Do you believe that intelligent life exists outside of Earth?

[Yazman]

If you believe that they have visited earth or that they are among us, what do you base this belief on? What evidence, events, or witnesses would you cite?

If you believe we are alone - why?

If you believe we are the only sapient life - why?

I do not hold a concrete view on this but I am willing to take a look at any evidence that all parties present to support their views, although I lean towards the view that there is life, but we have not encountered it yet. The likelihood of environments existing that can support even basic forms of life seems to be increasing the more we develop our knowledge of other planets in the galaxy and their environments, particularly as we seem to be finding ice and liquid water. Given the nature of many of Earth's extremophiles and how many exoplanets we seem to be finding, I think it is entirely possible that sapient life may have developed somewhere else in the galaxy.

[Coggeh]

I do believe their is life out there in some form or way .I cite logic really , that the sheer size of our universe etc their would have to be some life forms .

I think it'll be a very long time until we have proof of life out there ,so in a sum up i believe their is and we haven't encountered it yet .

As for the alien conspiracy stuff , load of crap .

[ZeroNowhere]

I don't. However, I'm not 'unsure' about whether I believe in it or not, and nor do I believe that we are alone in the universe. So yeah.

[Yazman]

I don't understand your view Zero.. you don't, but you don't believe we are alone? I don't get it?

[Rosa Lichtenstein]

Yes, but I am only visiting.

[MMIKEYJ]

There has to be other life out there... There is plenty of evidence that we've been visited in the near past and ancient past, and currently are being visited as well.

In all likelihood they are walking amongst us now, even as we speak.

[Elect Marx]

I am fairly sure that life is statistically probable, considering even the likelihood that similar lifeforms to us can form or spread by planetary seeding.

Self-awareness and higher intelligence seem to be only a matter of time in any effort to regularly adapt to a changing environment. The main obstacle I see, is how highly intelligent lifeforms can so easily use technology to destroy themselves.

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

Considering the huge variety of habitats that Earthly life inhabits, the massive number of potentially life-bearing worlds, and the possibility of life taking forms other than solid carbon-based forms (Alien lifeforms could be plastic, liquid or gaseous, and could be based on non-carbon chemistry or even more exotic stuff such as hot or cold plasmas, neutron star matter or natural "electronic" life in pools of liquid helium), I think the discovery of extraterrestrial life is simply a matter of time. However, we may be waiting a long time.

As for ancient astronaut theories and the idea that aliens are currently among us, such ideas are not only completely lacking in evidence, but display a shocking degree of anthropocentrism - why the fuck would a species capable of crossing interstellar distances bother itself with a bunch of squishy ape-things that have yet to expand beyond the confines of their native planet?

Protip to the conspiracy nuts: believe it or not, the universe and it's contents do not exist for the benefit of human beings, or any other sapient species that happens to be around for that matter.

Grey aliens? Give me a fucking break. Whatever intelligent aliens will look like, they won't look like some loser in a cheap Halloween costume. I could go into a huge rant about the intellectual and imaginative bankruptcy of alien conspiracy believers and Hollywood, but maybe I'll save that for another time. Let's just say that even real life ecosystems display more morphological diversity than the likes of Star Trek et al.

[Dr Mindbender]

At the very least, if not intelligence, there has to be life elsewhere.

The laws of logic and probability dictate this. The fact that we have 2 neighbouring planets in our solar system (Earth and Mars) that possibly both host life suggests that the universe must be absolutely teeming with life.

I think it will take us longer to find intelligence but if i was a betting man i'd put money on it existing.

[Some Red Guy]

Yes. Considering the size of the univere there has to be life somewhere else. I belive the existance of extraterrestrials is pretty much beyond doubt.
When it comes to aliens on earth, I've done a lot of reading on the subject. NoXion makes good points in his post but I still believe there could have been ET's to this planet. Not unthinkable and not impossible. Unlikely, yes, but many unlikely things have happened before. I heard the Soviet government was heavily into UFO research as well. On the whole "how did they get here", I found an interesting article.
I can't post links, but google "UFOs: Challenge to SETI Specialists"
After the revolution we will probably know the truth, whatever it may be.

