FREE ESSAY ON EXTRATERRESTRIALS

EXTRATERRESTRIALS

Can the Earth be the only place in the Universe that harbors life? Most astronomers don't

believe this is true. Certain statistics in the Universe provide evidence that living
beings may be 
common place through out the universe, on planets of other stars besides the sun. In this
paper I 
plan to discuss the various viewpoints of those that believe that extraterrestrials exist
and have 
even been visiting Earth, and the viewpoints of skpetics that believe that aliens don't
exist and 
have not been visiting Earth.
To get into the topic we must first start at the base of the subject. First the question
must be 
dealt with of life being only indigenous to planet Earth. One of the most basic materials
that are 
essential to form life are basic carbon compounds. These carbon compounds are very
abundant 
throughout the Universe. Carbon compounds exist not only on planets but on comets and
free 
floating asteroids and gas clouds in space. Although, even with the abundance of all
these 
compunds in the Universe the chances of these compounds forming into living beings aren't
so 
great, however it is true that the odds of carbon forming into life sustaining compounds
is greatly 
increased with an increase in time. The Universe works on a basis backward to the human
way 
of thinking. The Universe becomes more orderly with time while we would tend to think
that 
time breaks down structures. This means to us that the chances of life evolving on any
part of 
the Universe increases as time moves forward.
Another factor that is necessary for life evolving is a Star's size. Our Sun is a very
ordinary 
star in terms of it size and temperature. Statistics show that there are billions of
stars like the sun 
in our galaxy alone. ( Henbest & Couper, 1989, paragraph 5 ) Life evolving in one of
these star 
systems may have developed in the same way humans have. Philosophers have argued for 
centures about how to define life.  If we study living things on the Earth, we find that
there are 
some very basic characteristics that will guide us when we consider life elsewhere in the

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Universe. ( Henbest & Couper, 1989, paragraph 7 ) Life on Earth shows immense diversity.

From organisms such as sea slugs to the human being. All life on Earth are made up of the
same 
basic units, cells. Each cell is built up from chains of carbon, the most important
element to our 
existance.
Within our own solar system only 1 out of 9 planets defines as having life as we know it.

According to some scientists Mars our sister planet may have started to harbor life early
in its 
evolution but some catastrophic event caused Mars to become the barren frozen wasteland
it 
appears to be today. for our solar system alone 2 out of 9 planets that have or may have
had life 
aren't very bad odds for extraterrestrial life throughout the Universe.
Most skeptics of extraterrestrial life or at least of intelligent extraterrestrial life
existing are 
those that believe in Creation rather than evolution. Creation, in Christianity states
that in seven 
days the Sun, Earth, and all life on Earth were created by a superior spiritual being, or
God. This 
paper was not written to argue whether any of this is true, or debate the existance of
God but just 
states the opposing views of those who believe intelligent life is non-existant elsewhere
in the 
Universe. 
I believe that the human race would very much like to feel that we are the only
intelligent life 
forms in the Universe. To believe that we are the only intelligent life forms in the
universe 
makes us feel special and gives our life a purpose that no other being can experience. 
To have proof of other intelligent life existing would give humans such a cultural shock
that 
some have said that our social, economic and political systems would be thrown off
balance.( 
Cornet, 1995, paragraph 10) Religious, and social chaos would become rampant. 
To wrap up the question outlined we must touch on the question of whether E.T's have been

visting Earth. As stated in the previous paragraph, for the human race to come face to
face with 
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a more advanced alien race would be so much of a cultural shock that our governmental, 
economic, and social structures would be broken down. Solely based on the new knowledge
of 
all persons on Earth that we are not alone and have never really been. Religious
teachings and 
basis of human uniqueness would have to be revised, leaving many many people of the world
to 
breakdown. Imagine that you have just been told, rather have just come to the realization
that 
everything you've ever known about life and creation has been a false teaching. That you
have 
no special purpose, that you are one of perhaps thousands or millions of intelligent
beings in the 
Universe. I can imagine that one would collapse based upon this knowledge. This is the
most 
important fact that actually is in favor of the existance of an advanced race visiting
Earth. This is 
what leads many E.T. believers that intelligent life throughout the Universe is abundant
and we 
have been visited by an advanced race of beings. The advanced race of beings would have
the 
knowledge that solid proof of their existance would break us down socio-economically and

