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Poll suggests 48% believe in alien visitation


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Wow...wall of text... Karma? Heh, you will get it....

A wall of text that made absolutely no sense even after going through it several times.

Anyway, even though I'm part of the 52%, I hope aliens have landed. That would go far toward explaining politicians and Paris Hilton. And maybe one or two members here at UM.

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A wall of text that made absolutely no sense even after going through it several times.

Anyway, even though I'm part of the 52%, I hope aliens have landed. That would go far toward explaining politicians and Paris Hilton. And maybe one or two members here at UM.

Paris Hilton an alien? she could not find her way through a brightly lit tunnel, let alone her way to Earth from another planet!

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At the end of the day it is a meaningless poll. Unless the poll is to conducted as an insight into American psychology.

So 48% of Americans believe in alien visitation. Does that mean that alien visitation is a fact?

80% of seven year olds children believe that Santa Claus brings their presents on christmas day. does that make Santa real?

The implication of this thread is that in some way the poll adds validity to the subject of the existance of aliens when in fact all this poll does is tell us something about the people that were asked.

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A wall of text that made absolutely no sense even after going through it several times.

Anyway, even though I'm part of the 52%, I hope aliens have landed. That would go far toward explaining politicians and Paris Hilton. And maybe one or two members here at UM.

Politicians maybe, Paris Hilton not so much. I have a feeling the human race will have to take credit for that one....

Cheers,

Badeskov

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Then why do you say stuff like this? You dont think it's insulting? You dont think it's nihilistic? If you feel bad, you really think taking it on others will help? You should know better by now, after all the crap you've taken on me and others here.

Insulting and nihilistic? Please do point out where you feel BMK has been either, I am curious. And what crap has he taken on you and others?

Frankly, if that is what you feel then maybe a public discussion forum is not the place for you...

Cheers,

Badeskov

PS: there is a report button, you know.

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I wasn't being dismissive at all, the UFO phenomena is real. The ETH, not so much. Unfortunately they have become so intertwined that they become indistinguishable from each other at times. Your example of medical scams only proves my point, critical thought and honest investigation is the only thing that will deter people looking to take advantage of those who can't or won't do such for themselves. As far as your list of credible scientists who support the ETH, what percentage of all scientists would that list indicate? If that list isn't in the thousands (at least) what does that indicate overall?

As far as I know, the correct scientific hypothesis is not determined on the basis of its relative popularity. If this were the case, I suppose that the dominant 17th century hypothesis of a geocentric solar system would have prevailed, and the heliocentric model, espoused by a few, including Galileo, would have been found incorrect.
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it seems that many people have jumped onto the 48% believers and assumed the 'skeptical' total is 52%, this is not the case, it was 48% believe, 35% dont and the remainder dont know. so there is approximately 33% more that believe than those that dont.

(i.e. if 100 polled 48 believe, 35 dont, 17 dont know. The number of 48 is apporximately a 33% increase from those that dont :) )

quick question for those that seem to be happy to 'believe' life out there exists but not in the ETH....why is it ok to believe in this when one regularly quotes 'I would rather know than believe' when discussing the ETH?

is it because you assume that if the ETH was true then we would have evidence?

Edited by quillius
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it seems that many people have jumped onto the 48% believers and assumed the 'skeptical' total is 52%, this is not the case, it was 48% believe, 35% dont and the remainder dont know. so there is approximately 33% more that believe than those that dont.

(i.e. if 100 polled 48 believe, 35 dont, 17 dont know. The number of 48 is apporximately a 33% increase from those that dont :) )

quick question for those that seem to be happy to 'believe' life out there exists but not in the ETH....why is it ok to believe in this when one regularly quotes 'I would rather know than believe' when discussing the ETH?

is it because you assume that if the ETH was true then we would have evidence?

Hey Quill. ^_^

I suppose it could be argued that those that voted 'I don't know' could be the true skeptics, waiting until more data is available before making a determination. Or it could simply be that they never gave the subject much thought so they feel ill-informed to be able to say one way or another. With most of the compelling cases that is the only answer I'm usually left with.

Believing in alien life isn't exactly something we have the luxury of knowing at the moment so belief will have to suffice.

As for your last question, yes, I would like to think that we would have some incontrovertible evidence of their visit although I concede that it is possible that visitation without evidence could conceivably occur. The opposite could be asked as well, do believers assume that we would not have evidence? Furthermore, if we have no evidence then how are we to ascertain that there was a visitation, that it was aliens and/or if anything really even happened?

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Hey Quill. ^_^

I suppose it could be argued that those that voted 'I don't know' could be the true skeptics, waiting until more data is available before making a determination. Or it could simply be that they never gave the subject much thought so they feel ill-informed to be able to say one way or another. With most of the compelling cases that is the only answer I'm usually left with.

