Astronomers estimate there are 100 - 400 billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy alone, and exoplanet researchers calculate there is at least one planet orbiting every star we see in the night sky.

This makes the chances of alien life existing elsewhere in the Universe seem very likely.

When I first discovered the joys of scepticism, I became what I would now see as a fairly extreme sceptic.

I held a lot of views like all kinds of paranormal belief are a bad thing to have, that all people who claim to have psychic powers are either crazy or deliberate frauds, that all parapsychology experiments were flawed, that parapsychologists didn’t know how to do science.

I don’t believe any of those things anymore.

The the deeper I’ve got into it, the more I’ve modified and come back towards the central ground.

Is belief in UFOs and flying saucers common?

It varies from survey to survey, but you will typically find about a third of people say they believe that aliens have visited the Earth.

And again it varies, but certainly 10%, 15% say they have actually seen a UFO.

I’ve met, spoken to a lot of alien abductees, people who in my opinion sincerely believe they have had contact with aliens.

And there’s only two possibilities: either they really have, or they haven’t and there’s something really interesting going on from a psychological point of view.

My favoured explanation tends to be in terms of false memories. But I’m open to the possibility I might be wrong.

It’d be really, really exciting if we do ever make direct contact, but I’m not convinced that we have yet.

  • umbrella@lemmy.ml
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    3 months ago

    I believe there are aliens out there simply because of how big the universe is.

    Are they here though? Maybe. There has been some commotion in the US congress about it but there are very few officially released information about it so far. The info we have is undoubtedly intriguing though.

    Still not holding my breath.

  • Stache_@lemmy.ml
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    3 months ago

    Yeah this is a pretty interesting subject. Statistically, there should be other life out there. Whether or not we’re the most advanced, it’s impossible to tell. It’s fun to make creepypastas about us receiving the message “be quiet or they’ll find you” from some extraterrestrial beings about an all-powerful race that’s colonizing the universe.

    I think finding another planet to live on and abandoning our own because we destroyed it to the point of no return isn’t a good idea. We’ve got enough issues to deal with here on Earth. I don’t know if it’s a smart idea to put all put all our eggs in that metaphorical basket.

    I’m also now realizing I strayed way off topic haha, sorry about that

  • Stern@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    In a virtually limitless universe thinking we’re the only ones who have ever been around seems like the height of narcissism.

    That said even if we presume we’re not alone, I kinda doubt aliens would simply do fly bys and anal probes for any sustained length of time. Human history is rife with what folks from higher on the tech tree have done to those lower, and it ain’t pretty. I have no reason to think Space Columbus would be any nicer then Earth Columbus was.