Tobermory / January 5, 2007 4:56 PM

I don't, but I have a pretty good friend who believes it all - UFO's, goverment cover-up conspiracies, aliens, alien abductions, etc. I just try to avoid the topic of conversation with her.

leah / January 5, 2007 5:03 PM

Meh possibly. But what's more interesting is this guy at 1:58 on the video:

UFO sighting at O'Hare airport

http://wgntv.trb.com/news/local/asseenon/

Sorry for the crappy link. But this guy is wonderful. And he belieeeeves, man.

fluffy / January 5, 2007 5:26 PM

I don't but my cat does so I try not to bring it up.

Mo / January 5, 2007 5:41 PM

aliens? like life on other planets? well, considering there are 100 billion stars in the Milky Way alone, and each one having a smattering of planets, and millions and millions of other galaxies outside the Milky Way, absolutely there are aliens. How could there not be? Will they be little gray men? I doubt it. It's possible of course, but why would the human mind be so small as to think that only carbon based, oxygen and nitrogen environments could support life? And if life evolved from different sources, they are probably going to look more different than anything we can imagine, not just bigger eyes and long, bony fingers. But of course, if there are other planets like Earth, those aliens probably will look like us.

People always cite odds, like what are the odds that life would spring up on various planets when it was such a gamble that we did. Well, if you look at the timeline it took for life to evolve, 5 billion years (roughly the age of Earth), and compare it to the number of other planets, and the fact that the known universe has been around for about 13.7 billion years, well, I've never been good with permutations, but that's a heck of a lot of chances for life to spring up, don't you think?

Of course, you could argue all this away with creationism and intelligent design, but there's no point in pitting science against mythology. You can't disprove something that doesn't exist and cannot be proven even if it does.

so, short answer, yeah, i believe. but were the pyramids built by them? is there a crash site at Roswell? Couldn't say for sure, and I don't spend much time thinking about it.

4point44 / January 5, 2007 6:12 PM

proof positive.

Marilyn / January 5, 2007 6:14 PM

Life somewhere else in the universe - yes.

Them visiting us - no. But our current president reminds me a lot of Lexx's Mr. President, an evil spirit from the planet fire who lies about everything and does EVERYTHING the Prince (the devil) tells him to do.

spence / January 5, 2007 7:40 PM

only Tralfamadorians.

cory / January 5, 2007 9:53 PM

Absolutely. In fact, the Easter Bunny, Mr. Spock and I were discussing this just the other day.

printdude / January 5, 2007 11:06 PM

I belive that there are unidentified Flying Objects. I also believe that there are sentinent beings not born on this planet.

maardvark / January 5, 2007 11:39 PM

There almost surely is life in some form elsewhere in the universe, due to the probabilistic argument others have mentioned. I suspect it is almost surely nothing whatever like what we have. I mean, we think by sending electric pulses through long neurons that are massed into a grey lump of watery carbon-stuff, right? That's pretty weird when you think about it, and there's no reason to expect that that particular system got duplicated somewhere else. There's no reason why intelligent life elsewhere might not consist, for example, of a gas cloud that thinks with lightning bolts, or a pensive oozing slime mold. Who knows?

However, relativistic constraints (speed of light, etc.) make visits from aliens--UFOs and whatnot--a complete impossibility.

dumpsterking / January 6, 2007 12:33 PM

I agree with what a few others have said - there is a high probability of some kind of life on some kind of planet or moon out there. However, it's my (pessimistic) opinion that we will never, ever make contact with them or know that they exist. The distances are just too great - the technological challanges too immense.

p2Pierre / January 6, 2007 3:08 PM

Unidentified Flying Objects? Well, of course!
That's an entirely different subject than belief in extraterrestrial lifeforms!

Americans seem to forget that supernatural beings have historically appeared as beings of light (not bound by the laws of physics -- they're spirit beings). They actually travel at the speed of thought... so, appearing to be able to make sudden changes in direction is "no problem."

There's a well-read, big book that describes them as serving either good or evil, and having incredible power... including the power to deceive the gullible, the uninformed, and those who continue to prefer to follow after evil.

Spook / January 6, 2007 5:50 PM

Yes, yes yes and if I wasn't so hung over, I would have commented about this with the lucidity of Mo.

Enerson Dameron / January 6, 2007 7:21 PM

I think the odds are in favor of life on other planets and against our having had any contact with them up to this point. But it's one of those things I don't believe or disbelieve. Making any sort of generalizations about the universe, from where I'm sitting, seems like the height of hubris. For all I know, there could be a planet somewhere where the Decemberists don't blow.

unmake / January 6, 2007 8:27 PM

aliens on other planets: likely
aliens on Earth: less likely.

Believer / January 6, 2007 8:38 PM

I agree that life somewhere else in the universe is probable. I never believed in UFOs until a couple years ago when I SAW ONE. Or something. There were a few blueish lights moving erratically and then very fast in the night sky while driving downstate. I don't know if it was aliens but I've never seen anything like it.

Amanda / January 6, 2007 10:13 PM

I'm pretty sure George W. Bush was placed here by an alien planet to bring about the destruction of earth. It's the only thing that explains him.

Josh / January 7, 2007 12:36 AM

Anything is possible, but I need actual proof to believe it, so I don't know.

Mikey / January 7, 2007 10:32 AM

Yes, there must be life on other planets. As others have pointed out, how can one believe there isn't with the sheer size of the universe and the vast number of stars and planets? To believe that God or whomever/whatever created all of this simply for us humans on earth is even more laughable than believing, as we once did, that the sun revolves around the earth. It all goes back to man's egotism. And once you accept that as a distinct probability, then you also have to accept the possibility that, yes, from time to time, we might be visited and/or watched by more intelligent life forms as well...

