that appeared in the sky as a sign of acceptance of his sacrifice (Genesis 15:17), the 'pillar of cloud'by day and the 'pillar of fire' by night that led Moses and the Israelites (Exodus 13:22), God landing on Mount Sinai in smoke, with a sound of a trumpet before them (Exodus19:18-19), Elijah being 'carried up to heaven' in a 'chariot of fire' which created a whirlwind (II Kings 2:11), and of course, Ezekiel's famous close encounter. (Ezekiel 1:1-28).
The New Testament likewise contains many familiar-sounding sightings. Foremost is famous Star of Bethlehem which Matthew records that the Wise Men - probably Zoroastrian astronomer-priests - followed till it came to rest over the place where the child was (Matt. 2:9) - most unusual behavior for a supernova, comet, or planetary conjunction!

The birth itself had been immediately announced by the appearance of a messenger shining with the glory of the Lord to shepherds in the fields at night. (Luke 2:9)

Downing, himself a minister, argues that many of the terms describing such glorious and shining lights could be descriptions of UFOs. Even the shape believed to be the Holy Spirit that was seen to descend like a dove at Christ's baptism and the bright cloud at the Transfiguration, (Matt. 17:1-8) might have been extraterrestrial craft. The men in shining clothes, such as those the disciples believed were Moses and Elijah at the Transfiguration, would then have been their occupants.

After the Crucifixion, yet another of these fellows came out of the sky, rolled the stone away from the tomb and announced the Resurrection. And of course, at the end of Jesus mission on Earth, he rose into the air and a cloud took him out of their sight while two of those mysterious Men in White consoled the disciples (Acts 1:6-11).

And then there are several incidents between then and recently, including sightings by Alexander the Great's army.

And then we have the soviet navy's UFO encounters. I had found a more detailed article before, but for now this (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,534960,00.html) is all I can find, though a Google search like 'Soviet secret UFO research' should do the trick. According to the Russians, three military divers died in some underwater chase which followed an encounter.

Then there's the Battle of Los Angeles (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Los_Angeles), where, during the second World War, an unidentified object appeared in the sky and was fired upon god knows how many times. Some say it was a balloon, or something Japanese, and then some eyewitness accounts make it seem other-worldly. There's the famous Roswell and Aztec, New Mexico, which is the most famous event amongst conspiracy theorists because it also ties in with their belief that the government is, for some fucked up reason, hiding information about aliens from the public.

There's also the incident at Rendlesham Forest (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendlesham_Forest_incident), which is I think, paired with the Berwyn Mountain incident (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berwyn_Mountain_UFO_incident) makes up the most famous of the UK's 'close encounters'.

I was/am a die-hard X-Files fan. It's like, the only series I've ever watched with a passion, the other being V, again about aliens. I simply believe that there being so many UFO encounters, and heaps of evidence, sceptics shouldn't simply throw aside the claims as ridiculous - but I'm not a conspiracy theorist. But my belief is strengthened by the incident which happened in my own country, where there was a UFO sighting around the Pakistan/Afghanistan border.

One thing, I'm not a UFO nerd. These guys are. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vyVe-6YdUk) - But there's some interesting shit to be seen there.

As for if we're ready for the truth... Hell no. If there are intelligent beings that have, technologically, advanced further than us, then there's a high chance they'll have progressed by the same means we are progressing presently, meaning they will have caused the same harm to their planet that we have done to ours, and our planets won't be that different either. In order to be inhabitable, planets need to fall within the 'Goldilocks' zone, where the conditions are just right to support life. So far we've discovered a few planets that may lie in the Goldilocks zone, like some around the Gliese star system, but they are very far away and only narrow regions of the planets seem to be able to support life. (But don't take my word for it, I don't know much about things like these.)

The possibility that aliens would be similar to us means that, if they have fucked up their own planets' environment, they would be looking to colonise us as our technologically advanced countries have colonised others in the past.

