Why do people think aliens aren't real?

Question

Logically, planets don't NEED oxygen/water to support life, if we don't know about an alien yet, how do we know they need oxygen? what if they have some super advance organ that allows them to breathe hydrogen or some unknown gas?

And out of all the planets out there, it's hard to believe a 1 out 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 chance of earth being the only planet with life....

The only way they would make contact with us is if they were WAY more advanced than us, and there's no reason to assume they are. Maybe all the really advanced species are too far away to make contact.

Plus, our galaxy is WAY WAY out in the boonies when it comes to galaxies, were not exactly very close to other galaxies.... All the aliens probly have telescopes, looked at earth, and said "Ya know, if they were just a couple billion miles closer, we'd send a probe...." lol

We have only discovered the solvents and elements that are in places WE'VE been, such as earth, and a couple other planets (we sent robots to do our work) so, we really don't know all substances that are out there, so we can't say that one needs oxygen. What if oxygen wasn't orignally intended for us to breathe, and we just adapted?

O.o it is a thought...

Answer 1

The simple answer to this is that NOBODY knows if they are in fact real or not. I personally believe it's likely there is life out there (none of which have been here imo). But no real scientist can say unequivocally that there is or is not alien life because we have not found it yet. This is how science works. You can't prove something doesn't exist because you haven't observed it and VICE VERSA (which is sort of what you're trying to do here). What you should be saying is that given the size of the universe and the many unknowns about which life can exist, it is highly probable that life exists beyond Earth. But you don't know for a fact.


To sum this up:

Anyone who says they DO exist (for a fact) is a moron.

Anyone who says they DO NOT exist (for a fact) is a moron of the same degree.

Answer 2

We don't know that life CANNOT exist without water, but that's the only example we have and other candidate solvents (liquid ammonia, etc.) don't appear to be as friendly to organic compounds.

We know that microbial life can exist without free oxygen, but that's a long way from space-faring civilizations.

Last, we don't know how to solve all the problems of travelling between stars.  Even if we could, it would most likely be a one-way trip, and who'd go to look at some strange planet when nobody you know would be left "back home" to hear about what you discovered?

There may be plenty of life in the universe.  Most of that life is probably on the order of green scum, not little green men.  And little green men being common enough to have shown up at our Earth during our brief window of scientific exploration seems vanishingly unlikely.

Sure, these things are theoretically possible.  But, like any claim, the burden of proof (that there exist aliens from other stars who have visted Earth) is on the person making it and not on skeptics to prove it wrong.

Answer 3

Because it upset the most common notion that we humans are the center of the universe. It would also disrupt religion were Christians believed the stars in Heaven & everything on Earth were created for us by God. It would also shrink our place in the universe. If the aliens were more advanced than us, it might give a lot of people an iferriority complex.
I personnally believe they're out there. It's just crossing those vast distances that's posing a slight problem. That's why we havn't met any of them yet.

Answer 4

There are probably 10 to the 22nd power stars in the notionally visible Universe. There are probably several thousand billion planets (10 to the 12th power) and even if only one is a million is like Earth there would be a million Earth like planets. It could be a smaller number or it could be bigger.

The chances are that if there is life on any of these Earth-like planets, it is only the local equivalent of bacteria. For most of the history of life on Earth, the only life was single celled or casual associations of cells that could and did live independently.

Even if there were multi-celled animals, they might only be as smart as fish, dogs or monkeys, or not even that smart. For most of the history of multicellular life on Earth, no animal was any smarter.

If there are intelligent beings, there is no guarantee that they have advanced as far as the medieval Europeans, Chinese or Indians 500 years ago. For most of the history of humans on Earth, technology and science etc. had not got even that far.

So the chances of there being a space-faring civilisation anywhere else in the Universe seems pretty small. There might be a hundred, there might be a million. Even if there were a hundred million, these are not enough for one per galaxy.

So the chances of there being any other space-faring civilisation within tens of thousands of light years seem rather small.

Since the speed of light seems to be an absolute limit for objects with mass, crossing the likely distances between one civilisation and another could take half a million years if not more. That is likely to make most aliens and humans reluctant to boldly go - - -. So the chances that any extraterrestrial aliens have visited this planets appear to be miniscule.

Historical records of major events are pretty good for some parts of the Earth over the previous 2,500 or more years. There is no record or indication of aliens visiting Thebes, Memphis, Babylon, Sumer, Ur, Athens, Troy, Rome, Paris, Delhi, London, Beijing, Shanghai, or any other large city or town.

Aliens as an explanation for any unidentified flying objects is the least probable one that does not involve outright magic, superstition and fantasy.

And that is why I don't believe that extraterrestrial aliens have ever visited the Earth.

Answer 5

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RE:
Why do people think aliens aren't real?
Logically, planets don't NEED oxygen/water to support life, if we don't know about an alien yet, how do we know they need oxygen? what if they have some super advance organ that allows them to breathe hydrogen or some unknown gas?

And out of all the planets out there, it's hard to...

Answer 6

You make a lot of sense. In fact, I think that many, if not most, share your view (including me). It would be very presumptuous and not to mention, ignorant to just say "Aliens aren't real" when they can not prove they DON'T exist.

My speculations have me believing that Mars may (or may have had) some sort of lifeform, perhaps bacteria. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune all have thick gaseous atmospheres in which some kind of blimp creature or even bacteria may flourish. Perhaps they'd feed on the hydrogen and helium or on ice crystals. Venus has a thick and dense atmosphere. Who knows what could be hiding in there. Right now it's all speculation but "what if?"

Perhaps comets and asteroids have somekind of organisms living on or even inside them. Okay, I better shut up now as this post could go on and on and on.

But back to your question, I do not believe that only Earth (teaming with all sorts of life) can support life. There has to be something out there. Even the stars and planets may have some kind of consciousness.

Answer 7

Basically, because we haven't made contact with them. People are usually the type to say, "I don't believe it until I see it." Unless, we've seen these aliens, then we'll believe they exist. Like magic, or god, or anything, people want proof. & want to see things for themselfs before they believe it. & also because we haven't found life on other planets, and the universe is so big, we're probably not going to find life out there in our lifetime.

Answer 8

Your explanation can't be argued with. But I don't know why you ask that question when the premise that "people think aliens aren't real" is not the case. Who says they think that?

Answer 9

I think people dont believe because they only ever hear about rednecks being probed. Come on...I do believe in aliens but I don't think they come to test on us. People just only ever hear retards talking about them. Now with scientology. I'm more sick of hearing about aliens than ever.

Answer 10

On the whole, "people" (presumably meaning the populace at large) generally tend to accept the consensus of informed observers. In the case of UFOs and aliens from other planets, that would be the aviation and space authorities and the scientific community.

Among those informed observers it is unanimously agreed that there is no actual evidence in real life that aliens from other planets exist.

And that is why "people" don't think they do exist.

To get "people" to join your faith, you are going to have to come up with solid, replicable, orthogonal evidence to show that aliens from space do exist.

.........We're waiting.........