FWIW / January 7, 2007 1:24 PM

I believe that many "unidentified flying objects" are, in fact, aviation experiments, conducted by the people of earth.

And I believe that there is slime mold in a crevise on Mars, or some far-flung equivalent.

But Earth-visiting extraterrestrials are dreamt up by the same sorts of people who think the FBI is reading their thoughts.

Mikey / January 7, 2007 10:08 PM

Unlike those of us who are at least open to the possibility of Earth-visiting extraterrestrials, people who believe that the FBI is reading their thoughts are just plain crazy, if not outright dangerous. Anybody with at least a modicum of sanity knows that it's the NSA...

Hal / January 8, 2007 9:25 AM

Life out there? Yeah. Visiting us. No sirree.

Though I went through my phase of >wanting

Hal / January 8, 2007 9:26 AM

Stupid brackets.
-----
Life out there? Yeah. Visiting us. No sirree.

Though I went through my phase of wanting to believe, along with metaphysics, back in junior high, I ended up as a skeptic. On the up side, all that alternative reading did give me a kick-ass wealth of references that no one ever suspects I would know.

Bill B / January 8, 2007 10:41 AM

@ Mo: well said. mathematically, life elsewhere in the universe is likely. even if intelligent life springs up in one in a trillion places, considering that the universe is pretty much infinite means that somewhere, probably, there's a similar conversation taking place on some alien website called 'Zexnor's Block.'

as for it being impossible that they'd visit (according to all Fuel's apparent physics experts)...these are the same people who, one hundred years ago, would have scoffed at the idea that we'd eventually set foot on the moon, or power our cars with water, or have stem cells, the internets, etc.

the audacity of people who say something is impossible simply because we havent conceived how to do it always astounds me.

theres a lot left for us to learn and disocver. ill never say never.

dyagnyl / January 8, 2007 11:43 AM

They say that there are more stars in the Universe than there are grains of sand on earts. Their has to be someone else out there.

dyagnyl / January 8, 2007 11:44 AM

They say that there are more stars in the Universe than there are grains of sand on earts. Their has to be someone else out there.

steven / January 8, 2007 12:00 PM

If Earth can support life, why not some other planet in some other galaxy? It's possible. We can't prove otherwise, so I'll believe it's there, somewhere.
Anway, the day the aliens come down to Earth to greet us is the day our society completely collapses into hysteria. We simply won't be able to deal.

skafiend / January 8, 2007 12:17 PM

Eh, who cares? I've got enough problems. Unless they beam down with a book called "To Serve Man('s Checkbook Balancing Needs)", then any peek-a-boo visits they may have already made or might make in the future only vaguely interests me. Besides, there are enough "strange beings" down here already that concern me.

Bill V / January 8, 2007 12:29 PM

I don't believe in the UFOs, but do think there are some aliens among us. Even closer than you think!

p / January 8, 2007 12:35 PM

i've also heard the grains of sand/stars in the sky thing and i appropriated it convey to properly convey that god placed the beauty of the stars into a young ladies eyes. visual aid provided by the glow in the dark stars on my ceiling if indoors or the night's sky if out. King dork in the house, but starz are trump in a young mack's lexicon. Also- a baptist once told me that if a pelican was to transport all the beaches of the world to another location, and carried them one grain at a time in it's beak, the amount of time that took wouldn't equal an hour in hell's flames if i wasn't saved immediately.
i don't have a clue if we'll be visited by atliens but i don't see why not. i like the idea of angels better and think i might believe in them.

Justin Ward / January 8, 2007 1:03 PM

Short answer: yes, I do believe in UFO and the whatnot. Not sure if they're aliens, but hey, something is something...

JB / January 8, 2007 1:40 PM

Since they are still discovering life on THIS planet (teeny critters that live in deep under water thermal vents), I have no doubt that there are other critters in the vast beyond.

Mo / January 8, 2007 1:48 PM

@Bill B, I have to agree with that, too, that we have so much more to learn about the way our universe works, and how we interact with it, that one day we may very well be able to visit other planets. So, if other life forms happen to be more advanced that we are, they may already have that capability. And maybe not. The point is, we don't know, but it's possible.

The problem, as proven by other posters, is that people like me, who take into account scientific knowledge as well as historical acknowledgment of scientific change and self-correction, get lumped in with ape-shit crazy "believers." But yes, it's most definitely the NSA, not the FBI, we have to fear. And I've never seen Bigfoot, but he could exist. I kinda hope he does, but only if he has a lady Bigfoot to keep him company. Otherwise it would be a lonely existence. But I digress....

Flynn / January 8, 2007 2:32 PM

Nope.

Mindy / January 9, 2007 10:11 AM

no.

Sir Charles / February 5, 2007 4:22 AM

Well,I was alittle skeptic till I read The biggest secret by David Icke.
Made me realise just how much we pass for coincidence or inexplicable could actually be signs of extraterrestrial life, here on earth!
And as someone noted, it would be mass hysteria should aliens arrive, so I think they would "sneak in"...if they already haven't...*wink*wink*

tim / May 5, 2007 7:09 PM

Santa is an FBI agent who knows when weve been bad or good, and his reinder are actually flying discs.....

sorry, no

tim / May 5, 2007 7:09 PM

Santa is an FBI agent who knows when weve been bad or good, and his reinder are actually flying discs.....

sorry, no