What is your personal belief?

Hi Everyone,

I’ve been reading a few threads in this forum recently and it’s got me thinking, it’s not a question anyone can definitively answer (unless you have a ultra-top mega secret clearance).

What if Humanity is the most advanced civilisation in our galactic neighbourhood?

Of course I say civilised somewhat sarcastically given our self-destructive tendencies!

There's a few schools of thought on this subject;

1. We haven’t been visited and humanity is alone in the universe
2. We have been visited but governments keep it buried so deep that we’ll never find out
3. We are not alone but any alien life is undeveloped
4. We are not alone but any alien life is developed but behind humanity in terms of advancement.
5. Aliens live among us and always have done; humanity is the result of an experiment done by them.

among many more...

My own personal view and it is just a personal belief, obviously not backed up with any evidence, is that we are not alone, when I try to comprehend the size of our galaxy it’s impossible for me to think there is no life out there somewhere, but I don’t believe we have been visited or that any grand conspiracy exists.

I sort of justify my opinion to myself by thinking that it’s pretty safe to assume that if an extra-terrestrial race arrived at earth would be far, far more advanced than humanity, and would have little trouble in taking over if they so wanted, and would presumably study the planet and its inhabitants beforehand, so would know that our political systems are corrupt and not necessarily in the interests of the people. Why would a visiting ET go through the process of negotiating with politicians and religious leaders etc.?

It would be interesting to hear everyone's personal beliefs and reasons why.



From the sources Ive been told, #2 and #5 sounds like the closest scenarios being played out but there is more to it than just that. Some within the population of humans are ready to know while most are not and that the best course decided was to wait until more people are ready to accept what is really going on but it is a very fragile process. Sit back, enjoy the ride that's life, we will get there when we get there.

a reply to: ukmicky1980

The Alien Interview by Matilda O'Donnell MacElroy rings true to me.

Her story has been discussed on ATS extensively.

For the uninitiated here's a link to the whole story.

www.bibliotecapleyades.net...

a reply to: ukmicky1980

Personally I go with

6. We haven’t been visited and humanity is not alone in the universe.

One day we may be visited.

I think of it like this: We must make a few assumptions first.

Assumption 1: We are an intelligent species, and are searching local galactic neighborhood for possibly habitable planets should we ever have need to abandon ours.

Assumption 2: We are a type-0 civilization, meaning if we DO find a habitable planet, it is unlikely we could reach it within a reasonable (few centuries) timeframe.

Assumption 3: If there are other intelligent species in the galaxy, it is reasonable to assume they must have also taken their eyes to these possible planets for habitability

Assumption 4: If there is a sufficiently advanced civilization out there, they must have also had the same idea, and searched. Being advanced, it must be assumed they would act on this search and colonize other worlds.

Assumption 5: Based on these assumptions, nearly every habitable planet in our local neighborhood of the galaxy is likely to house an advanced, or emergent civilization.

ETA: The question then becomes; why haven't we heard them?

The obvious answer is we probably have, but it's being swept under the rug by our leaders in fear of shaking our limited worldview.
Or, the other possibility is they communicate in ways we cannot technologically detect right now. To them, our transmissions and listening devices would probably be like a telegraph line compared to our modern cell phone network. Only magnified by a few hundred times.

From my own up close and personal experiences in the San Luis valley of southern Colorado.
I don't think that it's just travelers from outer space. It seems much more complex and involving entities that actually defy classification. UFO, quasi religious and metaphysical beings with an undefined agenda is what I was presented with.

We are so primitive and new to the neighborhood we may never be capable of understanding what is really happening.

This may not be a valid comparison but humans and their science is like little kids finding coins on the beach; all they know is that it's money and they can buy candy.

For me, this question of contact from beyond is that this is more one of philosophical speculation. There are lots of speculation on it's nature. TV show after TV show of speculation. Books and books and books. Amateur after amateur posting videos of fuzzy lights in the sky. As you ask, just what are we to make of it all. Nothing? Something? Something specific?

I stick with something. I leave belief aside. Belief sets us on a course of holding information to be concrete and then upon this concrete, building more and more belief until we have edifices built of speculation that we now deem reality.

So, rather than believe one specific thing, I remain not disbelieving nor believing. Rather I remain in a state of consideration of it all. I have had dramatic sitings well beyond fuzzy lights in the night sky, and I am still only in consideration of them. It serves no real end for me to do otherwise.

You do point out this question.

Why would a visiting ET go through the process of negotiating with politicians and religious leaders etc.?

Yeah, this always was a puzzler. What I have found though is that in answering this question, numerous valid sounding speculations can be made, and are. For me this demonstrates our human ability to make personal "sense" of just about anything. And then, believe it.

