The Pseudoscience of Psychoanalyzing Aliens
One cannot determine the motives of
speculative beings that are completely unknown
— Why do science news sites get away with publishing utterly unscientific nonsense? —
Aliens haven’t contacted Earth because there’s no sign of intelligence here, new answer to the Fermi paradox suggests (Live Science, 17 Dec 2022). Reporter Stephanie Pappas gives storyteller Amri Wandel license to give his evidence-free response to the “Fermi Paradox.”
This paradox, voiced by physicist Enrico Fermi, asks why the aliens have not visited Earth by now if they have been evolving for billions of years. Pappas summarizes Wandel’s answer thus: “A new paper claims that intelligent aliens would only be interested in contacting the most technologically advanced planets, and Earth doesn’t make the cut.”
Wandel’s story attributes godlike powers to space aliens he has never seen:
In the new paper, Wandel offers another possible explanation: that life is actually really common in the Milky Way. If many of the rocky planets orbiting in the habitable zone of stars host life, aliens probably aren’t going to waste their resources sending signals to every one — they’d likely end up trying to communicate with alien algae or amoebas.
The only scientific part of Wandel’s story is an estimate of how far human radio signals have traveled since human’s first attempts at broadcasting radio energy. But shouldn’t the reporter be laughing at his tale? She gives it good press.
The findings suggest that perhaps there are no intelligent civilizations within about 50 light-years of our planet, he wrote. But intelligent life could still be out there — they’re just waiting for our call.
This is, of course, ridiculous, since a call placed on some Dial-an-Alien hotline would take centuries for a response, even assuming that super-intelligent aliens exist. Science used to rule out occult phenomena that were untestable. The existence of aliens is completely lacking in evidence, let alone the ability to know how they think. But SETI is a darling of science news sites even after half a century of a complete and utter failure to find any evidence of life beyond Earth, to say nothing of intelligent life.
There is, predictably, an evolutionary motivation for Wandel’s story and for Stephanie’s positive coverage of it:
If life has evolved on many planets in the galaxy, then aliens are probably more interested in the ones where there are signs not just of biology but technology, study author Amri Wandel, an astrophysicist at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, wrote in the paper.
Jerusalem: the city where Herod tried to wipe out the Christ child, is now continuing the campaign with alternate methods. Those who accept evolution strive to apply the Stuff Happens Law to all of reality. They have no need for a miraculous life, death and resurrection documented by history, but they have no trouble applying the label “science” to speculations completely devoid of any evidence at all. One cannot estimate what is probable with no data.
Real down-to-earth evidence of intelligent visitation: Christmas.
Christians have a related question: how could an almighty, omniscient God care about such specks as us? There is, however, an evidence-based answer to that question: sacrificial love shown by the Creator who took on human form to rescue us from judgment due our sin. That’s why we celebrate Christmas. Martin Luther said, “That the Creator himself comes to us and becomes our ransom – this is the reason for our rejoicing.”
Space-age videos to watch about Christmas, courtesy Illustra Media. Their website is named the John 10:10 project, from the words of Jesus, “I have come that you might have life, and might have it more abundantly.”