I remember once when I was a kid, one of my best friends & I decided to spend the night sleeping on my giant trampoline. As I lay there, I think it was the first time in my life I realized how many stars their were in the sky. So many of them & as learned by paying attention in Mrs. Morris's science class, some much bigger than the sun. Some stars even bigger than those stars & some stars even bigger than those. We have no idea how large space is. No idea how many stars their are. No idea how many planets their are. We're one planet & in the scheme of things rather small. We're not even the largest planet in our own solar system. We're right dab in the middle. I thought then as a 10 year old fourth grader that it was as naive as it was arrogant to believe that Earth is the only planet to produce life. I mean it is a possibility that Earth is the only planet with life, but the laws of probability alone suggest that somewhere life in someway exist somewhere else.
What is that life exactly? I have no idea. Maybe it's nothing more than single celled organisms like amoebas. Maybe life far beyond our intelligence & far more civilized. Maybe life that is now where we were when we first appeared as homosapiens. The possibilities are endless so might as well imagine them all. I watched a film once when I was a kid where it was suggested that somehow or another after you got to a certain point you'd come around again. Suggesting that the entirety itself is also round. How far is that I wonder? How much is truly out there?
I like to imagine alien lifeforms similar to that of E.T. Ones that are interested in making contact & learning from us. Making friendships. Yet as imperialistic & tribal as we are as a species, I suppose I have to entertain the idea of a hostile species. Ones out to conquer & rule. To either destroy us or to exploit & enslave us. I think it's more realistic to imagine us doing it to them, than it is to imagine them doing it to us.
I often think that extraterrestrial life has already been discovered. I'm not a conspiracy theorist or anything like that but I do think it makes sense as to why we're not informed as a society. I think their are many legitimate reason for keeping this information from us. That it is justifiable to keep it hidden from the masses.
I've already touched upon it a bit. It pains me to say it, but we as human being can be rather cruel. Throughout history their are countless examples of our cruelty. The way Europeans treated the Natives of the Americas. Slavery, not only here in the United States for hundreds of years but all over the world. The holocaust. The Japanese atrocities committed against China & other Asian countries. We're not a peaceful species. It's fun to imagine a relationship between human & alien being one of harmony & of peace, but history suggest otherwise. We'd want to eradicate them from their ways & assimilate them into our own & most likely react with forceful violence upon any resistance.
I believe strongly that religion would strongly reject the idea of extraterrestrial life. Within the Bible, Torah, Koran & other religious text, their is no mention of life on other planets. I think alien life within itself would be a huge threat to the foundation of those beliefs. At least enough to question if not enough to crumble. I think discovering life on other planets would reshape Christianity, Judaism & Islam. To what level or extent, I do not know but I can't see them remaining as they are. Therefore I can't help but feel one of the main reasons information on extra-terrestrial life would be kept classified would be because of the threat it posses to religion.
I don't want to politicize my thoughts on such an interesting topic but it's difficult not to. It's more fun to think of making friends with creatures & the adventure that could ensue. To observe them & see their civility. How they handle such things on a social level. What do they eat? How do they function? How do they entertain themselves? I'm sure we'd be as fascinating to them as they are to us.
Laurence Kraus says that our reality is only of what in which we can experience. So we know living organisms to be ones that need energy in order to sustain life. I guess it just occurred to me that I always think of alien life form as being something in comparison to that of the Animal Kingdom. Something that needs oxygen & food in order to survive. That has cognitive reaction, feelings, a brain, a heart & blood. It could as easily be comparable to plant life, which also needs oxygen & food to survive, but I think without further explaining myself you get the difference. Perhaps the first life form we'll discover (publicly anyway) will be more comparable to a tree than it will be to a dog or a cat.
I hope this suffices as an answer. Yes I do believe that life in some capacity exist somewhere other than the Earth. That doesn't mean that I don't entertain the possibility that Earth is the only planet with life, because I do. When I don't know something & I have nothing other than suggestion, imagination & possibility, I entertain all outcomes. However, I don't entertain all outcomes equally. I think there is a greater chance that there is something out there, than there is not.
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