Do you believe in aliens

[TeePee]

I'm sure there are enough religious crazy's out there, there would be some who would want the aliens destroyed.

[Agent]

Well from that quote you obviously know that I'm religious and you're just trying to exploit it, which is quite sad.

I wasnt trying to exploit anything mate - I had no idea if you were religious or not.
Just discounting what was said as 'dumb' didn't make sense, when it was a perfectly valid point.

No, I didn't say that because I'm religious, I said it because it's true. Even if I weren't religious I'd say that.

How is it true though?
The majority of wars in our history have been based in religion somewhere. Whys is it so wrong to assume that future ones could be too?

And if you think I said it because I might be "offended" then you're completely wrong. Do you really think I spend my time being offended by what people have to say on an Internet forum? I see a big red flashing light illuminating the word "no".

I didn't think you would be offended at all. If I did, I probably wouldn't have replied - I wouldn't go provoking someone's belifes for the sake of it

But thanks for making the generalisation of religious folk, obviously they're all exactly the same in your world

Far far from it mate
I was just extrapolating the most likely reason, for what IMO was an irrational comment. I could have been totally wrong.

People who believe in religion differ hugely - Im not silly enough to think that everyone who believes in god have the same outlook on life

[Kezzer]

Ah my bad, I over-reacted to your comment. It sounded like an attack (I'm quite used to them). I keep my religious viewpoints very open, I'm not your typical Christian who goes around speaking in tongues that's for sure, neither am I someone who goes to traditional churches. Most people haven't seen modern churches which is why they still dote on the fact that religion can be weird.

I meant it's true because I don't think religion would self-implode due to encounters with aliens. The bible does make remarks to life on earth, but it never says "God never made life elsewhere".

But that's science and religion, a huuuge debate not worth getting into.

But yes, people who have a belief in God do think differently to "normal" people in the sense that they get a question such as "How does that work?" and the Christians will say "God does it.". Again, big red flashing light - I don't think like that.

[TooNice]

Also there's no reason for war, unlike sci-fi movies would have you believe. They probably dont need the space. Given that if they can travel here they can probably find a hundred other suitable planets without thousands of nuclear weapons on.

Ah, rationality. Sensible, but what if it is in their nature to conquer other civilisatiions? Or for them to see 'hunting' one that is not of their own as sport (some humans do it)? Or maybe they just see our ever fattening world (or at least on the western side) as delicacies?

Reality tends to be different from fiction when it comes to what a human can do. But when it comes to the unknown (i.e. Aliens), I reckon they can be everything we have and have not imagine. And if it's not clear yet, I am inclined to believe that in the vast vast universe, it is not unlikely that there are other living organism [I am not placing any bets on their level of development or even their forms though]. I would also like to see more development in space travel.

[Nick]

Ah, rationality. Sensible, but what if it is in their nature to conquer other civilisatiions? Or for them to see 'hunting' one that is not of their own as sport (some humans do it)? Or maybe they just see our ever fattening world (or at least on the western side) as delicacies?

Hehe, but that's to put human traits and qualities onto a completely alien intelligence... They may not even regard being chubby as a bad thing... they may not even see body size as an issue at all and go purely on intellect.

They may have no concept of 'sport' and therefore hunting for fun is as alien to them they are to us.

Reality tends to be different from fiction when it comes to what a human can do. But when it comes to the unknown, I reckon they can be everything we have and have not imagine.

And if it's not clear yet, I am inclined to believe that in the vast vast universe, it is not unlikely that there are other living organism [I am not placing any bets on their level of development though].

Well I reckon it's entirely reasonable to propose that complete civilizations have been born, grown and died in the time it has taken mankind to get to where it is now.

Let's say that the lifeform that evolved into intelligent life on another planet kicked off around the same time life started on Earth. But instead of dying out like the dinosaurs did, this life carried on... and unlike the dinosaurs, it got clever, like we did.

But unlike us, this lifeform has been around in its intelligent form for let's say 200 million years... by comparison, we've only been around for about 400,000 years.