I don't believe any claims made by anyone involving aliens.

I believe people believe their claims, most of the time.

They just don't hold water.

My personal belief is that we have not been visited by extra-terrestrial life here on this planet, at least not for a very long time.

I do believe that statistically there has to be other planets with life on them in the universe and they would be spread along a spectrum from planets with single cell organisms to planets with beings roughly where we are in evolution and there would be some that are more advanced.

As far as "sightings" on this planet..... I believe there is a number of explanations.
1. Human made, probably experimental military craft
2. Natural phenomenon mistaken for something it isn't.
3. Overactive imagination. People see something and make it out to be what they want it to be.

I have always been intrigued by the movie Star gate and think that there is a possibility that we may have been seeded on this planet long, long ago. If that's true and someone has the technology to travel the distances and seed a population then I think that it would stand to reason that this isn't the only planet they did this to.

There are many things about our species and life on this planet we do not understand and will never understand.

i think we are constantly observed and occasionally visited. these interactions might be 'country road at night, car stalls' type encounters or high-level government/military sanctioned 'official' contacts.

The number of random coincidences necessary for us to exist just here just now is incredible. The same number of coincidences would apply to other intelligent species.

For them to find us would be at the very least unlikely.

That is not to say that they aren't out there somewhere, I just doubt very much that they have ever made it here.

I believe some people want very much for aliens to be among us, and I believe other people make a lot of money from that. Dishonesty by the latter group needs exposing to protect the former.

For me, what we have around us is fantastic enough, it doesn't need fairy dust.

I personally believe that the whole concept of life or intelligences elsewhere in the universe is more complicated and more subtle than greasy little creatures similar to ourselves flying around in metal ships to other planets. If that's what it really adds up to, it would be very disappointing and unimaginative.

And as for the complication and subtlety, I don't know if we'll ever get smart enough to figure out exactly what's going on. Maybe the more intelligent machines we'll build in the next couple of centuries will be smart enough and have a different enough perspective on the issue to have a better understanding of it.

a reply to: ukmicky1980

I think humanity is still removing itself from the self obsessed mind set. That paradigm makes it difficult to accept that there are not only others, different, similar, some very advanced, others not as much.

It would stand to reason, of course don't expect people to be reasonable.

originally posted by: onebigmonkey
The number of random coincidences necessary for us to exist just here just now is incredible. The same number of coincidences would apply to other intelligent species.

For them to find us would be at the very least unlikely.

That is not to say that they aren't out there somewhere, I just doubt very much that they have ever made it here.

I believe some people want very much for aliens to be among us, and I believe other people make a lot of money from that. Dishonesty by the latter group needs exposing to protect the former.

For me, what we have around us is fantastic enough, it doesn't need fairy dust.

What a load of horse manure. You can't be serious, or are you?


Okay let me break it down for you. Your species came to fruition over the last more or less 800 million years, and very rapidly in the last 100,000.

The Universe is 14 billions years old, and that does not account for possibilities of multiple dimensions. So we're gonna stick with the conservative estimate of one universe at 14 billions years old.


That's a LOOOOOOOONG time for a species to figure stuff out...

originally posted by: ScientificRailgun
I think of it like this: We must make a few assumptions first.

Assumption 1: We are an intelligent species, and are searching local galactic neighborhood for possibly habitable planets should we ever have need to abandon ours.

Assumption 2: We are a type-0 civilization, meaning if we DO find a habitable planet, it is unlikely we could reach it within a reasonable (few centuries) timeframe.

Assumption 3: If there are other intelligent species in the galaxy, it is reasonable to assume they must have also taken their eyes to these possible planets for habitability

Assumption 4: If there is a sufficiently advanced civilization out there, they must have also had the same idea, and searched. Being advanced, it must be assumed they would act on this search and colonize other worlds.

Assumption 5: Based on these assumptions, nearly every habitable planet in our local neighborhood of the galaxy is likely to house an advanced, or emergent civilization.

ETA: The question then becomes; why haven't we heard them?

The obvious answer is we probably have, but it's being swept under the rug by our leaders in fear of shaking our limited worldview.
Or, the other possibility is they communicate in ways we cannot technologically detect right now. To them, our transmissions and listening devices would probably be like a telegraph line compared to our modern cell phone network. Only magnified by a few hundred times.

Yes you nailed it! Good work detective!


Regarding communication. There are technically no bounds, only limitations due to the abilites of the observer to understand or perceive the patterns, whatever medium the "messages" make take place in.

