Extraterrestrial life

Frequently in my discussion with people whether its about philosophy, theology or science, the question of extraterrestrial life came out. "Is there an alien out-there?" However this question beg a further clarification. What does it mean when we use the word alien here? In theological language of Stanley Hauerwas, human are aliens. In his book Resident Aliens he discusses the theology of the church and its relation to politics and public square. Christian is a resident aliens in a strange land, which model the love of Christ in community rather than trying to transform the culture surround actively. Aliens in his context were us, for those who believe in Christ. Hence, if the question is is there an alien-out there? We can say, Yes, Christian. However, this is not a common answer we give to that question because the context of the question was not normally about alien in any/whatever sense of the term but in particular sense of the term that is to say, aliens as extraterrestrial being. To put in another term, alien is a being that is coming or existing outside the the earth and its atmosphere that can be observable by five senses and human tools (Some atheist define God as simply alien because of his nature that is beyond the world and hence, alien does not exists because God does not exists, according to their perspectives. However God is excluded from the definition we set above). 

Is there a being like us or other than us, who are there in the other side of the world? Are we alone in this galaxy? The answer for the existence is yes it is possible that they exists for the reason of the enormous vast universe (Many are yet to be discovered) we are living but also in this manner, it is hard to give a bold conclusion because lack of clear evidences we have regarding it. As we know, our culture like to portray an alien like an ugly being with a big head and big eyes, some with elongated tentacles. Others present alien is more or less like us.  However, does those portrayals describe the reality, does anybody have seen it and then bring an alien to the press or to invite then to meet the president? No, it is only the work of human imagination at best. Evidences that we have mostly are based on our pre existing belief that aliens exits. The logic is this, "because I believe that aliens does exits, this field crop must be the sign and evidence of an alien landed in the field!" 

Today, the quest of extraterrestrial life is still captivating and excite many curious mind. In 2015, SETI invest around 1500 $ million for the quest of proving and finding the existence beyond the earth. This importance of the quest also doubled by Stephen Hawing who also argue that to see the life beyond the earth we are living is important, to know that we are not alone and of course, it expand the science and the sense of wonder! Yet, our exploration of extraterrestrial life are mostly based on several pre-assumptions, which might turn out to be a great mistake. Let take this example. The signal (From interstellar radio) that we are sending to the sky everyday are based on the assumption that aliens have ears to detect the sound. What if they did not have ears or diffrent kind of ears? The second assumption is that at least, they have also a similar or even greater technology to capture our signal. Third, it assume that aliens have a certain range of intelligence that could at least interpret the signal and responding accordingly. However, what If they have no ears, they have no technology and they have not intellectual capacity? Consequently, our effort to try to communicate with them is in vain. 

Having said that, it does not diminished the possibility of their existence for probably we cannot reach them not because they are not real but because they are in a very different state of being, or earliest form of evolution, scientifically speaking. We can say they are like primitive being, and lack of many capacities that human have, intellectually and biologically. They are like worm or maybe a slimy being that are yet or slow to be developed. If that is the case, the only way to prove their existence is now turn out not by giving a signal to the sky but by reaching out to the vast universe outside the earth by a space-ship, and capture them alive with sight or in camera. To do this kind of thing, we need a really advance technology, to stay long in the outer-space searching for the existence of an alien. For sure, it will cost a lot of budget and cash!

With this uncertainty, some might argue that all our questions about Aliens are fostered by Myth that is far from reality. A mere product of culture and superstition of man since ancient. Dawkins in his book mentioned on how the idea of aliens was rooted in the false-syndrome perception and delusion. He mentioned on how many people experienced that that have been abducted by aliens (Cultic group by the name of Heaven's gate killed themselves with poison because UFO will take their soul to another world). However, most of them are fond to Star-Track movie, which maybe shaped their interpretation of what they are experiencing, let say, in sleep paralysis case. If in Medieval times interpret the experience of their sleep paralyses as the demonic attack, (since Medieval embraces those kind of things), today, people interpret those sleep exposure with  an alien of modern culture. 

In this issue, Richard Dawkins is very helpful. In the quest of finding the proof of Extraterrestrial life, one ought not to feel shameful if we say, no for the answer of the existence of alien. Why? Because it is true that there is no yet a strong evidence of it and science is essentialy based on where the evidences leads but still, we always open for the possibility of something unknown in future time as Dawkins himself says, "For reality does not just consist of the things we already know about it: it also includes things that exist but that we do not know about yet and won't know about until some future time, perhaps when we have built better instruments to assists our five sense." And he then conclude, this is the "Wonder and joy of science." 

With the growing evidences of aliens that yet to be confirmed, we can progress better to find out the truth. Or maybe, at certain point of time we can say that the reason why we cannot conclude with bold yes to the answer, and also to answer why have not alien come here already is like what Enrico Fermi is this, alien simply do not exist. But also the counter-perspective of Zoo-Hypotheses of Stephen Webb also reasonable as well, that perhaps we are being watched and not contacted by alien. So how can we make an answer for this question? For me personally, the answer of the existence of an alien is still in progress. Maybe yes, maybe no but It is safer to say no than yes, thus far. But in all the cases of finding the answer of whether there is an alien, I can sympathize with what Holmes says in the past, "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." The quest of finding aliens is not a quest for certainty but to dispel and excluding uncertainty of the growing existence of aliens. Unless, today, there are a real space-ships suddenly landed in the earth, this is one of the kind of  the clear evidence of confirmation. Or we are finally come to see their home-base, from which they watch over us from far distance planet or even closer than we ever think of!