Why do Australians believe silly things?

[davidc4430]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-29/why-do-australians-believe-silly-things/9000096

[lionrose.7]

I dont think believing in Aliens is silly, I think it is silly not to believe they are out there, in the endless Universe

[davidc4430]

[zanadoo_56]

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@lionrose.7 wrote:

I dont think believing in Aliens is silly, I think it is silly not to believe they are out there, in the endless Universe

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I reckon it's better to have an open mind than a closed one.

When I was at school I was taught Jupiter had 9 moons (the latest count is 69....and don't get me started on how many moons other planets in our solar system have), Saturn was the only planet with rings (Neptune has rather thin ones) and I can also remember the assertion (no matter how silly that sounds these days) that our sun was the ONLY one with planets.  God knows now many have now been discovered since the first one found outside our solar system in the 1990s.

Considering many of the 'building blocks of life' have been detected on comets I don't see how anyone could not believe in the possibility of life elsewhere.  What kinds of life depends on the conditions it has to develop under.  Earth type planets are being discovered, but as we also know from sulphur based bacteria that lives in the southeast Pacific Ocean, less than ideal conditions don't preclude the possibility of life, so who knows what is out there.

[ecar3483]

🙂

[springyzone]

I do believe we should keep open minds but I do agree with one comment in the article, about the value of impartiality, where it said too much emphasis has been placed on giving equal weight to all opinions as if all are as valid as each other.

I almost cheered when i read that, because all opinions are not as valid, some are backed up with a lot more evidence.

Doesn't mean they are necessarily always 100% right but not all views are equally valid, not all religious beliefs are equally deserving of respect and so on.

It's okay to judge.

As for alien life, I am sure it is out there too and one day we may come across it but I'd be willing to bet that it is 99% likely our first contact will be microscopic life. It's the most prolific form of life on earth, so probably the most prolific form elsewhere. 

[davidc4430]

is there life beyond our planet?

i have no idea.

but i'm yet to see real proof the people who were there when things like the pyramids were built could actually build them.

its not just the pyramids but lots of things from way way back, inca tombs/giant buildings.

i mean they built these things then just died out.

you see the people in these places today have trouble tieing a shoelace, and they're forbears built great huge temples!

even the giant statues on easter island, how did they do that when we would have trouble doing it today.

but then where is any proof some space dudes helped?

just leaves me scratching my head.

[davidc4430]

[springyzone]

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@davidc4430 wrote:

is there life beyond our planet?

i have no idea.

but i'm yet to see real proof the people who were there when things like the pyramids were built could actually build them.

its not just the pyramids but lots of things from way way back, inca tombs/giant buildings.

i mean they built these things then just died out.

you see the people in these places today have trouble tieing a shoelace, and they're forbears built great huge temples!

even the giant statues on easter island, how did they do that when we would have trouble doing it today.

but then where is any proof some space dudes helped?

just leaves me scratching my head.

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I think some ancient civilisations could do more than we think.

Just look at hypocausts, an early form of central heating used by the Romans BC.

And some forms of it have been found in what is now Pakistan, dating back to at least 2000BC. 

As civilsations fell, some of their technologies fell into disuse.

As for the pyramids, I have read they were built over decades and with slave labour. It's harder for us to realise but life was cheap. Probably thousands died to build the things.

I think humans have been more innovative than we give credit for but we're talking way before any internet so it hasn't always been evenly or quickly spread across the world and little patches of innovation have risen & fallen. populations were much sparser back then.

[not_for_sale2025]

Religious writings worldwide are riddled with reports of objects, machines and beings descending from the sky. Back then they referred to the beings as angels and gods and the crafts as chariots etc. Either these events did or did not happen. But if they were to happen today, most people would report them as aliens or alien craft. The explanation would somewhat depend on the era or the time the events occurred.

Most of today's renowned scientists believe life does exist elsewhere in the universe. The Drake's Equation suggests life probably exists on over a million other planets and moons. Scientists are now asking 'when' does life exist, rather than 'if' life exists elsewhere. Humans have existed for about the last 200,000 of the odd 3.5 billion years life has been on earth. If the scientists are correct and the key question is 'when did/do they exist', then I think it would be ludicrous to believe that they have only existed since humans have existed. The universe is supposedly 13.8 billion years old.

Some of the more highly regarded scientists e.g. Michio Kaku believes it is likely that intelligent life far superior to ours is out there. But the question again would be when is it out there because extinction would be a threat anywhere in the universe. I don't think it is silly to think some form of alien life may have visited earth in the past. I'm sure they would not have delayed their visit for millions or billions of years just to wait for us to evolve. If the question is silly then so are our most brilliant scientists!