My personal beliefs are not really relevant, because no matter what I personally believe, that has no bearing on the "Real Truth" of the matter. My beliefs could easily be wrong. I can believe something really really hard, but my belief won't change things if they are incorrect.

HOWEVER, I'll tell you my beliefs anyway

1. I believe that it is certainly possible that we are being visited by intelligent aliens, but I also don't think that thee is enough evidence for for to say that we are actually being visited (and, yes -- I know the evidence; I don't need to be reminded of it).

2. I believe that other intelligent life almost surely exists elsewhere in the universe, due to the size of the universe and due to what we know about the tenaciousness of extremophile life on Earth.

I use the term "almost surely" in a very specific manner here. "Almost surely" (or "almost certainly") is a term used by science to indicate that something is probably true based on evidence, but is still ultimately unknown as being "fact". The "almost" is a key word there. The only way the question of other intelligent life in the universe can be answered by science as being "fact" (i.e., 100% sure) is if we actually make contact with this intelligent life. Until then, we can only be 99.999999% sure at best about life elsewhere -- which means that the probability of us being alone is still technically not zero...

...although, while the probability of being alone is not zero, it is still an almost certainty that we are not alone.

3. Other life may be out there, but so sparse (in both time and space) that they have never had the occasion to stumble upon us.

Let's say that there are, at this current time in galactic history, ten other species in our galaxy that have a technological civilization that is advanced enough to contact us -- either remotely (via the EMF spectrum) or by flying through space in spacecraft. Even if they could contact us, there is no guarantee that they are close enough to know that we have a technological civilization. If they are 20,000 LY away looking back at Earth, the very distances involved means that they are viewing us as we were 25,000 years ago, which means they may consider what detect about our atmosphere to be unremarkable.

Sure -- maybe they detect life processes in our atmosphere, but maybe the detection of life processes is extremely common.

Plus, even if they have FTL space travel, it may still be a very difficult process to travel vast distances around the galaxy.

a reply to: ukmicky1980

I believe a 'high tolerance for ambiguity' is required to plumb the depths of the entire field and the other fields that seem to interlace with UFO sightings and ufology.

Some knowledge of psychology, history, human nature, folklore and science are some of the crucial tools. Toss in archaeology, anthropology and a fair dose of critical thinking and explorers will have a decent tool-kit.

There's nothing wrong with holding particular beliefs as long as people accept the probability that they're inaccurate. Above all, be a sceptical doubter.

As if it matters, I like your OP because you demonstrate an open mind and don't speak in certainties. Some good replies in the thread too.

a reply to: 1Providence1

Well I think I worked out which group you belong to. This thread was about personal belief, not "post something you think someone else will like".

You'll notice, if you read it properly, that I didn't discount alien life, I'm just not convinced they have nipped round for coffee. There's a difference.

We are just the right distance from the sun, we have just the right chemical elements at our disposal to form organic life, evolution gave us a better start than others, not only that, other things are around the we can eat. We haven't been wiped out by a catastrophic event (yet), all manner of things have to be just right for us to survive and they are. The same has to be true for other intelligent life. We also have to develop the technology to go somewhere, and in the 14 billion years of the universe we managed to get somewhere a short spit away. Why would anyone else do any better in that time?

a reply to: onebigmonkey

We also have to develop the technology to go somewhere, and in the 14 billion years of the universe we managed to get somewhere a short spit away. Why would anyone else do any better in that time?

Our solar system only emerged in the last 4.6 Billion years or so. That's about one-third the total life of the universe. I'll be generous and give the Universe in general an additional 4.6 billion years from the big bang to actually have stable solar systems capable of supporting life. That still leaves nearly 5 billion years from the first stable solar systems to the birth of our own.

In those 5 billion years, it's almost unthinkable that SOME civilization out there hasn't advanced enough to basically travel the galaxy on a whim. Maybe even the whole universe. Hell, in just about 100,000 years we've risen from cave-dwelling clubswingers to putting probes on other planets, comets, etc. Imagine what our next 100,000 years will be like. Now imagine the next 500,000 MILLION years. Still a relative sneeze in the age of the universe. Where will we be? If we have managed to avoid self-destruction, I imagine we'll be star-hopping with the best of them.

originally posted by: Soylent Green Is People
Plus, even if they have FTL space travel, it may still be a very difficult process to travel vast distances around the galaxy.

I can't imagine the level of difficulty involved with navigation at greater than lightspeed, since you would have to also allow for navigation through time as well as 3-D space, not to mention the effect other potentially unclassified dimensions might have on the trip.

I assume that all long-distance space journeys are one-way, since there would be essentially no way to get back where you came from.