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/sci/ - Science & Math

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4045923 No.4045923 [Reply] [Original]

/x/ here.

Why is it that most people who believe in science don't believe in aliens? Isn't that a bit of a contradiction?

>> No.4045925

/sci/ here.

Your comment isn't true.

>> No.4045928

Most reasonable people would at least consider the possibility that aliens exist somewhere. We just don't tend to believe that aliens have ever visited Earth, what with the complete lack of evidence to that effect.

>> No.4045929

>>4045925
Most science people believe that abduction stories, etc. are false. Yet at the same time they believe in science which includes space ships and... well... life on other planets?

>> No.4045930

How is it a contradiction for the science-oriented to not take on faith the existence of something for which there is no solid and publicly verifiable evidence?

Also people shouldn't really take science on faith either so your premise is probably false. Science can stand on its own merit without your faith.

>> No.4045931

I don't "believe" in anything. The fuck is that supposed to mean anyway?

Do I think it's possible that other life-reactions are occurring throughout the vast cosmos? Certainly. Do I think they've visited Earth? Not very likely, at the almost-definitely-not level.

>> No.4045935

>>4045928
>>4045930
He's probably one of those people that thinks reading an Asimov short story and watching The Big Bang Theory makes him a 'scientist'

There's a kid at my school who talks to me about warp bubbles from the Star Trek universe thinking it's the kind of shit I learn about in physics. He knows no real physics or maths but keeps insisting he "loves science"

>> No.4045936

>>4045923
No, you are thinking of the Science Fiction people.
We are the Science people, please go over to >>>/lit/

>> No.4045939

The general public typically doesn't understand the difference between science and technology.
Science is a thought process.
Technology is one result of that though process.

>> No.4045946

>>4045925

/thread

I frequent both /x/ and /sci/, and I can firmly say that at least 75% of the denizens of /x/ are crazy. They actually believe they can spawn succubi, they preach ancient alien theory, they eat up UFO-abduction tales like they were bags of free money. Most scientists believe that alien life forms exist, but not many think of them in the way that most /x/philes do. We see aliens as microbiological single-celled organisms or viruses, while speculators see them as little green men with laser guns and light contraction beams. Even the scientists who believe that there are alien races far superior to our own probably don't see aliens in the typical Hollywood fashion; it's impossible to tell what they'd look like if we had no knowledge of their home environments.

>> No.4045949

There is probably an abundance of life, but I'd wager intelligent life in the universe is very rare. If intelligent life were a facet of evolution that springs up in different mutually exclusive lineages (like say wings), you'd see it spring up multiple times on our own planet in different lineages. Yet it seems to have occurred only in the metazoa.

>> No.4045967

Aliens likely exist/ existed or will come into existence

The two things nobody understands when you tell them is 'when' and 'where'. This made harder when joe average does not realise the size or time scale of the universe

>> No.4045970

sage

>> No.4045979

>>4045949
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter

Colonizing the galaxy wouldn't take long on a cosmic scale.

>> No.4045980

Feynman said it best... From my knowledge of the world that I see around me, I think that it is much more likely that the reports of flying saucers are the results of the known irrational efforts of terrestrial intelligence than of the unknown rational efforts of extra-terrestrial intelligence.

>> No.4045983

can't tell if op is trolling or a fucking moron. either way, sage.

>> No.4045996

>>4045923
>Why is it that most people who believe in science don't believe in aliens? Isn't that a bit of a contradiction?

The question "do aliens exist" and "are aliens visiting the earth" are two separate questions.