In simple terms, the chances are that smart aliens that can reach us will probably be hostile and not willing to form some random secret coalition with our planet's stupid superpowers.

Magus

January 25th, 2011, 10:11 AM

There.......... UFOs seem to pop up in a lot of religious art too.
http://www.crystalinks.com/hieroplanes.gif
This really caught my eyes from all of that. They look like helicopters and airplanes from our time.

Thing is, did you know that several archaeologist found that these were purely accidental and some of the walls imprints were washed off, beveled, removed on its self and what not.

As for the other arts. Human's imagination are truly wide. I don't think they are aliens. Since ancient time, people believed in the existence of anthromorphic creatures. Some looked like lizards, some even looked like the typical ant-head alien.

And there is, of course and in art, a high chance that people will paint and draw what it seems to us U.F.O - like saucers and flying chariots.
And then there.... followed an encounter.
Anecdotal events should never be assigned as proofs or evidences. What most people say are completely haphazard and mostly possibly it is their immense imagination.
Then there's.... public.
I bet you never heard of Philadelphia Experiment (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia_Experiment)
There's... encounters'.Interesting.

I was/am a die-hard X-Files fan... Pakistan/Afghanistan border.
You are a Pashton? Anyways - Yes, that's why are called Sceptics. Anything that does not have an empirical evidence to back them up, we will label them 'bullshits' for the time being.
As for if we're.... superpowers.
If they have that super technology to fly into space and if they are two times smarter than us - then obviously, they will have the best technology and plans to deal with their almost depleted resources and are capable of resource managing.

embers

January 25th, 2011, 12:14 PM

If they have that super technology to fly into space and if they are two times smarter than us - then obviously, they will have the best technology and plans to deal with their almost depleted resources and are capable of resource managing.

But the plans could be conquest, not to develop some mind-baffling sustainable energy source.

Oh, and I'm not a Pashtun :P I'm half-Punjabi (Pakistani side) and half-Kashmiri (my grandfather or great-grandfather on my mother's side was born on the Indian side of Kashmir). I just read about the Afghan-Baloch border incident.

Magus

January 25th, 2011, 12:18 PM

But the plans could be conquest, not to develop some mind-baffling sustainable energy source.
Conquest? Wow, intergalactic wars!
Oh, and I'm not a Pashtun :P I'm half-Punjabi (Pakistani side) and half-Kashmiri (my grandfather or great-grandfather on my mother's side was born on the Indian side of Kashmir). I just read about the Afghan-Baloch border incident.Shame, I am a Baloch. And hatred for the Punjabis are embedded in us, unfortunately.

embers

January 25th, 2011, 01:10 PM

Shame, I am a Baloch. And hatred for the Punjabis are embedded in us, unfortunately.

Don't worry, I'm not your typical Punjabi :P

Mrs.KermitTheFrogx

January 25th, 2011, 02:44 PM

No were not ,,
We would end up killing them and exsperimenting on them !
Wars ,, death ,, Hell ... Its nothing new
just they could be smarter than us.
Why ruin another planet?

Sordid Saint

January 30th, 2011, 04:16 AM

Humans really like to believe that everyone is paying attention to them, and that the whole universe revolves around them. I do believe that there is definitely some type of ET life form out there, and probably advanced. But I honestly don't believe that we've met with them recently (within the last 2000-3000 years). Here's why.

First off, they're probably NOT going to be like us. We have 5 senses, hearing: vision, touching, tasting, and smelling. An ET could have all of those AND more. We might not even be able to see them. We have this crazy idea that every other life form is going to be carbon based, fleshy, and stand upright. It's literally beyond our imagination.

Second, imagine how advanced they would have to be to get here. We've been here for thousands of years, and we have supposedly been to the moon and in space before. That's pretty good for the amount of time that we've been here. They would have to be super advanced, like.. SUPER advanced to be able to come the distance that I think that they would be coming from anyway.

