And the idea of intelligent life elsewhere – however unlikely – makes the universe less empty. In the search for the meaning of life in a secular society, sociologists say, it’s no surprise that the idea of E.T takes root in our imaginations. Where God is supplanted by science, aliens, especially omniscient and benevolent ones, become a new kind of religion.
Stephen Hawking’s position this week – that aliens are to be avoided – falls into a cycle that keeps the human fascination with E.T. alive, drifting between real and pseudoscience, even as scientists and ufologists debated his argument this week. At Temple University in Philadelphia, David M. Jacobs, who has been studying alien abduction reports for more than 20 years, agrees with Dr. Hawking: “There is no evidence to suggest that extraterrestrials would automatically be benevolent. We might be easy pickings for them.”
On the other hand, suggests Seth Shostak, the senior astronomer at the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute in Berkeley, Calif., “I can hardly belief that any society capable of coming here, which is very, very hard to do, maybe impossible to do, has any interest in doing something malevolent to us.”
And on the long shot that intelligent life advanced enough to cross galaxies does exist, argues Paul Davies, an English physicist based in Arizona and the author of Eerie Silence: Renewing our Search of Alien Intelligence, they have certainly known about Earth and its resources for billion of years. “If they wanted them, they would already be here.”
Which is why, back in Mission, B.C., David Fairn continues to watch the sky, hoping for another sighting. “We’re having a dry spell,” he says. “I check every night.”
