Do you believe in aliens?

[Lenin211]

I think that aliens do exist, but we have not and will not ever be visited by them. The reason is simple, Even the closest star to us, alpha centauri, is five light years away. If you were traveling as fast as physics permits, it would take you five years. It is infeasible then, that aliens would come from vastly distant solar systems, even galaxies, to visit earth. If life were so common as to accommodate aliens, then why would they visit earth? wouldn't they go abduct cows from a planet closer to themselves?

 

[obex]

Do i believe that in the vast expanse of the universe there are planets out there that have, do or will support some form of life, sure! Do i believe there are advanced races of aliens out there or that they have come to visit us, not really.

 

[ReservoirAngel]

I refuse to believe that they don't exist in some way. But the jump from "existing" to "visiting us with high-tech spaceships and abducting people to shove probes up their arses" is too large even for me, no matter how much I love the idea of anal probing.

 

[SquirePB]

The thing is, it would take at least a class 2 (there are 3 classes going from 1 to 3) civillisation to be able to achieve inter-stellar travel. We're considered to be about a 0.7 on this scale. The difference between a 0.7 and a 2 is considered to be around 1,000,000 times more than the difference between us and ants. I personally don't try to communicate with ants or do anything like popular culture seems to assume aliens would want to do with us. So any civillisation with the capability of traveling here would likely view us as less than we view ants. If they come to us any time within the next, say few hundred years, it's likely they'd either ignore us or just want our planet's resources.

There is an alternative theory known as the Fermi Paradox which suggests that given the lack of evidence for they're being other intellegent life that we are the first. Ok I'm grossly over simplifying it but I highly recommend looking into it as it's a pretty interesting thought. Also look into any work by Carl Sagan (I hope I spelt that right, I'll be a pretty shit astro-physics student if I got that wrong lol) on this topic. The man was brilliant!

 

[b3nn3tt]

Yes, aliens are pretty much a statistical certainty. It is far less believable that we are the only planet in the entire solar system that supports life.

However, if you are asking whether or not I believe that what people claim to see in the sky is alien spacecraft or if I think aliens are responsible for crop circles, then no, not in the slightest. Not even a tiny bit.

 

[Ruuvan]

In a universe or infinite possibilities I think life outside of our planet is entirely plausible.

I do not, however, believe that we've had lifeforms come to our planet and abduct stupid people.

 

[Jakub324]

Aliens are mathamaticly guarenteed. the universe is infineite, so anything that has a non zero chance of happening is guarenteed to happen, and life has happened at least once (here) so it will have to happen elsewhere.

The universe itself is likely infinite, but the observable universe is finite. Whatever you want to believe, that's a fact.

As for why I believe the universe has limits: The Big Bang created matter, but how much can it possibly have created? When the matter runs out, what then? Nothing? Nothing is not possible.

Matter does not "run out" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_of_mass].

That wasn't what I meant. How can there possibly be infinite amounts of anything? I'm not suggesting that matter and energy can be removed from the universe (matter can become energy and energy can become matter, thank you GCSE science), but that at some point (in distance, not time) there is no more matter.

 

[Dexiro]

It'd be silly to say that aliens don't exist given the scale of the universe, but I don't believe they're nearby or anythin.

 

[kelsyk]

Yes aliens exist, we will find evidence of them, and we will contact them.

My reasoning:
The universe is awesome and full of awesome stuff. Aliens not existing and/or never contacting them is not awesome. For the universe to maintain its awesomeness aliens must exist and we must eventually contact them.

 

[Sleeping Giant]

I do believe that aliens exist but I can't help but think to myself that the stereotypical, elongated head or little green men types are going to be what exists out there. I prefer to think that alien life that exists in other galaxies is closer to what we have here on earth. Watching The Discovery Channel's Alien Planet would give you a pretty good idea of what I think is out there, they pretty much hit the nail on the head.

 

[flamingjimmy]

I think it is somewhat likely that there are other lifeforms out there somewhere, however I wouldn't say I believe in them, because there is no evidence.

And no, I don't think we'll ever make contact, I think the distances involved are much to vast.

 

[ssgt splatter]

I think they do exsist. I mean the idea of us being the only life in the whole damn universe is a little nuts. The kind of life I imagine though is along the lines of alien animals not intelligent life like say the aliens from Independance Day or Predators.

 

[DSK-]

"There's got to be intelligent life somewhere out in Space 'cause there's bugger all down here on Earth!" *Fridge closes*

 

[WashingMachineofDoom]

Aliens could exist.

 

[Archemetis]

My view on aliens is like a great many other peoples, I believe that if the universe is as great and expansive as it's let on to be, then there must be more than just us living in it.

Whether that other life is intelligent or just a single-celled organism isn't too important, that fact that it's there is.

As for he type of intelligent life that travels the stars in futuristic space vessels hell-bent on visiting our world (out of countless other, likely more interesting worlds) I find them to be very unlikely.

Not impossible, just unlikely.

I mean look at the Human race, we're all wondering when we'll be shooting ourselves into space to visit near/far planets, gotta make sense that some where out there is another civilisation thinking about doing the same thing.

 

[Woodsey]

Aliens almost certainly exist.

Have any visited us? No.

Alright so from what I gather, most of you believe aliens exist.. But don't believe they've visited earth or ever will?

But if they're aliens.. And happen to be WAY technologically advanced than we are, what's to say that a light year to them is not all that far?
That traveling between galaxies is easy for them?

I'm not trying to tell you all that you're wrong, I'm just creating more discussion and getting my idea out there.

Have you ever seen Earth in comparison to other stuff in the Universe? Its virtually non-existent its so tiny. The chances of something finding us, or making a bee-line straight to us, is what makes it so unlikely.

Not to mention they may only be equivalent to neanderthals in terms of technology.

 

[sergnb]

I believe that there is no way we are the only life forms in the universe.

I don't believe in UFO's and other conspiracy theories.

 

[Andothul]

Well if you do the math and you believe that the universe is infinite and expanding then it is statistically impossible for Earth to be the only planet with life on it.

I am of the the belief that there are probably hundreds of thousands of planets in our own galaxy that have some sort of life and ecosystem on them.

I don't believe however that we've been visited by aliens, and if we have i see little proof of such visitation.

 

[saruman31]

It would be impossible for them not to exist. But they definitely never visited Earth.