[Dean]

The third option was the only rational one, because it didn't include absolutes.

[Led Zeppelin]

I don't understand your view Zero.. you don't, but you don't believe we are alone? I don't get it?

I think he meant that he doesn't believe in intelligent life existing, but simply life.

The third option was the only rational one, because it didn't include absolutes.

Haha, that reminds me of that scene from Star Wars; "Only a Sith deals in absolutes!"

[WhitemageofDOOM]

Are there other life bearing planets in the universe? Almost certainly.
Are there other animals that can be called people? Almost certainly.

Will we ever meet them? HAAHAHAAHAHAAHAHAHAHA, no. The distances and possible travel speeds are simply too much of a barrier.

[Tzonteyotl]

Are there other life bearing planets in the universe? Almost certainly.
Are there other animals that can be called people? Almost certainly.

Will we ever meet them? HAAHAHAAHAHAAHAHAHAHA, no. The distances and possible travel speeds are simply too much of a barrier.

Ah, but you see, that's where wormholes come in. And Infinite Improbability Drives and...

[Tzonteyotl]

As far as the original question, I'd have to say it is probable that there are other intelligent lifeforms out there. Not just because of the size of the universe, but also because of its age. Given that the Earth is only 4.5 billion years old and we've evolved in that period from previous lifeforms, if life began earlier on older planets (the universe being about 14 billion years old) that's more than enough time for intelligent life to evolve, assuming conditions remained favorable to whatever life there was and allowed for its continued evolution. In any case, I didn't actually vote in the poll as I felt there should be an option saying that yes, intelligent life is probable, but that it's unsure as to whether we'll ever make contact.

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

Ah, but you see, that's where wormholes come in. And Infinite Improbability Drives and...

No need for that, we can colonise the universe at sublight speeds. It'll just take us a very long time...

[Glorious Union]

I think that it is very possible that lein life has visited earth before, after all, we are only in our what is it now, four thousandth year? And the Earth has been around for a few billion years. That deffinately enough time for a sentient species to find space travel and visit Earth. But I don't beleive they walk among us, thats just ridiculous.

[Dooga Aetrus Blackrazor]

This topic is a joke. I haven't posted here in awhile, but, wow. No wonder people think leftists are delusional. There is no compelling evidence for life outside of Earth. An overwhelming majority of scientists know this. Even "IF" you think there "COULD" be intelligent life outside Earth, there is a big difference in believing in possibility and believing in fact.

If that many of you honestly "believe" in intelligent life outside Earth, you need to come back to reality.

[Blackscare]

This topic is a joke. I haven't posted here in awhile, but, wow. No wonder people think leftists are delusional. There is no compelling evidence for life outside of Earth. An overwhelming majority of scientists know this. Even "IF" you think there "COULD" be intelligent life outside Earth, there is a big difference in believing in possibility and believing in fact.

If that many of you honestly "believe" in intelligent life outside Earth, you need to come back to reality.

Why is it so unlikely? Most people on here aren't saying that they're walking among us (ok, well one did).

What reason do we have to believe that in such a massive universe that is as old as it is, there isn't life similar to our own out there?

Why couldn't intelligent life arise somewhere else?

Most people accept it as fact because given the size of the universe, mathematically it is very, very likely that somewhere else the factors required for life as we know it to form would come together into a habitable planet. No one here is saying "Yes, I KNOW THEY EXIST, AND I'LL TELL YOU WHAT PLANET THEY'RE ON".

It seems pretty reasonable to me to assume intelligent life is somewhere else in the universe at this very moment, to believe otherwise is to be completely arrogant and egotistical. What makes us so god damned special? Certainly not some invisible man in the sky, if that's where you're getting these silly ideas from.

[Blackscare]

There is obviously no direct evidence, but we've only been looking for a short time, and we're not sure exactly what to look for. Who knows what methods they would use to communicate, maybe we're not looking at the right types of signals with SETI?

From logic we can infer that there is most likely life like us somewhere else in the universe. Your argument seems a lot like the "flat earthers" from back in the day. "If the world is round, why is the ground flat? Ha, I got you! The direct evidence isn't there!".