Hey S2F,

I agree in that the dont knows could be the real 'skeptics' as per your suggestion. Of course the problem with any poll like this is the interpretation of the question itself, we can come up with lots of scenarios as you have pointed out already. Do the 'no's' represent peopel who know nothing of teh subject and are the most ill informed and those that have answered yes have an interest in the subject and have reached their conclusion based on research....but I agree that the situation you are left with is often where I find myself and I think this is enough to form a belief or not.....the key word is 'believe' I think in the original question posed.

Believing in alien life isn't exactly something we have the luxury of knowing at the moment so belief will have to suffice.

again I feel we really need to make the distinction here between belief and knowing, they are totally exclusive of each other IMO. I think we have belief versus non belief.....then we have knowing and not knowing......

As for your last question, yes, I would like to think that we would have some incontrovertible evidence of their visit although I concede that it is possible that visitation without evidence could conceivably occur. The opposite could be asked as well, do believers assume that we would not have evidence? Furthermore, if we have no evidence then how are we to ascertain that there was a visitation, that it was aliens and/or if anything really even happened?

granted the question works both ways to an extent and I feel we have no idea whether there should or shouldnt be evidence at least to the extent that would eliminate belief and leave us with knwoing versus not knowing.

i.e. people cant believe the earth is round or not believe it is. You either know it is or you dont know that it is, belief has no place in this equation because the knowledge is there.

So without 'knowing' whether if visitation has occured there would indeed be evidence I need to ask again how can we have belief in alien life elsewhere but not have the belief in visitation?

(apologies I am struggling to articulate my point but hope it gets across somehow :blush: )

Edited by quillius
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Hey S2F,

I agree in that the dont knows could be the real 'skeptics' as per your suggestion. Of course the problem with any poll like this is the interpretation of the question itself, we can come up with lots of scenarios as you have pointed out already. Do the 'no's' represent peopel who know nothing of teh subject and are the most ill informed and those that have answered yes have an interest in the subject and have reached their conclusion based on research....but I agree that the situation you are left with is often where I find myself and I think this is enough to form a belief or not.....the key word is 'believe' I think in the original question posed.

again I feel we really need to make the distinction here between belief and knowing, they are totally exclusive of each other IMO. I think we have belief versus non belief.....then we have knowing and not knowing......

granted the question works both ways to an extent and I feel we have no idea whether there should or shouldnt be evidence at least to the extent that would eliminate belief and leave us with knwoing versus not knowing.

i.e. people cant believe the earth is round or not believe it is. You either know it is or you dont know that it is, belief has no place in this equation because the knowledge is there.

So without 'knowing' whether if visitation has occured there would indeed be evidence I need to ask again how can we have belief in alien life elsewhere but not have the belief in visitation?

(apologies I am struggling to articulate my point but hope it gets across somehow :blush: )

I'm trying to understand what you mean here. The way I see it, existence of alien life (A) and visitation (B ) are two separate issues. If B is true then A must be true. If A is false then B must be false. If A is true then B may be either true or false depending on certain criteria.

It is those criteria that cast doubt on visitation for me. The sheer scope of the universe offers plenty of room for conditions suitable for life to possibly arise however it is probably the largest impediment for two species ever crossing paths. The age of the universe offers the same pro's and con's that its size does. The criteria for existence however seems to be gaining traction with each new discovery about Goldilocks zones, Earth-like planets, extreme conditions that life can survive and even thrive and last but not least is our own existence that proves that life is possible to begin with. I suppose that is the basis for my beliefs on the matter, I know that life 'happens' so it seems a small leap to expect there to be life elsewhere. Visitation on the other hand has no kernel of truth (like our existence is for supporting alien existence) from which to begin. It begins and ends with possibility, which has no direct bearing on its truth though it does make it difficult to subscribe to personally.

Edit to add: To sum up, to make any headway toward discovery you have to begin with what you know and proceed from there. We know that there is life in the universe...us. We don't actually know anything about alien visitation. There is the odd chance that discovery can fall into your lap though and that is most likely how visitation could eventually become a known.

Edited by Slave2Fate
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I conducted my own little poll on my cul-de-sac of a street. The question: It is highly possible that other intelligent life does exist somewhere in our Universe; however, do you believe that this other intelligent life would ever visit Earth?

Neighbour House #1: One male and one female: Both said yes

My house: #2: One male and one female: Both said yes

Neighbour House #3: Two females and one male: Females said yes. Male said dunno.

Neighbour House #4: One male and one female: Male said No, female said Yes

Neighbour House #5: Two sisters living together: One said maybe. The other said No.

Neighbour House #6: One male and one female. I did not ask them to partake in my poll. They have a lot of domestics and everyone on my little street avoids them. And I don't want to bring any shade of that crazy to my doorstep.