Now, assuming these guys didn't kill each other, their sun didn't explode (if they even need heat to live), they didn't suffer a population explosion and subsequent resource shortage and a comet or asteroid didn't squash them all to a thin veneer, those guys are going to have some serious technology... but only IF they have a driving force to make them produce that technology.

So, what would drive alien life to explore the stars?

Think about it, everything is riven by something else.

Farming came about because we settled down and realised we could eat better if we controlled what we grew.

The industrial revolution was kicked off by a few guys wanting to create a form of power that could drain mines... and then another bright spark saw its use in everything else, killing the reliance on water and wind and suddenly making pots of money.

Let's face it, man would never had set foot on the moon if the Americans hadn't wanted to prove they were better than the Russians.

Even now, NASA would be a mere shadow of what it is if it weren't for the fact that the military place great value on spy satellites... and there's probably a fair few nukes up there too...

Even at a simple level, if there were no dust we wouldn't have Hoover, Dyson or Mr Sheen...

All technological advances are driven by a need.

So a space travelling race capable of crossing the vast distances between star systems are doing so for a reason... Sure, it might be a day trip for them out of curiosity, but you can bet that they developed their hyperdrive or whatever out of a need...

[chuckskull]

Ah, rationality. Sensible, but what if it is in their nature to conquer other civilisatiions? Or for them to see 'hunting' one that is not of their own as sport (some humans do it)? Or maybe they just see our ever fattening world (or at least on the western side) as delicacies?

A single moden nuclear submarine can lauch 100+ nuclear MIRV missiles in a matter of minutes at any earth or near orbit target. Advanced or not thats going to slow them down. In movies they only lauch one, but I'd put money on the 'mothership' lighting up like a radioactive christmas tree, considering the US navy alone keeps 18 armed at all times and Britain just lauched a newer, bigger, badder version, carrying 200 warheads. Not to mention thousand's more missiles and launch facilites spread all over the world, if we're going down the worst case scenario road.

Then again if an alien race is determined on destroying us it would probably use interplanetary weapons(natural next step from intercontinental missiles, I suppose), so the first and last thing we known about it would be a loud bang and a flash. Equally building a weapon capable of destroying an entire planet isn't far beyond human reach, just there no desire or funding for it. Neccesity being the mother of invention after all. Given enough money a nuclear bomb can be as big as you like. Plus we have the home advantage, 3Billion+ capable of fighting.

Chances of encoutering and alien race are slim, encoumtering a sizeable army with the sole intent of destroying this one planet and the ability to do far slimmer.

[chicken]

As I said before I don't think they would be hostile for the reason that their hostility would likely impact their ability to develop to a stage to get here, but...

To better understand the character of potential alien visitors (i.e. those who would actually come here) there was once a good point I came across about the types of creatures that advance and the types that don't.

Most creatures can be split into two categories (although some fall into both), Predator and Prey. Predators generally have two eyes facing forwards, giving them good 3D vision for catching their dinner. Prey generally have eyes on the side of their head to see the advances of Predators and stay alive.

Predators have to always be one step ahead of their Prey else they go hungry. So they learn to hunt in packs, create traps and try to outwit the Prey. Every time the Prey learns their trick or advances physically they have to change their tack to compensate. So and advanced race would likely be a race of Predator animals (much like ourselves), as their need for intelligence would drive their development into an organised society.

This means the most likely visitor would be a Predator (not in the Arnie sense!) and might therefore be agressive, but before coming to Earth this species must have had somewhere else to release aggression, and if not on other planets, that would be on themselves. Possibly impeding development of such advanced technologies to get here.

[floppybootstomp]

Ok, I haven't actually read this thread all the way through but it does look a bit lively (btw, these smilies are quite crapola).

But.

I believe in Santa Claus, Aliens, The Tooth Fairy, Deja Vu, The Yeti, Ghosts, Reincarnation, Various assorted Gods & Prophets, Karma, Bigfoot and the wonderful wonderful power of human nature

Groovy

It's your round. Mine's a Guinness

[Mithrandir]

I've not read the thread in full yet, BUT the answer is almost definitely yes.
We'd be nieve to think planet Earth is the only host to life in the universe.

Much more like when we will have the technology to meet/discover the other species.