More Brits believing in Aliens over god?

[God ~blogs admin ~]

More than 33 million U.K. citizens believe in extraterrestrial life, compared to just over 27 million -- less than half the country -- who believe in God.

That's the result of an online survey of 1,359 adults who were asked a variety of questions ranging from belief in alien visits to Earth, suspicions of UFO cover-ups, belief in extraterrestrials vs. belief in God, and whether or not men actually landed on the moon.

The survey, conducted by Opinion Matters, revealed the following statistics among those surveyed:

• 52 percent believe UFO evidence has been covered up because widespread knowledge of their existence would threaten government stability.
• 44 percent believe in God.
• One in 10 people has reported seeing a UFO.
• A quarter more men than women claim to have seen UFOs.
• 20 percent of respondents believe UFOs have landed on Earth.
• More than five million British citizens believe the Apollo moon landings were faked.

While the survey was conducted as part of a tie-in with a new video game, "XCOM: Enemy Unknown," it was a legitimate sampling of opinions that can be taken to represent the population of the U.K., according to the agency that conducted the survey.

"Yes, it has been done with an independent panel through a bonafide research company," said Karen Brooks, managing director of Opinion Matters, a well-known market research agency that created the survey.

"Surveys can be done face-to-face, over the telephone and online. This one was a U.K. adult sample, which is quite broad, and doing it online is a quick, effective way of getting to that audience," she continued. "We make sure that all of the questions are compliant from a research perspective."

But some are skeptical of the results, including Alistair Macdonald-Radcliff, an Anglican priest and director general of the World Dialogue Council, a group that promotes better relations between the West and Islamic cultures.

"Having done a certain amount of work with statistics on religion, I am inherently skeptical about what these statistics tell you, and particularly if there's a narrow, selective base. Something with about 1,000 people does set off alarm bells," Macdonald-Radcliff told HuffPost.

"I really do think the failure to define what they're asking people to believe here is a fairly critical failure for the survey," Macdonald-Radcliff said. "Because you've already set out quite a variety of possibilities as to what they might or might not suppose UFOs to be. I certainly think sliding extraterrestrial and UFO together is a particularly messy thing to do."

Macdonald-Radcliff suggested that people are "less inclined to be participants in traditional churches," which might represent a shift of general beliefs that they have about God and extraterrestrials.

"There may be some correlation there," he noted. "But I have to say the actual hard data has yet to be found. There may be a relationship between people becoming more credulous in UFOs and less credulous in traditional religion."

The results of the survey are not surprising to Nick Pope, a former U.K. Ministry of Defense UFO investigator. "It's important to bear in mind that people who believe in alien life don't necessarily think it's visiting us," Pope said in an email to HuffPost.

"The recent upsurge in the discovery of extra-solar planets may be a factor here; as we close in on 'shadow Earths,' people are more likely to think that if Earth isn't unique, neither is life," he added.

Pope also noted that many of the doubts people might have about religion or about extraterrestrial life are rooted in a similar problem: lack of hard evidence.

"In the case of religion, we have only faith -- faith based on some ancient texts where, despite the claims, no divine origin can be proven," Pope said. "Even where people claim to have had a first-hand experience, why should we believe accounts of miracles and visions any more or less than UFO sightings or claims of alien abduction?"

The quoted article taken from here. 

[Hutch Hogan]

In the grand scheme of things, extraterrestrial life is basically a given to exist. Even with our limited observation tools, we've finding earth sized planets around small stars.  As our resolution grows (first with the new spectrograph at the European Southern Observatory), and then with the construction of the Extremely Large Telescope later this decade or early next decade. 

That said, the idea of extraterrestrials visiting the world and incompetent politicians keeping it a secret? That's a joke. 

[Latch33570]

Why do you say it is a joke Hutch? I am convinced that they have come here. I think most people who look at the evidence to date should be convinced. Heck just look at the rendelshom forest incident. I  know I misspelled that.