I was asked why I was conducting my own little poll. I said, 'It's a social skill exercise.'

My husband asked me, 'You're doing this because of that forum aren't you?' I told my husband, 'I am forever working on my social skills there.'

Age of poll takers: The youngest pair that was asked the poll question is: 23. The oldest pair that was asked is late 40s.

Professions of neighbours:

House #1 Real estate & Banking

My House #2 MoD (Ministry of Defense)

House #3 2 Students and one older sibling that has a PhD and is currently working in a lab researching a cure for childrens cancer.

House#4 Local councilor for Leeds city council - Can't remember what the female in his house does for a living

House #5 One works for the BBC - the other is a photographer

This is where my poll conducting stops, because as I am not a numbers person, this is as far as I can take this, so no stats from me.

Kind Regards

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I'm trying to understand what you mean here. The way I see it, existence of alien life (A) and visitation (B ) are two separate issues. If B is true then A must be true. If A is false then B must be false. If A is true then B may be either true or false depending on certain criteria.

It is those criteria that cast doubt on visitation for me. The sheer scope of the universe offers plenty of room for conditions suitable for life to possibly arise however it is probably the largest impediment for two species ever crossing paths. The age of the universe offers the same pro's and con's that its size does. The criteria for existence however seems to be gaining traction with each new discovery about Goldilocks zones, Earth-like planets, extreme conditions that life can survive and even thrive and last but not least is our own existence that proves that life is possible to begin with. I suppose that is the basis for my beliefs on the matter, I know that life 'happens' so it seems a small leap to expect there to be life elsewhere. Visitation on the other hand has no kernel of truth (like our existence is for supporting alien existence) from which to begin. It begins and ends with possibility, which has no direct bearing on its truth though it does make it difficult to subscribe to personally.

Edit to add: To sum up, to make any headway toward discovery you have to begin with what you know and proceed from there. We know that there is life in the universe...us. We don't actually know anything about alien visitation. There is the odd chance that discovery can fall into your lap though and that is most likely how visitation could eventually become a known.

Hey S2F,

all points noted.

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Asadora; Interesting way you set up the question. This may have contributed to the 6 'yes', 2 'no', and 2 undecided responses, which seems surprisingly high on the affirmative side. When people are reminded, or are told of the reasonable proposition that an intelligently inhabited universe is likely, they may be better prepared to reach the conclusion that ET visitation is possible.

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A recent poll indicated that up to half of Americans believe that some UFOs are alien in origin.

Read More: http://www.unexplain...lien-visitation

Please note that derogatory or insulting comments will be removed from this thread.

This is all dependent on where they chose to take their sample of "Americans". Probably in Gulf Breeze or Roswell.

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No matter what side you are on or what you believe human polling is pointless. Humans are wrong lots of times.

Point in case; in past history there was a time you could have polled all humans and the majority would have agreed the earth was flat.

Stop with the stupid polls. Its pointless.

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Paris Hilton an alien? she could not find her way through a brightly lit tunnel, let alone her way to Earth from another planet!

That's why they dumped her here. They couldn't handle her [phrase censored to avoid TOS violation] anymore.

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Politicians maybe, Paris Hilton not so much. I have a feeling the human race will have to take credit for that one....

Cheers,

Badeskov

A hybrid maybe?

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My husband asked me, 'You're doing this because of that forum aren't you?' I told my husband, 'I am forever working on my social skills there.'

At least you have them to work. Some people, myself included, have all the social skills of a well and truly deceased rock.

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Its funny how people get so threatened by an opinion poll about UFO's...

Who is threatened by the fact that 48% of the American public might believe in E.T. visitations?

I'm one of the 52% who doesn't believe ET is visiting us. What is there to be threatened about by the fact that some people have a differing belief on this subject?

I'm also an atheist and don't find the fact that 90% of people believe in God threatening. What's the threat?

Vehemently disagreeing with someone over a political, religious or other matter is not equitable with being threatened by their beliefs. But it's a handy cheap tactic to accuse those who disagree with you of being some sort of fanatic threatened by the mere existence of your viewpoint.

The poll could be accurate. Im pretty sure a lot of people are just silent about it, like there not huge alien enthusiast so their not talking about it all the time. But if asked that is what they answered.

The least threatening thing to me I can imagine is the existence of majority opinions I don't like. These forums are by nature full of people with fringe opinions. It's a cheap and tasteless tactic to accuse people who aren't in the majority of a particular belief of being afraid of the minority and vice versa, accusing the minority of holding fringe beliefs because they can't or won't accept the majority viewpoint.
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Who is threatened by the fact that 48% of the American public might believe in E.T. visitations?

I'm one of the 52% who doesn't believe ET is visiting us. What is there to be threatened about by the fact that some people have a differing belief on this subject?

