Do Aliens Exist? / Have Aliens Visited Earth?

These questions would seem to be the driving force behind countless books, movies and television shows, ranging from pure fiction to various interpretations of the limited information available. For this article, I am going to focus on those two specific questions; how likely is it that intelligent life exists someplace besides earth? And, could our small planet have actually been visited by ‘aliens’?

Even with everything science has learned about our universe, it would seem not one shred of evidence exists that intelligent life can be found anyplace other than Earth. On the other hand, most experts on the topic appear to believe it is unrealistic to assume we are alone. Certainly there are no Martians to worry about, but the universe is simply so vast that claiming no other ‘Earth like’ planets exist seems ludicrous. Since other planets similar to Earth almost definitely do exist, one has to consider the potential that these planets could support complex life forms. At least for me, the single most valid argument for intelligent life beyond earth boils down to a mathematical formula. I do not have this formula in front of me, and it does not matter – it is mostly a jumble of numbers anyway, but here is the quick version of what this formula shows us.

The first part of the equation is a number that has been put forward as a best guess figure and represents a ‘low side’ number of how likely it is that a ‘Earth like’ planet would actually have intelligent life on it. Of course this formula considers the fact that the vast majority of planets are not going to be ‘Earth like’ at all. Those who created this number also assumed that most planets similar to earth would either support no life, or would only be able to support crude life forms, thus only a very small number of planets that fall into this category would have perfect conditions for intelligent life to evolve.

The second half of this equation is again a estimation, this time representing the total number of planets in our universe that would fall into the class of having perfect conditions for life. The long and short of it suggests that even if the chance for intelligent life to take hold is extremely small. There are simply so many chances for it to occur in a universe so large that it is far more likely other intelligent life does exist than it is to think our small planet is that unique. In the end, could we be alone, maybe. But it is much more likely we are not. Of course, in a universe this large it is also very likely we will never cross paths with the other intelligent life that almost certainly exists, bringing us to the second question I will discuss… Has ‘alien life’ visited Earth?

The simple answer to this question could be ‘believe what you want’… No credible evidence exists to support a visit by aliens, unless you actually give credence to countless sightings, abductions, ‘cover-ups’ and other accounts that claim aliens have visited our planet. You likely take sides with one camp or the other here, and this article is probably not going to change your mind. Admittedly, a small number of truly unexplained occurrences do exist, and some come from very credible sources. Still, not once piece of evidence exists that can be taken seriously so we are mostly left to make our own decision on if we believe aliens have visited earth or not.

Here is my personal take on it though, for what it is worth. My thinking is based partly on ‘turning the tables’… Let me explain. Let’s assume we could travel the universe at will, and that we discovered another planet with life on it. How likely do you think it would be that we would take measures to insure that this life could never prove we have visited them…? Moreover, is it even realistic to assume we would not try to make contact with them? I have trouble believing we would not. Turning the tables back now, would they observe us from a distance to avoid attack? I think we all realize that if aliens did visit us and attempted contact it is also a real possibility that we would try to attack them as a threat to our ‘peaceful existence’. Even so, we are in no position to mount a ‘Star Wars’ type attack, and if the aliens simply stayed in space and contacted us through radio transmission or the like, they would be in no danger. Perhaps we have nothing to offer them, as likely as that would be, I still think it would be the discovery of discoveries, even for them. With that in mind I believe that no matter the risk, making contact would be part of any mission that found life other than their own in the universe.

So do I end by saying that aliens have not visited Earth? Hard to do that also, maybe they visited long ago, perhaps before humans had evolved. Is it even possible WE are the aliens that arrived here in the past? I am not going down that road, but I doubt it. Maybe they do follow some strange code of ethics that requires they do not interfere with any life they may encounter. But it is true that an alien visit to earth is still the stuff of science fiction, and the day we discovered any proof of intelligent life beyond our own has not yet arrived.

It is worth noting that this article assumes alien life would need the same things we do and that it would at least somewhat resemble life on Earth… Both critical factors that may not even be true, thus making the actual answers to these questions even more complex, but also making the potential that life exists beyond Earth more likely, rather than less likely.