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Do you think there are alien beings on earth?

Are there aliens among us?

  • Absolutely not

    Votes: 51 26.7%

  • Doubt it very much

    Votes: 67 35.1%

  • Maybe, maybe not

    Votes: 34 17.8%

  • Probably

    Votes: 19 9.9%

  • Certainly

    Votes: 20 10.5%
  • Total voters
    191
I've long suspected that Doctor Q is related to time travelling alien Doctor Who, so perhaps this poll is an attempt to hide his true nature by putting it in plain view, as it were. ;)

Is there life elsewhere? I reckon so. Has it visited us, or is it in a position to do so? Highly debatable.
 
Patrick MacNee said:
There are those who believe that life here began out there, far across the universe, with tribes of humans who may have been the forefathers of the Egyptians, or the Toltecs, or the Mayans. They may have been the architects of the great pyramids, or the lost civilizations of Lemuria or Atlantis. Some believe that there may yet be brothers of man who even now fight to survive far, far away, amongst the stars.
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Disguised as humans? No. Very unlikely there's even intelligent alien life here. However, there is quite a large possibility that extra-terrestrial microbes and/or viruses have descended to Earth at some point and are now part of our ecosystem.

So I vote Probably :)
 
Queso said:
Disguised as humans? No. Very unlikely there's even intelligent alien life here. However, there is quite a large possibility that extra-terrestrial microbes and/or viruses have descended to Earth at some point and are now part of our ecosystem.

So I vote Probably :)
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It is no more unlikely - at least by atheistic criteria - that there should be other ecosystems as developed as Earth's than that we should be here ourselves. Interplanetary travel arrangements, of course, are another question.
 
skunk said:
It is no more unlikely - at least by atheistic criteria - that there should be other ecosystems as developed as Earth's than that we should be here ourselves. Interplanetary travel arrangements, of course, are another question.
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Exactly. Given the size of the universe the chances of intelligent life being out there are as close to certain as they can be whilst still allowing for an infinitesimally small possibility that it isn't. There is also the school of thought that life having evolved here makes it more likely that life exists in the star systems closest to us. But even then we are talking about such enormous distances and timescales that the chances of that extra-stellar life being here with us now is very very small.

Stuff that comes from other bodies within our own Solar System though is another story. You see how much water vapour Enceladus throws out. If there's any life under the surface there it's extremely likely that some of it would have reached Earth during the last four milliard years. There are other moons and of course the planet Mars that could also contain or have contained the right conditions for a primordial soup, and given the way that DNA interactions can actually cause virus genomes to be incorporated into our own maybe we are all part alien. Hence the BSG opening credits quote :)
 
This survey seems to confirm my theory that when approached by a pollster a large number of people will go for the most outlandish answer possible,I know I certainly do. Is it possible,possibly, but it would be so unlikely as to be almost a infinitesimal possibility. As someone else noted I thought the author of the thread would be waloshin but Doctor Q :confused: (not that he offered any opinion of the absurdity or otherwise of the survey )

In case someone mistakenly thinks I'm denying the possibility of life forms in other parts of the Universe I'm not,to me that would be highly likely.Living amongst us disguised as us,not at all.
 
I doubt they come all the way from their distant planet just to make some crop circles and abduct humans. There should be some of em living in here, though probably not disguised as humans (The David Icke-style conspiracy theories are silly).

Oh, and.

Area 51.
 
I don't think there is complex alien life here on earth (I think it does exist somewhere out there) but there are probably microorganisms that have non-earth origins. :)
 
Peace said:
I don't understand it. A good portion of the scientific community believe there probably is life on other planets. If that's the case why wouldn't there be aliens on this one ?
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No. A good portion think there MIGHT be life elsewhere, but will tell you that the only right answer is 'we don't know'. Because we don't.

And if it was here - don't you think we would notice

1) Them
2) However they got here
3) However they communicate with home
 
No, I dont think theres any real aliens here. Just dumb fake people that act like it. There may be some in the universe somewhere though.
 
If by Alien the poll includes spiritual or other definitions of Alien, other than just 'from another planet'. Then I'd say yes I'd be open to believe that there may be another presence here, maybe beyond our perception, and not in a religious context either.
 
djellison said:
I was present at a lecture by Stephen Hawking, when he quite brilliantly said that he didn't believe aliens had visited the earth, because why would they only visit nut jobs and weirdos.

It got a big laugh :)
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I agree with dj's quote of Hawking here
 
Ignoring any religious beliefs I might have, I still would find it hard to believe that there are any intelligent beings, at least in our area of the universe. Isn't a common Sci-fi theory supposed to be that the amount of time between when a species discovers space travel and when it colonizes huge swaths of space supposed to be small? At least compared to the amount of time it would have evolved?
 
i think theyre in military or high level goverment research centers that contain aliens for experimental purposes. however, i dont think they could be my next door neighbor. in other words, i dont think theyre living amongst humans.
 
I do not think of such things. It makes my brain hurt :(

My brain nearly came out my ears after a recent conversation in Chemistry:
If space is always expanding, that means there must be a boundary. What is on the other side on that boundary? It can't be "space" because that is created by the expansion of the universe. It is "nothing", yet our definition of "nothing" is empty space which in the astronomy and physics world is "something"
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I now have a headache :(
 
OK you can tease me for starting the thread but when I see news reports like this one I'm curious why people might believe there are aliens among us. Space science interests me in general even though this is a bit on the fringe.

So far we have a few possible explanations of the poll results: a belief in other life as intelligent as humans could be an extension of spiritual beliefs (not little green men), some people purposely mis-answer surveys, and some people think about it scientifically based on odds and what we know about time and space.

In our own poll, 40% so far say at least "maybe" to alien life on earth, so perhaps it's not such a fringe belief after all.
 
Here's my take:

Chance of 'alien' life elsewhere in the universe: highly likely.

Chance of alien life on Earth: highly unlikely (I would say absolutely not, personally).

Chance most people even took that survey seriously in the first place: unlikely.
 
tooz said:
My brain nearly came out my ears after a recent conversation in Chemistry:
:(
Click to expand...

Take one dimension out of the equation. Imagine space is 2D - like the surface of a balloon. Draw two dots on it. Then inflate them. They're getting further apart -they're expanding. BUT - remember, we're thinking 2D here - so without using a third dimension (i.e. the air it's sat in) - what are they expanding in to.

(Answer - they're not expanding 'in' to anything)

It's a brain job - I know - our 3D world brains just can't do it.

It's like the 'what happened before the big bang' thing. It's like asking what a cup of coffee tasted like before it was made.
 
djellison said:
Take one dimension out of the equation. Imagine space is 2D - like the surface of a balloon. Draw two dots on it. Then inflate them. They're getting further apart -they're expanding. BUT - remember, we're thinking 2D here - so without using a third dimension (i.e. the air it's sat in) - what are they expanding in to.

(Answer - they're not expanding 'in' to anything)

It's a brain job - I know - our 3D world brains just can't do it.

It's like the 'what happened before the big bang' thing. It's like asking what a cup of coffee tasted like before it was made.
Click to expand...
brainMelt.jpg
 
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