therefore have managed only to slowly hint their existance rather than appearing to us
and saying 
We do exist. Many people who are believers of E.T.'s have had experiences or profound 
symbols shown to them that lead them to believe that E.T's are visiting Earth. These who
are 
believers believe strongly that these E.T.'s are here to help mankind. They are here to
help man-
kind spiritually advance themselves. An example often used to advocate these aliens
helping 
mankind is our sudden boost of technology within the 19th and 20th centuries. Many
believe 
that one day these E.T.'s existance will become obvious to us and they will show
themselves for 
all to see. This will not happen anytime soon I would imagine because we are still
maturing 
socially and spiritually, to have such an experience. The E.T's are preparing us few by
few to 
eventually let their presence become known.
It is not only those who believe in Creation that doubt the existance of E.T's visiting
Earth, 
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scientists are also among some of the most substantial skeptics. Scientists share the
same views 
as Religious figures in one aspect, that no E.T's are visiting Earth. Science and
Religion are 
finding a common view for once in history. Although scientists are looking at the
situation in a 
different aspect, Scientists believe that an alien race could never reach Earth because
of the 
enormous amount of energy that would be required for traveling across disctances in
space. 
To set up a scenario
The diameter of the entire Milky Way galaxy is about 100,000 light-years. 
Let's assume that an intelligent species happens to reside on a planet 5,000 light-years
from 
Earth, and that 1.5 billion years ago their starships were capable of cruising at 10% of
the speed 
of light. If they traveled only 1 light-year at a time, with each trip taking about ten
years, and 
they rested or consolidated for a little less than 300,000 years before setting out on
the next 1 
light-year journey they still could have reached Earth by now! The answer to the question
is T i 
m e . . . table of contents ( ETIGrail FAQ's, nodate)
For your knowledge, a light year is the distance that light travels in a year equal to 9
X 4605 
million million kilometres. In accordance with Albert Einstein's relativity theories a
speed of 
light traveling starship would require an infinite amount of energy. Even a ship
travelling at 
99.99% the speed of light, 186,000 miles per second, would require just as large an
amount of 
energy, almost infinite.
Regardless of these scientific restrictions to space travel of enormous distances some 
evidence suggest the occurrence of out of this world experiences that cannot be
explained.
Alien abductions as well as U.F.O sightings are among the most known evidence of human 
contact with extraterrestrials. Although most abduction stories or UFO stories are proved
hoaxes 
there are some to consider. Among most abduction stories there are signs of the E.T's
removing 
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reproductive cells, the ovum of a female human and the sperm of a male human. Some
believe 
that these surgical procedures are done because of this alien's race becoming infertile
due to a 
gamma ray burst of a near by star rendering all inhabitants of their home planet sterile.

Scientists find this idea very common and is even possible on Earth. A gamma ray burst
has left 
these E.T's in a desperate search to save their race. In an attempt to do so they create
hybrid 
species, a mix of human and this alien race known as the Zeta Reticuli most widely known
as 
the grays. Abuctees have many a time reported seeing human figures , much taller than the
rest 
of the gray huge oval black eyed beings. They at first glance thought these people to be
humans 
but upon closer viewing realized they had many similar facial features to the grays,
their eyes 
were sometimes black and huge. This theory is one of the most accepted by those who
believe 
in the existance of E.T's on Earth.
Dr. Bruce Cornet is one such person claiming to have shared many experiences with one 
species of intelligent life visiting earth, he believes that there are more than one. His