[acegiak]

Latch, although the law of large numbers suggests that there should be life out there and probably civilised life, if they HAD visited us and it were being covered up by the government there are some questions that need answering:

1) Why cover it up? Does the Government have some reason to think that knowing people visit from other planets will destabilise their rule? People visit from other countries all the time and that makes no difference.

2) Which Government? Even if Aliens only visited one country that country would have a hard time making sure the intelligence networks of other nations never found out and if they visited multiple countries then more than one country knows. As soon as more than one country knows that the aliens exist you get the third question:

3) How are they keeping it covered up? If governments can't keep things like Watergate and the Lewinski affair covered up even in their own countries, how on earth are they going to hide the existence of aliens? Especially when you take into account the difficulties of efficiency in international collaborations and the hundreds of minor betrayals and political maneuvering amongst countries.

I think that given the evidence it's extremely improbable. I'd like for it to be true, that'd be rad, but I'd also like the phantom time hypothesis to be true, and it's pretty obvious it's not :(

[Latch33570]

Seeing as there are plenty of evidence and credible witnesses yes I do believe they have been here and will come in the future. The govts can't keep all the secrets but they can keep some. They kept stealth planes and boats for a while. They have kept secrete bunkers and bases.   As for it destabilizing our govt I can see that. Look at all the problems we have with religious nuts right now. Imagine if they came down and said "we are the angels in your history books" Every nutty preacher will be on the street corners saying that they were devils and this was prophesied in the bible. Then imagine if it coincided with a global pandemic. Book of revelation and so forth. Since ancient times a good portion of every generation thinks that they are in end times. Now put that together with some reptile alien looking thing and you got suicide bombers all over the place. 

[acegiak]

Can you link to the evidence and credible witnesses?

Like I said, I'd like it to be true.

[Latch33570]

Here this is an affidavit from Col Holt who was the base commander at Rendlesham Air Force Base. I know that there is some guy out there saying that he hoaxed it with a flashlight and his police cruiser lenses. But that doesn't fly. One thing it was over days and separate instances and one guy touched it.    http://www.roswellproof.com/rendlesham_pictorial.html  check out Col Holtz affidavit

[Mckenzie Craig]

Are you trying to say this is a problem? It is as much a problem as there being other religions on the planet: none. Especially since it is very likely that there are "alien" life forms out there on other planets. It is very egocentric to think that we are the only civilized life, or even just life in general, in the universe. The belief in your God has not always been around, and if other religions in history are any indication, it will not be around forever either.

[Jessica E.]

I think that it would be a phenomenon if aliens didn't exist, but I also think it would be a phenomenon if they made it all the way to earth.

That being said, as far as a government cover up?  Think of the mass panic the announcement of alien life would create.  Anarchy would ensue in some places, and there would be widespread hysteria everywhere.  If I were a person in power, I would find some way to let the news come gradually, in effect, covering it up.

[Eystein,]

Anarchy would ensue in some places, and there would be widespread hysteria everywhere.  If I were a person in power,

Why? Most people I know would be cautious and concerned yes, but also pleasantly anticipated, able to hope for the best.

However I don't think humanity would fare well for the long run in the shadow of beings whose intelligence vastly out-limits our own. 

[Latch33570]

Why do you think their intelligence is superior. I mean their knowledge and technology yes.  I don't see why you would think we would fare badly.

[Eystein,]

I think that throughout all the millenias that their civilizations may have existed, that they will have had major alterations done to them concerning mental and physical capabilities. And if they were synthetics, then there's almost no limits to how intelligent and physically diverse they could be. And they would be immortal.

I see no reason why we, given time, couldn't do the same, and given if they wanted to they could probably help us with that. But if they wanted to, would it really be wise to trust that they'd do it right? Of course we could always do it ourselves, but it would take generations. And to their defense, I don't think we are that more trustworthy ourselves, but we'd do it anyway for a chance to be better.

In the meantime I think that we would become incredibly dependent on them and unable to compete. It would be a tremendous blow back on our collective spirits, and I think that our elite would suffer the most to the point where human innovation would almost stagnate. It would affect everything.

[Latch33570]

God doesn't go around probing you like the aliens do. It is hard to say they don't exist with them sticking stuff you know where.