h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

you seem to be suggesting that atheists don't belive in anything. i don't quite aggree with this. i consider myselfan atheist and yet i am perfectly prepaired to believe in aliens, infact i don't see that there is any way aliens can't exist the universe is so big. i think atheists simply don't belive in any form of god or creator or that there is someone up there watching over us. this doesn't rule out the idea of aliens who have no idea about our existance.

hmm - I can't see where that's being said, myself... what have I missed?

in the section entitled "atheist or agnostic" there is a line that says: "be it god, or aliens, or whatever."
this seems to suggest that atheists can't believe in aliens.

I think this is meant to distinguish atheists from Scientologists, Heaven's Gate, and other cults. The question is whether you see aliens as a "higher power" or not, the way I read it...

The Diceman is correct. That bit refers to a minority belief that life began on earth when an alien intelligence 'seeded' the planet with the ingredients for life, and has guided or influenced our development.

Do I personally believe aliens exist? No, but I don't disbelieve either. Do I think they've influenced our own planet? Not bloody likely.

The Diceman is correct. That bit refers to a minority belief that life began on earth when an alien intelligence 'seeded' the planet with the ingredients for life, and has guided or influenced our development.

Do I personally believe aliens exist? No, but I don't disbelieve either. Do I think they've influenced our own planet? Not bloody likely.

ok i see what you mean. aliens could still be more inteligent than us but they haven't had any effect on us. i'll agree with that. no matter how inteligent the aliens are i can't really see them crossing the gulf of space to get to us very easily.

but this brings up another problem; how can you not believe in aliens.

How can ANYONE not believe in aliens? In all the vast, huge, leviathan, gargantuan unexploredness of the galaxy (let alone the universe) how can anyone think we're alone out there?

As I said, I don't believe, but I don't disbelieve, either. I'm agnostic on them. I think the odds are pretty good, and we should definitely seek them out. But until I see evidence to convince me that there really are aliens out there, I will remain agnostic.

Hello fellow skeptic!

How can I not believe in aliens? simple. If you look at the scientific theorum of the beginnings of life on earth, it's filled with some pretty amazing flukes. I mean, there's roughly the same chance of a tornade striking a junk yard and assembling a working 747 jet out of spare parts. I'm not discounting that they exist, but I'm not agnostic about them. I just recognize that as a human, my pathetically little influenced, trashed, media-ruined brain has an immesurable capacity for error.

my life skills teacher thought that Jesus was an alien and that you could explain his miracles as alien technology. Or was it that he was a time traveller?

Oh and that arguement Clarke made about the 747 is pretty similar to the watch theory that there is a god ie it's too complicated to have just evolved.

But hey it's too crap to have a God

I've been reading a book on ancient history that entertains some of the alien theories. I've found them all to be at least as ridiculous as the god theories.

>Ie it's to complicated to have evolved<
Not really. Evolution is only genetic variability, where a certain trait is bred into an offspring, and if this trait increases the ability of the offspring to survive, it will tend to be healthier and
stronger than the competition, able to find a mate, etc etc, and whatever progeny this Variabelized (not a word, but I think you catch my proverbial drift.) creature creates that also carry this certain characteristic will have a better chance to survive and mate in turn, starting a cascading effect. Pretty simple, really.

I like that; Ridiculous god theories.

No it's not that I don't understand evolution more that you're own arguement seemed to suggest it was an amazing fluke therefore perhaps not a fluke at all.

No, the creation of life was a fluke. Evolution and Adaption (the same thing, really) are completely natural and forseeable side affects to life.

Interestingly, recent research has suggested that extra-terrestial life is more likely than previously thought. This is because of the discovery of simple organisms in parts of earth previously thought to be inhabitable. Thus was another prevois anthropocentric belief like those of many religions demolished: the assumption that all life has to be basically like us and therefore that life elsewhere is highly unlikely. We now know that it doesn't so life elsewhere is much more likely.

QED.

oops, for inhabitable read uninhabitable