educational and professional experiences are as follows : He earned a B.A. in biology 
in 1970 and M.S. in paleobotany in 1973 at the University of Connecticut, and his Ph.D.
in 
geology and palynology in 1977 at Penn. State University. His professional status goes on
and 
on as you can see this man isn't one of the typical abductees. He seems to be a reliable
source 
and a well educated man. This man has claimed that there are ample physical, geophysical,
and 
photographic data collected by himself during his two and a half years of research into
the UFO 
phenomenon to support the hypothesis that Earth is currently inhabited by more than one 
sentient intelligent humanoid species. ( Cornet, 1995 paragraph 16) In general he
believes that 
his success in obtaining this data from his field investigations appears to have been
deliberately 
planned by the non-humans as part of a long term agenda to gradually educate mankind
without 
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causing harm or damage to our religious and socio-economic structures. He believes that 
they want us to become of their existance without fearing them.
In addition to U.F.O sightings by ordinary people some believe that the governments of
the 
world or the United States government already has the knowledge of an advanced race of
alien 
beings. The government to this day denies rumors of a cover up but evidence to the
contrary is 
very persistent. To understand why the government would cover up such stories of Aliens 
working with them in cooperation with the armed forces and military may seem obvious. If

word got out that an advanced civilization was aiding the United States military, and
their 
existance has only been denied constantly by the government people would most definetely
seek 
to find a unified government, for they would have lost trust in the current governmental

institution. Another obvious reason for the governments denial of E.T. is the disasterous
effects 
it may have on the world. Culture shock and loss of cultural identity may be one of the
worst 
effects of exposing the existance of E.T.'s. Another theory of the government's cover up
reasons 
include the Advised Theory.It may be that our visitors have advised our governments to 
cover-up the fact of their existence, or that there is an agreement between our
governments and 
them to adopt such a policy.(Hughes, 1998) Knowledge of alien visitors would throw the 
world into an economic depression for the following reason. If people knew that advanced

beings had the technology to grasp free energy which would explain how they have been
able 
to conquer space travel of such large distances, we would make obsolete the use of oil
and all 
other forms of human energy harvesting, the global economy would fail simply because it
is 
based upon the oil industry.
Regardless of all the speculation about aliens existance and their presence on Earth!, we

continue to ponder at the stars an spend money on space searching radio telescopes such
as 
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S.E.T.I the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence. We have not yet heard any radio
blips from 
the extra solar star systems and continue to search , wondering whether we are alone. I
believe 
we may never get a radio message for that advanced civilization we are looking for if
they are 
truly here on Earth. They may want to keep their presence unknown to us until we have
evolved 
far enough mentally as well as technologically to handle knowledge of their existance. 
Philosophical speculation that there might be other worlds similar to ours dates back to
the 
ancient Chinese and Greeks. Even on the paintings of cave walls were strange figures of 
humanoid beings in space helmets and suits. To this day Historians are not sure for
certain why 
the Ancient Egyptians built the pyramids or even how they were able to accomplish such a
feat 
with the existant technology at that time. There is speculation that the ancient
Egyptians were in 
contact with E.T's as well. Technological advancements throughout the centuries may have
been 
aided by those from the stars, we may have had help on our evolutionary path and path of

advancement. A believer in E.T.'s existance such as myself believe that all of the
discussed 
issues are plausible by the existance of extraterrestrials. It remains a mystery to many
though 
whether they exist on Earth or even at all. To say that extraterrestrials don't exist
throughout the 
Universe is not a valid belief. There are simply too many ways or forms of which to find
life 
throughout the Universe, intelligent or not. The odds of life on an intelligent or non
intelligent 
scale in our own Milky way are pretty good on their own. To my belief, the Universe is
teaming 
with life, I cannot say for sure whether we have been visited by any but this is all
plausible. I 
remain captivated at the thought of an advanced civilization aiding mankind in
advancement of 
our species.
I hope one day we as a race will become one advanced enough morally socially and 
politically that war of any kind is non-existant and we will live in a world in which we
get along 
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with one another regardless of petty differences. To an advanced civilization, we must
all seem 
just the same to each other , they would probably have compassion to the human ways and
this is 
why they may have taken on the responsibility of helping us advance as a civilization so
that we 
may create a bond with beings of another origin.