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Only idiots and psychos "believe" aliens exist. It's a great quick and easy way to ask someone if they are an idiot without having to ask them if they are an i

Only idiots and psychos "believe" aliens exist. It's a great quick and easy way to ask someone if they are an idiot without having to ask them if they are an idiot.

dkersten 5y ago
I think that's a bit too bunt. I believe that aliens might exist, somewhere out there. I do not believe they have ever visited earth if they do exist and I think the liklihood of us finding any, in our lifetimes, is also pretty close to zero. The universe is a rather large place, to say that they definitely don't exist in any form anywhere out there is just as unwarranted as it is to say that they're installing anal probes in humans. I do agree that it (asking if people believe in alien visitations) is a litmus test that they may be lacking in critical thinking and perhaps education.
- ksaj 5y ago
  What about religious experiences? I've always thought that if nearly all religions have such experiences, they must be similar enough that they bely their true bias in their hatred towards each other. Either they believe those experiences come from God (or aliens) or they do not. But they always seem to find an "obvious" way to explain it away ONLY IF there is an us-or-them relationship. It's like "My experience was authentic, even though all those other ones are not." In either case, it's hard to not notice the similarities if you are observing from the outside. Especially when people who purportedly have witnessed UFO's have typically witnessed several of them throughout their lives.
  - dkersten 5y ago
    Since I'm a non-believer, my feelings on religion is similar to that of aliens: I'm not discounting the possibilities that its real, but I've seen no evidence for it and see people picking and choosing what they attribute to their deity of choice. For example, every time something goes right, isn't god great? But when it goes wrong, its the persons fault. > "My experience was authentic, even though all those other ones are not." Yeah, I've had this conversation with a christian before, I asked how are they so sure they're right and the answer was because of their experience. When I told them that I've had the exact same conversation with the exact same answer with a muslim before too, they didn't believe me. Seems like a lot of mental gymnastics to me. You're right, the similarities to belief in alien visitations are definitely there.
- perl4ever 5y ago
  There are a lot of double standards that it's easy to glide over. People are critical of belief in "alien visitations" who are not necessarily critical of more conventional religion. In a lot of settings, belief in "fairies" would be treated differently from belief in "angels". It is a real practical problem in psychiatry of how to evaluate someone who claims to have religious experiences such as hearing God. The standard approach, if I recall correctly, is to consider it a mental disorder if it involves significant distress and/or interference with normal life, or if it involves angry and violent themes. The problem with the intellectual consistency of that (from the perspective of Western culture) is, well, have you read the parts of the Christian Bible where Jesus is in a bad mood? Or accounts of various saints? There has always been, and continues to be, a fair amount of prejudice based on how many people exist with a similar belief structure. Belief in odd things is not a matter of education, at any rate.
pyinstallwoes 5y ago
Only idiots and psychos make definitive decisions as if they had all the data in the universe when they don't.

Only idiots and psychos "believe" aliens exist. It's a great quick and easy way to ask someone if they are an idiot without having to ask them if they are an idiot.

dkersten 5y ago

I think that's a bit too bunt. I believe that aliens might exist, somewhere out there. I do not believe they have ever visited earth if they do exist and I think the liklihood of us finding any, in our lifetimes, is also pretty close to zero. The universe is a rather large place, to say that they definitely don't exist in any form anywhere out there is just as unwarranted as it is to say that they're installing anal probes in humans. I do agree that it (asking if people believe in alien visitations) is a litmus test that they may be lacking in critical thinking and perhaps education.

ksaj 5y ago
What about religious experiences? I've always thought that if nearly all religions have such experiences, they must be similar enough that they bely their true bias in their hatred towards each other. Either they believe those experiences come from God (or aliens) or they do not. But they always seem to find an "obvious" way to explain it away ONLY IF there is an us-or-them relationship. It's like "My experience was authentic, even though all those other ones are not." In either case, it's hard to not notice the similarities if you are observing from the outside. Especially when people who purportedly have witnessed UFO's have typically witnessed several of them throughout their lives.
- dkersten 5y ago
  Since I'm a non-believer, my feelings on religion is similar to that of aliens: I'm not discounting the possibilities that its real, but I've seen no evidence for it and see people picking and choosing what they attribute to their deity of choice. For example, every time something goes right, isn't god great? But when it goes wrong, its the persons fault. > "My experience was authentic, even though all those other ones are not." Yeah, I've had this conversation with a christian before, I asked how are they so sure they're right and the answer was because of their experience. When I told them that I've had the exact same conversation with the exact same answer with a muslim before too, they didn't believe me. Seems like a lot of mental gymnastics to me. You're right, the similarities to belief in alien visitations are definitely there.
perl4ever 5y ago
There are a lot of double standards that it's easy to glide over. People are critical of belief in "alien visitations" who are not necessarily critical of more conventional religion. In a lot of settings, belief in "fairies" would be treated differently from belief in "angels". It is a real practical problem in psychiatry of how to evaluate someone who claims to have religious experiences such as hearing God. The standard approach, if I recall correctly, is to consider it a mental disorder if it involves significant distress and/or interference with normal life, or if it involves angry and violent themes. The problem with the intellectual consistency of that (from the perspective of Western culture) is, well, have you read the parts of the Christian Bible where Jesus is in a bad mood? Or accounts of various saints? There has always been, and continues to be, a fair amount of prejudice based on how many people exist with a similar belief structure. Belief in odd things is not a matter of education, at any rate.

pyinstallwoes 5y ago

Only idiots and psychos make definitive decisions as if they had all the data in the universe when they don't.