I DO think that some life form has been here before though, it's my only way to theorize Egypt. But that's for another thread :)

embers

January 30th, 2011, 02:15 PM

We have 5 senses, hearing: vision, touching, tasting, and smelling. An ET could have all of those AND more. We might not even be able to see them. We have this crazy idea that every other life form is going to be carbon based, fleshy, and stand upright. It's literally beyond our imagination.

Stephen Hawking's Universe ftw. But, we don't have just five senses. We have somewhere between 9 and 21 senses (http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/07/humans-have-a-lot-more-than-five-senses/). But as with what Stephen Hawking said, if there is any life out there, it will be nothing like what we think it could be.

Second, imagine how advanced they would have to be to get here. We've been here for thousands of years, and we have supposedly been to the moon and in space before. That's pretty good for the amount of time that we've been here. They would have to be super advanced, like.. SUPER advanced to be able to come the distance that I think that they would be coming from anyway.

It isn't impossible, nor is it improbable.

Bluesman

January 30th, 2011, 03:54 PM

Well I'm kind of in the middle on this one. Part of me says it's time for us to know and for the government to just stop bull-shitting us about it. You also have to consider that if aliens to exist and the government announced it you'd probably have mass-hysteria. Think about what happened with the War of the Worlds... imagine a panic like that in todays world.

Jess

January 30th, 2011, 11:06 PM

No were not ,,
We would end up killing them and exsperimenting on them !
Wars ,, death ,, Hell ... Its nothing new
just they could be smarter than us.
Why ruin another planet?

or they could kill us :S

if they're smarter than us I guess

Iceman

January 30th, 2011, 11:07 PM

If we don't already know about them, better now than later.

Cudder

January 30th, 2011, 11:13 PM

Please embrace the Martian

embers

January 31st, 2011, 12:55 PM

Well I'm kind of in the middle on this one.

In other posts, if I'm not mistaken, you claim you're a conservative Christian. You cannot be 'in the middle' of this one as it defies the story of creation.

Part of me says it's time for us to know and for the government to just stop bull-shitting us about it. You also have to consider that if aliens to exist and the government announced it you'd probably have mass-hysteria. Think about what happened with the War of the Worlds... imagine a panic like that in todays world.

You would only have 'mass hysteria' if the government announced it now, because of all the publicity that's come from alien conspiracy theories and events like Roswell, Aztev, Rendlesham, etc. If the government is 'hiding something', then by now it has good reason to. (Not that I want them to, I'm all for knowing.)

But I think you're exaggerating a bit there. You wouldn't really have mass hysteria. You will have heavy criticisms of the government (as first contact certainly is a very big deal), but not much more.

Alaph

January 31st, 2011, 01:56 PM

I believe there are aliens, but I don't believe that anyone has contact with them.

Leviathan

January 31st, 2011, 03:04 PM

Read chariots of the gods by erik von danikian. it has loads of evidence that we were visited by beings a long time ago. like the nazca lines http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/05/Nazca-lineas-condor-c01.jpg/741px-Nazca-lineas-condor-c01.jpg

or the tomb of a mayan leader

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/Ah_Mun.jpg

Bluesman

January 31st, 2011, 04:13 PM

In other posts, if I'm not mistaken, you claim you're a conservative Christian. You cannot be 'in the middle' of this one as it defies the story of creation.

You would only have 'mass hysteria' if the government announced it now, because of all the publicity that's come from alien conspiracy theories and events like Roswell, Aztev, Rendlesham, etc. If the government is 'hiding something', then by now it has good reason to. (Not that I want them to, I'm all for knowing.)

But I think you're exaggerating a bit there. You wouldn't really have mass hysteria. You will have heavy criticisms of the government (as first contact certainly is a very big deal), but not much more.

