It's become a modern mistake to say the following:
"It's ridicilous to claim we're the only intelligent species in the Universe. Ergo we're visited by aliens."
The first is true. The second has not been proven. Why should intelligent beings, whose society has managed to develop space-travel jouney all the way to Earth, and then hide themselves, mutilate our cows and make silly crop-circles? Come on!
The modern alien-theories are like a modern religion. There is no proof - but people BELIEVE it is true. Culturally accepted delusions like religion, astrology, numeorology etc.
And UFO mystery specials! A UFO is an unidentified Flying Object. Don't confuse that with a flying saucers. A ufo can be anything from birds, to planes, ballons, fireflies and so on and so forth.
There are some 300 billion galaxies, and some 200 billion stars in the Milkyway. Not all of those are of a type were life could develop on a planet. Read up on "Frank Drake" and "Drake's equation". It gives a pretty good idea of what life requires to develop on a world. Then there's the element problem. Life requires elements that didn't exist for a long time in the Universe - like carbon, phosphorous and oxygen.
Maybe we're the first to get to our technological level? I doubt it, though. Every time humans claimed to be special, we weren't. The Earth is not the center of the Universe. The Earth is not the center of the Solarsystem. The Solarsystem is not the center of the Universe. Etc etc etc.
It could be teeming with life in the Milkyway. It just does NOT mean they're capable of space-travel let alone visit us.
"Life requires elements..."
Well, life as we know it. It's possible that there are life forms elsewhere in space that don't require the same things we do.
I agree with Fire--I believe that there is alien life. I don't believe that one day a bunch of little green men are going to land on our planet, enslave the human race, and take over the world. It is rather selfish of us to assume that if there is intelligent alien life, it will come and visit us. Maybe it will, but that's no reason to look at some thing up in the sky and say "ooh look and alien!".
Um, anyone read my response.... Techinaclly the universe mathematically is infinite.... therefore mathematically speaking there is limitless possiblities, leading therefore if there is possibility it must exist because 1/100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 is not just possible in an infinite universe, it must be occuring infinitly also. We can then assume that if technology ever existed that we can develope that can travel faster then light, it is not possible because we have not been visited or perhaps we have.....
The link for that video a couple of threads back...well that actually convinced me that aliens DO NOT exist.
Everything in that movie was a complete hoax.... from the dead alien that looked like it came from an 50's sci fi movie, the pictures of flying saucers, well i know thats a hoax, to the movies....
Everything could be done by visual trickery. Espcially these days when the film industry can make a human dummy look a real human, to airbrushing the lines holding up the "flying saucer"... the only thing i can see that has truth was the ancient paintings...but nonbody knows if those are images of what people saw, or a childrens painting....
im sorry but this is one reason people dont believe in life from other planets or the universe...because people would go out of thier way to get on tv and try to make alot fame or money.
I think they probably do but not the way people think of them. I doubt that they have visited here and I have a hard time imagining a species smarter than us although they could be further in evolution. When I think of aliens I think along the lines of dumber animals on Earth. For some reason I just can't imagine them being any smarter than monkeys.
Darth Revan> Life still requires elements. Even if we choose others, the one element thatcan really grab on to other molecules and create long, complex and DURABLE chains is carbon. Want a heavier element that does that? There is far less of it in the Universe. From a biological persepctive why not use the easiest, most abundant and most durable element?
Raventheonly> "Techinaclly the universe mathematically is infinite" No, wrong. It's finite all-rigt, it just doens't have a boundary.
The Universe is 13,7 billion years old. The solar system only 4,5 billion years old. So it's possible that life on other planets is so much more further advanced that we can hardly imagine it. That STILL does not mean they're visiting us.
You telling me this is it? Thats a really stupid idea then because finite does not acount for infinite space.... Perhaps scientist should be far more open minded then self-centered.... Thats like saying we're the center of the universe... How do scientist know anyway, then. can they prove we are the only universe in an infinite amount of space?