Originally posted by LightWorker13
It is very "human" to be suspicious of foreign visitors, and assume all foreigners are like we are. Its very human, in my book, to assume a race advanced enough to traverse the stars would be primitive enough to still engage in wars and aggression. Its also very human to fear and dismiss things you dont understand

I agree with you to a point. But it is also very human to assume that traits like 'advanced' are required to traverse stars. I bet at the end of the universe we find some very stupid things can traverse stars. (If not ourselves, lol) Bacteria, for example. But I'm thinking things far more interesting yet stupid might exist. Things to which it would be appropriate to apply a label of good or evil, yet inhuman enough that things like 'intentions' and 'desires' don't apply to them.

Still, I will concede that other intelligences might operate without the game-theoretic enforced failure of human moral codes. Those might be human-like, with spritualism, intentions, desires, social codes, etc. But why assume it is like that elsewhere? What drives this perspective that it is more of the same beyond the troposphere?

Now, if they were evil and unadvanced spiritually, they would have attacked and conquered us when we were fighting with swords and shields. Any civilization with the ability to traverse the cosmos must be advanced enough to have weapons that could take us out in a relatively short time. Needless to say, they, even now, would have no problem conquering us.

Here, I also cannot reach the same conclusions you do. From my perspective, I feel that you are assuming that evil alien intelligence is human-like. Why? To me, something is 'evil' if it doesn't follow our moral codes and could. Alien intelligence could fall into the category of evil by accident. Not that I would have much sympathy for them at that point, but still, why must it be their intent?

I guess you are coming from a strong faith where there is a strong order to the universe, bound to a spirit, that forces a physical manifestation into the battle of the soul.

But I'm just not coming from such a viewpoint.

So why didnt they? Why arent they? Simply because they dont intend to.

I disagree. You are assuming they are very human-like to jump to this conclusion. I will concede that if they ARE very human-like, then your reasoning seems sensible.

But why does humanity keep jumping to this assumption that the universe is nothing but a Greek Mask play, with bi-symmetric, head-with-mouth-olfactory-and-optical grotesques from outerspace?

I know some people here claim to know it is. But for those without such evidence, why the assumption? Is it a human nature thing or a cultural thing?

And I know this isn't a very faith friendly thing to say, but why is spiritualism assumed?

Again, I apologize to everyone with alien information of some merit. I never get any. Should people like me conclude that tens of thousands of years of myth is true? Is that kind of realism justified?

Or should I continue to wonder why everyone is projecting humanity into the unknown?

In either case, I won't jump to beliefs. Just keep on jogging through the dark.

[edit on 20-6-2007 by Ectoterrestrial]