Poll: Should we fear aliens?

[dancinginfernal]

We should be judicious, but not fearful.

We may be so in awe of the aliens, that we would not realize that they may try to deceive us. We should be wary.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

I don't get some people. Like you people. Why can't anyone in this world ever appreciate that God created us in his image; created us alone. Being created in the image of a God, why would anyone think anything could ever bring us down except each other? And for that matter, Why would God make more than what He has?

Here, I've even got scriptural evidence that supports my theory of there being no aliens:

Genesis 3:20:
"... And Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the MOTHER OF ALL LIVING"

Believe what you like, but I believe this to be the truth; that because she was the mother of all living, that the only living things in existence always have and always will reside on this little blue planet.

Not to mention, that God speaks of only this earth in great detail during creation, and individually created the earth, the plants, the animals, birds, etc, and finally man, in the greatest detail of all.

So basically, if you spend your life worrying about aliens or hoping someday we will "make contact", I am undoubtedly going to say that you are wasting your time, your life, and anything else that makes you human.

Oh god I hope this is a troll.

 

[OutcastBOS]

I don't think ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL YOU SHOULD FEAR THAT THAT IS YOUR GENETIC SUPERIOR. WE ARE THE HARBINGER OF YOUR GENETIC DESTINY RELEASING CONTROL OF THIS FORM we should fear aliens.

 

[Killbuzz]

No living human truly knows the horror that writhes in the center of the universe...

Can you truly know that? Have you talked to every human being that ever lived? Can you truly know there is horror to be found? How do you know we are not at the center of the universe.

If we ourselves cannot keep from destroying our planet, do you really think aliens will care whether we live or die ?

You say we cannot keep ourselves from destroying this planet, yet do you think any other race that could exist would do any differently? You say we are destroying the planet, which God made for us to inhabit, knowing what we would and could do, preparing the earth for it?

...boundless icy malice that long ago set in motion the catastrophic destruction of everything we know.

If everything is destruction, then nothing would exist. Out of corruption comes destruction, out of destruction comes nothing. Waste. Garbage. Nothing.

The things beyond our knowledge are so unthinkably alien that to merely comprehend something of them will rip our neural architecture to shreds, leaving us dribbling in blissful senility before we are ultimately consumed from within by our own genetic self destruct codes.

You say that some things are beyond our knowledge, our comprehension? It takes only an open mind to comprehend and accept what is, and what isn't.

We are property of our dormant masters to come, may you be the first consumed, and become part of something greater than yourself.

Property of our dormant masters. Yea, I'll second that dormant part. So dormant, that no proof has ever been found of them; they only exist in the imagination.

To have even an impaired image of God upon us, we are still by far greater than all but the Lord. Why do you place your thesis without even a minor fact or answer? Give me something that supports your D-Day preaching.

 

[joshuaayt]

If they are advanced enough to come here, we would be as monkeys to them.
If we advanced all of a sudden, however (A la Mass Effect) and just sorta happened to meet them, then I can see peace happening. For a time, anyway.

 

[Soxafloppin]

Nah weve got Tony Jaa, and they know that.

 

[JourneyThroughHell]

If they get to contact us (highly unlikely, imo), then they are already lightyears ahead of us in technology. If they get to Earth, we are all pretty much fucked.
So, yeah, if they find us, we're screwed but them finding us is highly unlikely.

 

[GothMatt]

There was an article in a paper about how Aliens are trying to contact us at this very moment. Naturally the media is almost entirely fictional junk, but what if it were true? I would say yes, we should be very afraid of Aliens. If an extraterrestrial race is anything like we are, nothing would stop them from plowing through us and moving in.

 

[Socius]

Not anymore than we should fear ourselves.

 

[Vrex360]

Seriously?

By now I thought I had made all you humans well and truly understand that you must fear me, obviously I need to kill a lot more of you until you get the message.

