steve, you want me to delete the post with your email address? Or, you can just edit it so as to delete your address.
Jespah
Discretion being the better part of valour, I deleted it my self but thanks for hint.
New Year Resolution....I MUST NOT GO ON ABUZZ OR A2K AFTER A FEW BEERS!
Some question the existence of "Intelligent" life ANYWHERE in The Universe ... local region not excepted.
timber
Husker, I love your animated graphic. Do the pictures symbolize the Golden Mean?
Diane, I was watching a movie called PI on the IFC channel, and it was very interesting, they even mentioned my former alais name, which I've never head mentioned in combination before so I looked up the movie on the net, got the site, like the graphic so I plugged it it, seemed like it fit in an interesting kind of way.
Interesting bunch of responses.
For those of us who believe there is no life out there, other than here on Earth, then I wonder what are all those other planets and solar systems for? Our viewing pleasure? I think not. Of course there are life forms. Maybe not in forms WE view as life. We do relate everything else to our own image and to our own perception of intelligence.
I am sure our imaginations are capable of much but I do not think we are really capable of believing that there are life-forms out there that are more intelligent and/or prettier than we are! We enjoy sci-fi movies about such subjects but we really do not believe it is so. That is because we are little smug in perhaps believing WE are masters of the universe, just as we are here on Earth, and that no creature on this planet or another has a higher intelligence than we do. Maybe this is because we have not found evidence of it yet. Or maybe we have found the evidence but are too stupid to recognise it for what it is.
Has anyone watched the movie "The Matrix"? Along with some excellent special effects and action scenes that have been copied ever since, there was an interesting concept - that of humans being a lower life-form within the confines of an intellectually superior species grasp - a battery for the use of a species that humans were not consciously aware of, because our small brains could not cope with knowing the real truth. That we could really be the lower life-form without even realizing it.
We look at some animals as our pets or our food. I often wonder are we the pets and food of another species and completely oblivious of it?
Imagine that!
Another thought is perhaps we are not the first planet to have a loud and thriving life. I wonder if other planets were inhabited by high populations of life-forms that proved as damaging to their planet as we are on the road to being with ours, and who may have, at one point, totally annihilated their planet before successfully finding a replacement for it. I wonder if this is why the space program gets so much interest and funding? Because we are going to eventually deplete Earth of its resources and find ourselves having to forage on another planet to continue our species? Or when the Earth is destroyed and humans are no longer the force we believe ourselves to be, another planet will begin with a new species that was either already in existence or is birthed anew, neither in our image not our species.
Heeven, To piggy back on your idea, and to agree with your thesis, it seems life forms are capable of acclimating to their environment no matter how harsh. We are finding so many examples of life forms existing in places we never thought possible. c.i.
It seems my selection in the poll placed me in the majority, however I just wanted to add my personal take on the possibilities; it seems to me that due to the communications constraints created by the very nature of "space/time", it is very unlikely that any exolifeform able to interact with us would wish to, due to the extreme technological/evolutionary gap that would exist between us (considering how far from instigating interstellar contact we are at present). And, I hastily add, it is also highly possible that this is currently the only instance of sentience currently existing in the universe that we observe. I think we should be fully prepared to entertain ourselves for at least the next few millenia!
There are too many things that I have no explanations for, for me to rule it out( I myself saw a flying object I could not identify - as a teenager).
I started thinking about this again recently, after renting and seeing "Signs" (the movie) for the first time.
Speaking of which, have you all ever gone to some of the websites about the crop circle phenomena, and checked out some of the pictures of these things? I mean, some of them are truly unbelievable. They baffle the hell out of anyone trying to explain them away as hoaxes.
snood, crop circles, Nessie, and Bigfoot have been pretty well debunked to my satisfaction. The concepts embodied therein retain great puiblic appeal, but fall to dispassionate logical examination. This no doubt explains their ongoing currency. The public in general seems to prefer being fooled to being disappointed, the way I see it.
Nice sig, BTW.
timber
tim, I also feel the same about UFO's.
c.i.
I would suggest that God was/is likely an "alien".
aliens
But we must always remember that the term UFO means no more than flying objects that have not been identified--yet. I believe they do exist. I find no evidence, however, to interpret these "UFOs" as alien space crafts
That's what I meant; they're not alien space crafts. c.i.
aliens
C.I. yes, I know. You and I at least take pride in trying to be rational people. Snood is obviously a romantic. I would hate to see that disappear, but it must be restrained or tamed, like a beautiful arabian stallion. I, for one, LOVE to let my rational side go dormant and watch star trek (even ignoring the absurd fact that slightly altered humanoids in another galaxy are speaking "english"--actually translated language by means of a machine--in MIDDLE CLASS twentieth century english and with human western cultural cognitive categories). I enjoyed "Signs" without for one second being frightened by the possibilities it suggests. Absurdity is an aspect of art, not science. And I think it important that we honor the necessity for both aspects. We must simply not confound them.
cjhsa wrote:I would suggest that God was/is likely an "alien".
I would think allowing the concept of the former requires accompaniment by the other.
timber
aliens
Cjhsa, by "alien" do you mean that God was not "born" on the planet earth (not even in Jerusalem)? If He or She is ubiguitous, as all believers seem to hold, then God cannot be alien anywhere. But that's a very big "if."
Guess I'm not much of a "believer" then.
I think that aliens are good for America, we were founded on aliens, without aliens - well?
Who discovered America - NPR had a show on this the other day, a caller made the comment of the fact that the Indains didn't need to be discovered - good point!
So who is going to discover Earth?
