Why should aliens automatically be benign and good?

Ive read in a lot of threads that if aliens come they have to be good, benign and friendly.

I was wondering: why do you believe this?

As far as i understand the number 1 reason for this argument is: they would have destroyed and wiped themselves out if they weren't.

Im sorry but that sounds like utter hogwash to me.

There are a million and one reasons and way a society could reach that sort of technological advancement and still be "evil"

1: imagine if the aliens had an equivalent to ww2. Imagine if in their version the nazi equivalent won subdued the rest of their population and selectively bread out their own master race eliminating all the other races and creeds on their planet. If they succeeded without killing themselves off theyd have an increadably xenophobic and evil society outlook. Once they were all the same race creed they wouldnt war amongst each other and could pursue their technological goals without problems such as war etc. Such a race could become technologically advanced super quickly and work. Once all the differences were eliminated theyd work together peacfully and proceed to assert their dominance over other planets.

This would work for the same reasons accepting diversity would work. If we were unified and didnt hate each other wed progress much quicker. They however instead of unifying themselves despite diversity would simply eliminate diversity. The effect is the same ... the morals arnt.

2: a hive like society. Where the inhabitants truly believe in a utilitarian society and are willing to sacrifice themselves as an individual for the benefaction of their society. Such a society could be evil (though not necessarily) and still reach the technology required to reach the stars.

and so on...

I simply dont believe that the only society that could make the necessary technological advancements in order to reach us would necessarily be a good one.

Feel free to try to convince me otherwise in fact it quite appreciate it. Evil aliens would simply be terrifying

~TR~

Perhaps it has to do with higher intelligence, why destroy ones own resources to devour someone elses.

Did you happen to watch Independence Day yesterday hmmm?

reply to post by Tomb_Raven


Thanks for the thread! Very interesting!

Aliens can be 'evil' or 'good'. It all depends on their history. I think for the most part, however, once a civilization surpasses it's nuclear age, more than likely they will be good. Of course, you gave good examples of some still being bad for the universe.

We can only hope that any of the ones that may visit us are the ones who want to spread peace, knowledge, and love!

Kind regards

Well, from what I understand, most people think that because
Extra-terrestrials would be far more advanced then us.
Technologically and probably spiritually.
And being so advanced they would realize the benefits of being benign.
They would understand development of the mind and spirit, and it's importance over development of weapons and invasion strategies, and the physical body.

It makes sense really.
But, I'm sure there would be Malevolent beings as well, no doubt.

reply to post by Tomb_Raven




According to some people for example David Icke, they are not at all benevolent and are actually call the shots here on our good old planet earth :-/

Personally I keep a open mind regarding this and even if I came across an “alien” which was not benevolent I would treat it the same way a treat my fellow man of the same nature.

Black, white, Alien, all the same to me, pretty sure there is good and bad everywhere.

I judge people/aliens (if I know one) by there actions no the colour or look of them.

Peace

reply to post by redeyedwonder


nope i didnt ... wish i had tho its a great film

-------

good point everyone. I didnt think of spirituality but it ads a point 3 to my evil list

3. Spiritual/Religious fanatic aliens. A'la convert or die aliens. Or aliens who think were no better than animals because we arn't spiritually awakened and exploit us for it.

The only way i see aliens as being good would be if they had no need for resources... then any evil and ill intent would simply be through or because of ideological differences.

~TR~

For me, believing in a "good" ET is more because if a "bad" ET visits Earth we won't have to worry about it too much because we won't have the technology or power to defeat them...unless you can upload a 1990's computer virus onto their mothership and then magically blow it up with a single nuke...

Originally posted by redeyedwonder
Perhaps it has to do with higher intelligence, why destroy ones own resources to devour someone elses.

Did you happen to watch Independence Day yesterday hmmm?

Why does it have to be over resources?
It could be anything.
Hell it could be a handshake gone awry.

Good and bad are human terms/conceptions.

The Grays were created differently to us, they are wired completely differently. They have no central nervous system. They don't feel pain so they lack empathy towards others. They are also a hive consciousness, they are almost never alone.

Still, there is something of a universal law that prevents them interfering with us. So they are here to watch us and study us.

I don't believe they could all be good. And I disagree with that it is based on history.

It all hinges on individual thought.

Any truly sentient species that has independent though will have groups that disagree with the mainstream thought.

