Monday, November 24, 2008

Believe in God? No - but UFO's, you bet!


I'm startled to read about a recent survey.


Believing in ghosts and little green men from outer space appears a touch easier than having faith in God, according to a survey.

The researchers found that while 54 per cent of us are convinced the Almighty exists, 58 per cent believe in the supernatural.

The findings, maybe somewhat unsurprisingly, have been issued to mark the DVD release of The X-Files: I Want to Believe. The film stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, who made the TV series such a success.

The research put out to coincide with the DVD release also claimed women were more likely to believe in the supernatural than men, and were more likely to visit a medium.

Nearly a quarter of the 3,000 surveyed claimed they had had a paranormal encounter.

Some 37 per cent said aliens and ghosts were the basis of their belief system.


Uh-huh.

I guess it's like the great G. K. Chesterton pointed out: "When people stop believing in God, they don't believe in nothing -- they believe in anything." For the life of me, I can't understand the manic obsession of the 'aliens-are-among-us' crowd. There's never been one single shred of evidence of alien life or visitation that can stand up to scientific or judicial scrutiny: yet they go on and on, as if there's no doubt whatsoever about their cherished 'truth'.

I have no problem accepting that UFO's exist. I see them almost every day, in the form of contrails high overhead. Since I can't see the object producing the contrail, it's an 'Unidentified Flying Object' by definition: but I'm willing to bet it's just another airliner, on its way somewhere. I don't for a moment believe that aliens from other planets are visiting us. As for the 'alien abduction' and 'alien seduction' idiocies that circulate so freely - oh, come on!

Here's a little experiment for those into the whole 'UFO's-are-alien-visitors' shtick. Electromagnetic radiation has been spreading out from the Earth for less than two hundred years - and detecting it would be the only way that others, outside this solar system, would know that there's intelligent life here. Let's be charitable and allow a sphere around the Earth with a two-hundred-light-year radius. Calculate the volume of that sphere. Now calculate the volume of the known universe. You'll find that the sphere around Earth is a tiny, absolutely minute fraction of one per cent of the volume of the universe - so infinitesimally small that it's like a single grain of sand compared to the whole planet we live on (and that's probably an over-generous comparison).

Now figure the odds of aliens finding that 'grain' while searching through the whole of the rest of our universe. They're not good.

If, even after that, you believe - in the absence of any hard evidence whatsoever - that aliens have, indeed, found us, and are so fascinated by us that they keep dropping in . . . well, friend, I have a bridge in Brooklyn, NYC, that I'd like to sell you. Cash only, please, and in small bills.

For those who object that belief in God is just as silly, I respectfully disagree. Religious faith isn't a matter of hard evidence, or objective proof of God's existence. It's a moral decision, made on the basis of intangible factors and/or lived experience. I agree that it's not scientific, but I don't think it compares to belief in aliens - who, being corporeal, should be susceptible to proof of their existence. However, as always, YMMV.

Peter

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You don't believe there are aliens from outer space here among us? If they aren't here, then how do you explain folks who voted for Obama? :-)

It had to have been space aliens who voted for that dork.

--chicopanther

IrishCicero said...

Over at Liberty Peak Lodge we believe in Aliens!

Well. Sort of.

I think what we're witnessing is an ongoing loss of faith in church doctrines. That may or may not continue, depending. As you point out, it does appear to be a bit of madness.

On the other hand, I have no faith in the way such survey questions are presented. They don't really tell you what people believe as much as they tell you the surveyor's bias.

Nice blog!

Jason said...

You are right that there does not exist a shred of evidence that aliens have visited earth, and any belief that anyone has in them is based on a fabrication, not a fact. The exact same thing is true of belief in god.

Your comment that religious belief is a moral decision doesn't add up. People can believe that it's wrong to steal, murder, lie, etc. as a moral decision, but belief in the existence of a being (be it a Supreme Being or an alien being) is not a moral decision, it's a decision to believe a statement of fact.

Your belief in god has exactly as much basis in fact and evidence as someone else's belief in aliens, even if your belief has more historical (hysterical?) supporters.

Peter said...

Jason, I respectfully disagree. Belief in God is something that can be arrived at through rational analysis - witness the ancient Greek philosophers, just for a start. No physical evidence was involved, just the use of reason. I see no use of reason whatsoever in the UFO crowd.

'Fact' and 'evidence' refer to many things, not all of them physical.

Nevertheless, I understand that many who don't believe in God view such beliefs in the same light as UFO credulity. I think it's a subject for fruitful discussion.