I'm also an atheist and don't find the fact that 90% of people believe in God threatening. What's the threat?

Vehemently disagreeing with someone over a political, religious or other matter is not equitable with being threatened by their beliefs. But it's a handy cheap tactic to accuse those who disagree with you of being some sort of fanatic threatened by the mere existence of your viewpoint.

The least threatening thing to me I can imagine is the existence of majority opinions I don't like. These forums are by nature full of people with fringe opinions. It's a cheap and tasteless tactic to accuse people who aren't in the majority of a particular belief of being afraid of the minority and vice versa, accusing the minority of holding fringe beliefs because they can't or won't accept the majority viewpoint.

Like I said earlier I made that comment because of how quickly on the thread people wanted to discredit the poll

Edited by spartan max2
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Well most people believe in Jesus, so, what difference does it make?

What would have happened to you if you went back in time 500 years and proudly pronounced you were an atheist?

Or 50?

People are getting smarter. We have more choices than ever, that is only going to lead to more questions that cannot be answered in the real world.

Saru is right, no need to get upset, one can get a poll to say anything they want, but I understand the frustration, if a poll was taken in Queensland, in say a mental home or something, and the participants might have said 80% believe all UFO's are spaceships flown by ET, you might drive 20 minutes up the road to a Uni and hold the same poll, and get 80% of people saying the opposite, but if the positive result was the one published (and the would most likely being the case as it would sell more papers and ensure some journalists job) I too would be a bit put out. The Poll is BS, only the woo woo train are going to consider it valuable information, and they make up the numbers to begin with. The poll was probably set up outside of MUFON headquarters or something. Fact is at the end of the day it is neither here nor there. Proof remains non-existant. That is what really upsets the FTB's. they want everyone to think there is proof, but there is not.

And as we have all heard, an extraordinary claim deserves no less than extraordinary proof. Asking for acceptance of any less is just unethical.

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Like I said earlier I made that comment because of how quickly on the thread people wanted to discredit the poll

So you posted an opinion you don't personally believe in, in order to discredit and quash the opinions of those whose opinions you don't believe in.

Well done!

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Easy I would have thought. The poll indicates the majority are believers . Here it is the reverse. That's not a complaint, just an observation,

The number of arguments you lose does not equate to a number of posters. Credulous outlooks seem rife from any skeptics view as well, otherwise threads would not be at the large number they are. Self misconception I would say. Or did you run a personal poll? LOL.

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So you posted an opinion you don't personally believe in, in order to discredit and quash the opinions of those whose opinions you don't believe in.

Well done!

Relax.

At the start of the thread people were quickly trying to say the poll wasn't accurate which a lot of times what people do when they don't want to believe the poll.

I don't even believe in aliens it just seemed to me that people were wanting to discredit the poll a little too fast .

Im not trying to "squash" anyone's opinions .

but you do seem to be pretty aggressively attacking mine :whistle:

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I conducted my own little poll on my cul-de-sac of a street. The question: It is highly possible that other intelligent life does exist somewhere in our Universe; however, do you believe that this other intelligent life would ever visit Earth?

Neighbour House #1: One male and one female: Both said yes

My house: #2: One male and one female: Both said yes

Neighbour House #3: Two females and one male: Females said yes. Male said dunno.

Neighbour House #4: One male and one female: Male said No, female said Yes

Neighbour House #5: Two sisters living together: One said maybe. The other said No.

Neighbour House #6: One male and one female. I did not ask them to partake in my poll. They have a lot of domestics and everyone on my little street avoids them. And I don't want to bring any shade of that crazy to my doorstep.

I was asked why I was conducting my own little poll. I said, 'It's a social skill exercise.'

My husband asked me, 'You're doing this because of that forum aren't you?' I told my husband, 'I am forever working on my social skills there.'

Age of poll takers: The youngest pair that was asked the poll question is: 23. The oldest pair that was asked is late 40s.

Professions of neighbours:

House #1 Real estate & Banking

My House #2 MoD (Ministry of Defense)

House #3 2 Students and one older sibling that has a PhD and is currently working in a lab researching a cure for childrens cancer.

House#4 Local councilor for Leeds city council - Can't remember what the female in his house does for a living

House #5 One works for the BBC - the other is a photographer

This is where my poll conducting stops, because as I am not a numbers person, this is as far as I can take this, so no stats from me.

Kind Regards

I think the most amazing result is that nobody set a dog on you! Door to door people are not usually welcomed.

I think most people would say Yes to "Would ever" but I think "Now" is a different thing. Even the poll says "Could SOME UFO's be ET". What would anyone expect the general public to say? "Yeah sure, why not". I bet a similar result would be achieved if you asked if Bigfoot could exist.

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