Conservative as in conservative/liberal. I believe that things like evolution could be possible, but instead of it being a natural process there would have been a God controlling it all. The 7 days could be representative of millions or billions of years... so I'm not really that conservative of a Christian. I believe that life does probably exist elsewhere in the universe, but probably in some form of micro-organism, not in little green men. To think that we are completely alone in the universe is nothing more than being close-minded.

embers

January 31st, 2011, 04:22 PM

Conservative as in conservative/liberal. I believe that things like evolution could be possible, but instead of it being a natural process there would have been a God controlling it all. The 7 days could be representative of millions or billions of years... so I'm not really that conservative of a Christian. I believe that life does probably exist elsewhere in the universe, but probably in some form of micro-organism, not in little green men. To think that we are completely alone in the universe is nothing more than being close-minded.

So you disagree with one of the fundamentals of Christianity. If life did exist elsewhere, why wouldn't God bother putting that in his holy book, or informing his prophet that Earth wasn't his only creation? But meh, that's off topic.

Edit: On another topic, a whole other area of Ufology is Rods (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_(optics)), more info on which can be found on this moronic and biased website (http://www.ufos-aliens.co.uk/cosmicrods.html). But if you google 'Rods UFOs' there's heaps of other video footage etc to go around.

Bluesman

January 31st, 2011, 06:07 PM

Edit: On another topic, a whole other area of Ufology is Rods (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_(optics)), more info on which can be found on this moronic and biased website (http://www.ufos-aliens.co.uk/cosmicrods.html). But if you google 'Rods UFOs' there's heaps of other video footage etc to go around.

Another aspect of this whole thing is government projects. Take the SR-71 for example... it wasn't revealed till many years after it went operational. For all we know UFO's could be government black projects, however that wouldn't explain the UFO's in ancient religious art.

embers

January 31st, 2011, 06:13 PM

Another aspect of this whole thing is government projects. Take the SR-71 for example... it wasn't revealed till many years after it went operational. For all we know UFO's could be government black projects, however that wouldn't explain the UFO's in ancient religious art.

Yep, but that leads people to question why the government would cover up anything to do with aliens. Most government conspiracy theories tend to be utter bollocks though.

ponygon101

January 31st, 2011, 11:45 PM

I think that as a species, we're not ready. We are a competitive, territorial and short tempered species. If there is other intelligent life more advanced than us, we're not going to be happy. We may end up starting a war that we will most surely lose. We have to settle the disputes amongst ourselves before being able to deal with other intelligent life.

charlotte945

February 13th, 2011, 09:57 PM

I would shure as hell love to know if aleans are out there and whether someone has to tell me or not i fully beleve in aleans but i don't think the whole of the amarican population or even the world is ready to know if there realy is aleans. I think so many people would go on a crazy rampage because the amarican society in my opinion would totaly freak at the fack that there is someone else out there.

Dunce

February 14th, 2011, 01:43 PM

I think if Aliens visited Earth it wouldn't be a good thing. I read an article and Stephen Hawking was talking about it saying they would only want to get to our natural resources. BUt I also don't think the government is hiding anything, well, nothing big.

Advanced A

February 16th, 2011, 09:59 AM

I dont think we should ever meet them.

Humans are stupid.. the people in power are mostly greedy, manipulative people who think soley of themselves/their country.
That movie.. avatar is mostly what i believe would happen, we would get greedy and try take something from them, it would backfire and it all turns to stuffing for us..

And on the other hand.. aliens could be the exact same as us.. which is a scary thought

Fushigi

February 16th, 2011, 10:05 AM

well idk yet... coz we dont really know if it really exist or not ...

embers

February 16th, 2011, 02:34 PM

Humans are stupid.. the people in power are mostly greedy, manipulative people who think soley of themselves/their country.
That movie.. avatar is mostly what i believe would happen, we would get greedy and try take something from them, it would backfire and it all turns to stuffing for us..

We are more likely to be visited by aliens than to be the visitors. And in that case, we'll probably be the ones being colonised, not the other way around.