There will be different groups with different ideas. Some of course, will be hostile.

There are no guaruntees in life, and to assume that they've all learned to overcome their differences and work together, well, I just can't see it.

I hate when people answer hypothetical questions with their preconceived notions of aliens, and state it so matter of factly.

While i agree that good and evil are human concepts it seems slightly irrelevant. Until we meet another sapient species i guess we wont know if morality is a purely human thing.

1 thing is for sure: they will consider themselves good ... or splorch (whatever their morality equivalent of being correct is )

ah if we meet aliens the first thing id ask for is a copy of their history and philosophical works (might be harder to convince them to share their tech :p ) would be really interesting.

~TR~

I also don't buy the all aliens are nice theory.We allegedly have craft that can reach other plants outside of the soloar system and we are far from benign.That make us evil aliens don't it.

For exactly the same reasons that some supposed God is good,

wishful thinking.

Because for our uses that is the only situation that matters.

1. They are good, something can develop out of them arriving.

2. They are bad, we most likely don't stand a chance.

3. They are either or, and not far more advanced than us, so they can't exact a direct impact on us, we at least have time to prepare and work on relations.

4. They don't exist/don't contact us, nothing comes of it.

Along w/ tens or hundreds of thousands of years of advancing technologically also comes advancing spiritually. I doubt they have anything to gain from being turmoil to our planet.

Originally posted by Tomb_Raven
As far as i understand the number 1 reason for this argument is: they would have destroyed and wiped themselves out if they weren't.

Im sorry but that sounds like utter hogwash to me.

There is a theory that civilisations developing far enough to travel in space have to develop in isolation from each other, be that either the ability to physically travel there or simply able to communicate or detect each other.

Because just say we were able to communicate with a race of beings on another world, that would profoundly change our civilisation of course and maybe theirs if they also thought they may be alone in the universe - there would suddenly be an enormous incentive to travel there, and well with contact technology sharing may very well make that possible, we may both have the parts to the puzzle and together we could come up with a solution!

But should that happen between young races in parts of the universe where populated planets are close together that could be disastrous - each one could annihilate each other or one could wipe out the others.

But if all the worlds are separated by incredible vastness they are essentially protected, given the chance to evolve unhindered and hopefully as they advance become more enlightened, more able to use local resources to survive and not need to conquer and pillage.

This could simply be the reason we are here, no one else in our part of the universe to eye us up as targets - and by the time there will be we should either be strong enough to defend or any would be attackers are too enlightened to resort to privative urges.

We could be lucky in our solitude, other world may have come and gone because of their relative proximity.

reply to post by Now_Then


thats a very good point. Personally i would prefer if we communicated with ET's before physically meeting them. Lol a sort of letter buddy system would be great

~TR~

Well the general consensus I think is that we don't wanna believe they could be evil. Many people say the reason is they would have destroyed us by now if they were.


I however believe them to be evil. Ive yet to hear a report of them not appearing at night, not forcing experiments on people, not dragging and stealing people away from their sleep, oh and not paralyzing people just by looking.

Of course maybe this is the medias fault. definitely not msm though. they just dont' report it at all.

I wouldnt even worry what can 1 do become FEARFULL OR remain FEARLESS with whatever beings some may encounter. If they are evil then 1 must adapt the hive mentality as well to defend the children. If they are here to rape and kill then 1 must take it all the way down to the last 1 (MARS!). If they are genetic modifiers who genetically eliminate their foes then we got to adapt on the same field of play.....YOU ARE ETERNAL CREATURES THEY TAUGHT YOU LIFE AND DEATH TO TRICK YOU INTO DYING, BECAUSE THEY HAVE TOO (FALLEN ANGEL OFFSPRINGS)... WHY WOULD AN ETERNAL CREATURE HAVE AN EXPIRATION DATE ITS THE CONCIOUS MIND BEING WORKED ON IN A VERY EVIL WAY. (SORTA LIKE ALL THE DISEASES TODAY BASICALLY EQUALING DEATH WITH DIFFERENT NAMES funny how that works) THEY ARE SMART AND KNOWLEDGABLE BUT UP AGAINST INTELLIGENCE ITS A DIFFERENT BALL GAME. STAY STRONG and remain FEARLESS



[edit on 7/6/10 by Ophiuchus 13]