By this point, most people tend to believe that life exists elsewhere in the Universe. The numbers are just too difficult to ignore and dispute. And we keep getting more and more insight into just how vast and dense the Universe really is. Not even a month ago, the Hubble Space Telescope spotted a Galaxy so old that it shouldn’t exist. This defies a lot of things which we believed to be true about the Galaxy and the nature of science as we new it. And if we have to rethink that, just imagine what else we have to rethink.
Reason #1 Aliens and UFOs Exist: The Sheer Numerical Chance
In 1968, Erich von Daniken released a book called Chariots of the Gods which was the foundation for Ancient Alien theory. An idea that has been more and more widely discussed to the point where it got its own TV show on the History Channel. Near the beginning of his book, Daniken states that there are 30 billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. It’s scientifically accepted that around 18 billion of these contain planetary systems. If just 1% of these planets contained conditions which had conditions similar to Earth, there would still be 18 million planets. If 1% of those had some form of bacterial life, there would still be 1.8 million planets. If 1% of those actually had some form of intelligent life such as small animals there would still be 18,000. And finally, if even 1% of those planets had more intelligent life there would still be 180 planets.
Of course these estimates are fairly conservative considering astronomers now estimate there are actually more like 200 to 400 billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy with 50 billion planets. Using Daniken’s same estimate this means there could be 500 intelligent-life bearing planets in our Galaxy. A 278% increase since Daniken’s estimate 44 years ago. And of course this is assuming that other alien lifeforms need Earth-like conditions to live. Perhaps there’s a race out there that is just so different from us, they thrive on Methane gas or some other weird form of energy and drink sand. We just don’t know.
Besides all this, are you familiar with the Drake Equation? If you are unfamiliar, it is the equation which realistically estimates the number of intelligent species in the Galaxy and the Universe based on the same principles Erich von Daniken used. It’s fairly complicated but BBC breaks it down in a very easy to understand, interactive manner. Even at the lowest estimated values for life the equation still estimates 15,000 sentient, intelligent species in the Universe! Try it out yourself to see!
Reason #2 Aliens and UFOs Exist: Our Changing Belief Systems
Oh boy, this is a big one.
As a society, we have always had a tendency to only believe what is the popular and socially acceptable idea at any given point in time. The Earth is round? Blasphemy! It’s obviously flat because that’s what everyone else says!
It’s no different as far as the subject of UFOs and Aliens goes. Despite overwhelming amounts of eyewitness testimonies, the sheer grand size of the Universe and possibility of life, and the amount of unexplained phenomena here on Earth, the subject of UFOs and Aliens has always seemed a bit weird and taboo to talk about and has had no place in science. Therefore it has continued to fall under the categories of Paranormal and Conspiracy. Both which have always been looked at with a skeptics eye.
The truth is that in order for the subject to become socially acceptable to discuss, world governments and mainstream science needs to accept the subject as legitimately worth investigating. We have seen this happen time and time again through paradigm shifts as concepts and ideas go from being fantasy to becoming reality. The good news is that it is getting better, more and more broadcasters are promoting programs about UFO investigation such as Chasing UFOs on National Geographic. Even if the concept is just seen as something entertaining to watch, the fact that it is being shown on major stations like this is a plus.
Here’s something to think about – what would happen if you took a man from the year 1900 and put him into the year 2000? Chances are he wouldn’t believe what he was seeing with his own eyes. Never mind cell phones and the Internet, the size of skyscrapers and planes flying through the air would completely boggle his mind! He wouldn’t think any of what he was seeing with his own eyes would be possible – yet it is.
So what would happen if you time-traveled 100 years into the future? Would you be reading and learning about how mankind now has over 50 colonies not only in the Sol star system, but in other solar systems? Faster than light travel? Impossible by today’s standards but what if it turned out to be as common as getting on an airplane 100 years from now?