It is the 19 th of May 2007

My alien thoughts for today are that there is alot of confusion in the world.

I read all the time, books, the internet, downloads, magazines and newspapers, anything that is printed. Reading teaches me things, and as time goes by, I form opinions and gather ideas. When I gather ideas, I like to share them. My ideas are probably not particularly original, but they are mine. So I guess these pages are to be a sharing of my ideas and opinions.

Religion is something we either discuss to overkill or pretend there isn't anything there. We deem ourselves as believers or not. There are so many different ideas about religion, which is the right one, which group within the religion is the truest and we even think that perhaps we have found something special just for us. And this is true even if we claim not to have any religious leanings at all. In ourselves, we know we are right.

But an intelligent person will always ask questions - why is this so? Sometimes we get an answer, often we do not, but the questionee may not be prepared to admit that. So our search continues. I would like to narrow this idea down a little. I will tell you what I think about things and see if it helps you or see if your opinion is sufficient enough that you would discuss it. Talk about it. Even if you believe that in every fibre of your body I am wrong, talk about it. Because in talking about it, you are thinking about it, and in thinking about it you are forming your own ideas and opinions and therefore working towards whatever spiritual quest you are seeking.

So my first blog is going to be about Christianity, Aliens and UFO's.

Aliens are probably one of my favourite things. My most favourite, of course, is my horses, but when I am not with them and thinking about my artworks (both topics of other blogs), I like aliens. There are so many different kinds. However, I will make this caveat. I do not believe in aliens per se. I do not think they exist, or at least not in the forms we usually imagine thanks to Science Fiction writers and Hollywood. But the imagination these days is permeated with various kinds of aliens, from the wacky population in MIB and MIIB (yeah, Wil Smith), the sombre ones from Star Trek (I have a soft spot for Cardassians) and Star Wars (yeah Yoda), and of course, who did not love ET? My gosh was that little fellow not just the cutest thing? Those are only Hollywood aliens.

They shape our imagination, get us stretching. But usually they have pretty humanised natures and a good many of them are "humanoid" in shape and looks.

Then there are the aliens of the conspiracy theories. The Greys. The goodies and the baddies. There is one conspiracy theory that goes along the lines of the leaders of the free and not so free world being shape shifting reptiles. My gosh, what an imagination. The conspiracy theories have been great fund raisers for their originators and copiers. I think there is nothing like a good conspiracy theory to fire up the imagination.

But pretty well all of them are pretty human natured as well. There isn't anything really grossly alien about them. None of this "It's life, Jim, but not as we know it", stuff, not really. Anything too alien would be too creepy.

What about the Aliens from the "Alien" movies. Yuk, big ugly things that they were, or the ones poor old Riddick had to fight off in "Pitch Black". Those are good baddies. Nothing like a decent baddie, hey?

I go from the Science Fiction genre to science itself. The Search for Extra Terrestial Intelligence. (aka SETI). Wow, these people are true believers. Not only that, apparently you can let them use your computer down time in the search too. I don't know if that is still current, but what an idea. Helping these good scientists further the cause of mankind.

But alas, I do not think aliens are really going to come here. We are a bit of a back water in the galaxy (Douglas Adam's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) and I seriously doubt we would be all that interesting to a life form that was capable of travelling the galaxy it a hotted up rocketship. There are just so many more things out there: the Crab nebula, all those new and baby star systems, what about the stars going supernova? What is here that is even slightly comparable to those things? We haven't even got "warp capability". We don't look like we are about to get it any time soon, either.

Oh, yes, I was bought up believing that by now we would be traversing the stars like Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon et al. I went into every competition to win a trip to the moon, to Mars to the next galaxy and what have we here? If I make an extreme fortune, maybe, just maybe I could get Richard Branson to let me go up in his rocket to the edge of the atmosphere. I could go to the Shuttle place in the USA and get a simulator ride in a fake shuttle. Wow.

Talk about a big disappointment. I mean really big.

So I think it is a moot point when people want to know if the sacrifice of Jesus would or wouldn't count for aliens on other planets. I think this, because seriously, dudes, I don't reckon there are any inhabited or inhabitable planets out there.

I know the arguments that they are discovering planets all the time, but face it, what are the odds? The right distance from a "friendly" "M" class Sun, the right size, a moon to create tides, a convenient comet from within this solar system to crash and start life (this is what some people believe started life on earth). Or a convenient rock from Mars with the right bacteria that wasn't killed in the vacuum of space nor fried on the way down through the atmosphere - oh that's right, the bacteria conveniently created the atmosphere, by breathing. Well, even that is pretty much a long way from happening, too. There are those who say that the moon itself was created by some impact that flung the land from the Pacific Basin "out there", mind you, just the right distance.

And I thought the creators of aliens had good imaginations!

The exact conditions for the creation of life. I have faced up to the fact that the most you are likely to find on other planets might be some sort of beetle. Cockroaches, lady bugs, that sort of thing. I don't see them evolving into much. Look at the beetle life on earth. There are far more beetles than there are people, and there are subspecies of beetles as well. If there were to be conditions suitable for any type of life, that would probably be about it. Beetles.

There is of course a whole genre of SF writers out there who agree with me, and therefore, have mankind populating the planets. They use Terraforming. Rather like their speeded up cloning. They terraform the planets, put down colonies of settlers and then write about the heroic adventures either of the transporter troups (yeah, fun job that is) or they write about the settlers (wow, pioneers!). Who is going to volunteer to be a settler on an alien world? Once you have travelled in space, you are not going to want to settle down and be a sturdy settler, you are going to want to keep travelling in space and want to find out more about what is out there. Adventures abound! Settler mentality is not a reality. Hmmm. That sounds almost like a slogan.

I will discuss my thoughts on Intelligent design and creation and evolution in another blog.

I just think that realistically, there are no aliens, fun and all as they might be. If there is life on other planets, it is not something as developed as we are. We cannot even begin to imagine the resources required to make such a long, arduous trek across the galaxy just to sit and watch and play games with humanity.

But just in case, I will remind you that Jesus said, "I am the truth, the light and the way. No one comes to the Father, but by me". So I think those are the final words for this day.