98% of Scientists Believe in Aliens — But Have Zero Evidence

Scientists surveyed. 98% believe in extraterrestrial life. Evidence found: zero. That gap — between what scientists want to be true and what the data actually shows — is what this whole conversation is really about. Hugh Ross has spent his career at exactly that fault line, and the full interview goes much deeper: the fine-tuning of our galaxy cluster, why Earth's cosmic address is stranger than most people realize, and what it means for the search for life. Full conversation here → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54sjTUELT5I

A belief system is commonly understood to be 'an emotionally felt understanding of possibility without proof' as in every religious belief. Every scientist is capable of such belief while simultaneously knowing for certain there is currently no proof of alien existence. Its all in the understanding of word meanings.

I think the belief we aren't alone is perfectly rational. Either we were purposefully created by a designer -- God / whatever. Or we arose from a process of random chance. The former and we are already not alone in the universe, the latter it would take more faith to believe that life only arose in a single location in the entire universe and that random chance didn't replicate similar results somewhere else than not. So I would argue that by virtue of our own existence, we are not alone in the universe. That is probably more of a philosphical view than a scientific one but it completely rational.

I've believed since I was 14. But my attitude has always been: "yeah, I know they're there. I just think we need to take care of business here." An Elder (Cherokee) told me once: 'There are those that mean us well; and those that do not mean us well. And it's up to you to discern the difference.' I'm on the side of making wise decisions.

The people who DON'T believe are the foolish ones. If you ever ran the numbers on how many potentially habitable worlds there are likely to be in the universe... If there weren't any other civilizations it would be against all odds, especially considering the elements for life are extremely common and complex organic molecules are common. In our own solar system there are at least 4 bodies where life of some sort could possibly survive. Venus was likely habitable in the past, and currently has conditions that could support microscopic life in its upper atmosphere. Saying you believe aliens exist vs saying you believe aliens have visited earth are two very different things. These UFO people are nutty. People who believe we are alone in the universe are pompous and just want to believe that they are special. Belief is not asinine when there are absolutely overwhelming odds that something exists. Believing that you are special is the asinine thing in this context.

Dr. Keating, I love your channel. One small critique: instead of stating there is no evidence, it is more appropriate to state there is no indisputable (or irrefutable) evidence. There is plenty of evidence, including sworn witness testimoney, but that evidence is not indisputable and is inadequate to reach a scientific conclusion on the NHI hypothesis. Nonetheless, it is evidence. Some people take the perspective that only physical evidence is evidence, but that is incorrect, and that perspective ignores entire regions of scientific study, including cognitive science, psychology, sociology, anthropology, behavioral economics, etc.

What would Avi Lloeb answer?

Scary concept !?

I believe aliens might exist, but I have no proof they do.

There are very specific planetary requirements just to get the right conditions and elements to just form the building blocks for life before life even exists. I’ve spent time looking more closely at it recently and see the conditions needed are manifold and rare on their own but all put together are exceedingly rare and leave me suprised that many astrobiologists believe that ‘alien life’ is even a possibility