On topic: an Alien civilisation would either:
A. be a lot like human civilisation and therefore would be just as much of a risk as any other human civilisation is to us right now. It's worth remembering when Spanish settlers arrived at South America, they slaughtered the locals by the truckload because they considered them 'lesser' because they weren't as advanced but now years later humans wouldn't still think like that.... aliens could be similar.
B. They could think and behave nothing like humans and as a result it could be impossible to tell how they would respond to humans.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Does no one watch Star Gate or anything like that? There will be peaceful good races out there but knowing our luck first contact will be with the cunts of the galactic stage.

 

[Wintermoot]

I think aliens would destroy us or keep us as slaves (al,a Combine from HL2) resistance would be futile if they have the technology to travel across the stars evaporating a planet would be a piece of cake

 

[David_G]

theres always a possibility they dont know of war... just throwing that out there they might be such a peaceful race there had never been any disagreements, every did as told, so therefore no war.

another thing is, who said they will have sentient thoughts? sure they may be smart, but what if they dont have their own minds? like a queen controls all of them, and without the queen theyre all a bunch of husks. thats a possibility.

and if were also to go to another planet before we find aliens, most likely the first species we find will be cattle (that's who they found first on earth.) and we would think the cattle are the sentient ones, while the things killing them are their predators, while in truth are the owners of the cattle.

Oh, someone's been reading Ender, eh?

snip

I actually read through the whole thing, and you make some good points.
My opinion is that whether we should fear aliens depends on various variables. For example, there could be more alien species than one, they might have come across eachother before us, and they might have had a big war with a bunch of losses on both sides. That would make them be more wary, and they might even not approach us.

 

[Bobzer77]

Well I think the problem with what Hawkings said is

pretty much every encounter in human history between two civilizations with different levels of technology has ending in the more advance civilization killing/raping all the other guys and taking their stuff.

human history

I think we are fools if we base what an alien civilisation might do on what we did. I don't think anything in the universe can make as bad a mess of it as us.

 

[Evil the White]

The only way humans and aliens will make peaceful contact is if the two species live on completely incompatible worlds. Like they need radiation and see in infra-red or something. That way there would be less chance of a war because neither side would rally want the others homeworld.

 

[GothmogII]

Fear something you know nothing about and are unlikely to ever encounter in your lifetime? Not really. Be cautious about potential dealings I suppose, but with the same caution you'd have when crossing a road. That, there's obviously a good chance you could get run over, but only if you're not careful. An example of this is, assuming any aliens are either good or evil, like us or not like us, completely alien or completely relate-able. Such things, while interesting for discussion, only have basis on things -we- know, and probably isn't the best kind of knowledge to apply to this situation.

 

[Malkavian]

To have even an impaired image of God upon us, we are still by far greater than all but the Lord. Why do you place your thesis without even a minor fact or answer? Give me something that supports your D-Day preaching.

You mean like you gave "proof" for yours? I respect your faith, sir, but you have to understand that the rest of us don't accept "it's in the bible" as proof of anything.
What I am getting at is that your prooved your thesis no better than this guy did.
Again, I respect your faith. But you can't just assume that everyone share it. And if you discuss with people without faith, you can't use faith as an argument.

As for the OP, i did read that argument by Stephen Hawking some time ago. In fact, I think it was here. The main flaw in the argument is that, as so many have pointed out, that we assume that the aliens think like the western world thought during colonization. Aliens would most likely possesss a mindset totally different from ours, even more so that we experience here on earth, between different cultures. Yes, had it been western europe during colonization that had spaceships and visited earth, we'd be screwed. But maybe they are like western world today, and merely think we need to be helped along to become like them. Or maybe they are something completely different. They could destroy us, they could help us, they could paint a painting of raptor jesus on every single monument of the world and leave without a word. It's impossible to guess at how they would think, what they would do.

But, they DO probably possess way superior weaponry, so it is best to assume they are bad news. Ironically, it is probably that kind of thinking that will get us well and truly screwed.

 

[Chardan]

Well, what reason would they have to attack us. We would have inferior weapons and technology compared to them, so there wouldn't be anything worth taking. Then again, if its enslavement of the human race, no doubt the Earth will go out fighting. WE GOT DEM NUKES AIMED SKY HIGH!