Belief in alien visits to Earth is getting out of control - here's why it's so dangerous 

In an article accepted for publication in the Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, Tony Milligan, a researcher in the philosophy of ethics, King's College London, argues that the belief in alien visitation is no longer a whim, but a widespread social problem

By: Tony Milligan, Researcher in the Philosophy of Ethics, King's College London 

The idea that aliens might visit Earth is gaining increasing popularity. About 20% of British citizens believe that aliens have visited the earth in the past, and about 7% estimate that they have seen a UFO. 

The figures are even higher in the United States - and they keep rising. The number of people who believe that UFO sightings provide reasonable evidence for the existence of extraterrestrial life increased from 20% in 1996 to 34% in 2022. About 24% of Americans claim to have seen a UFO. 

This belief is somewhat paradoxical, as we have no evidence that extraterrestrials exist. Moreover, in light of the vast distances between the star systems, it seems strange that we would find out about them through a visit. Evidence of aliens is more likely to come from signals from distant planets. 

In an article accepted for publication in the Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, I argue that the belief in alien visitation is no longer a whim, but a widespread social problem. 

The belief is on the rise to the point that politicians, at least in the United States, feel they must respond to it. Disclosure of information about unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs and not UFOs) from the Pentagon is receiving a lot of attention from both political camps in the country. 

Much of this is based on anti-elitist theories that both sides tend to use, such as the idea that the military and a secretive group of private commercial interests are hiding the deep truth about alien visitation. This truth, it is claimed, includes sightings, abductions and copied alien technology. 

The belief in a conspiracy is even higher than the belief in alien visits. In a survey conducted in 2019 by Gallup, it was found that 68% of Americans believe that the United States government knows more about UFOs than it is telling. 

This political trend developed over decades. Jimmy Carter promised to release documents during his presidential campaign in 1976, a few years after he himself reported a UFO sighting. As in many other cases, the simplest explanation is that he saw the planet Venus (such cases happen often.) 

Hillary Clinton also expressed a desire to "open [the Pentagon files] as much as I can" during her campaign against Donald Trump. Trump suggested he would have to "think about it" when asked if the so-called Roswell Papers (related to the claim of a UFO crash and the return of extraterrestrial bodies) could be released. 

Former President Bill Clinton claimed he sent his chief of staff, John Podesta, to Area 51, the US Air Force's most secure facility, to test whether there was any truth to rumors of extraterrestrial technology at the site. It is important to note that Podesta is an avid lover of UFO-related subjects. 

Today's most prominent proponent of document disclosure is Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer. His 2023 bill to release some of the UAP documents was co-sponsored by three Republican senators. 

Pentagon disclosures began in the early stages of Joe Biden's tenure, but so far, nothing looks like an alien encounter.

Still, the background noise didn't go away. 

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All of this ends up encouraging conspiracy theories, which can undermine trust in democratic institutions. Humorous calls to break into Area 51 have already been heard. And after the break-in of the Capitol in 2021, this possibility looks increasingly dangerous. 

Too much background noise about UFOs and UAPs may also interfere with legitimate scientific communication about the possibility of finding extraterrestrial bacterial life. Astrobiology, the science that deals with these issues, has less public relations than the UFO people. 

The History Channel, a YouTube channel partially owned by Disney, regularly broadcasts programs about "ancient aliens". The show is now in its 20th season and the channel has 13.8 million subscribers. The NASA Astrobiology Channel has 20,000 hard-earned subscribers. Real science remains at a disadvantage compared to entertainment presented as fact. 

Alien visitation narratives have also repeatedly attempted to hijack and rewrite the history and mythology of indigenous peoples. 

The first steps in this direction occurred in Alexander Kazanchev's science fiction story "Explosion: A Story of Hypothesis" (1946). The story presents the Tunguska meteorite impact event in 1908 as a Nagasaki-like explosion of an alien spacecraft engine. In Kazanchev's story, one giant black woman survived, equipped with special healing powers. This led to its adoption as Manic by the native Havan peoples. 

NASA and the scientific community support initiatives such as Native Skywatchers, established by the indigenous Ojibwa and Lakota communities, with the goal of preserving traditional stories about the stars. There is a real and comprehensive network of indigenous scholarship dealing with these issues. 

But the UFO people promise a much higher exposure to indigenous history in exchange for mixing real indigenous stories about life that came from the heavens with fake stories about UFOs, which are presented as a history of oppression. 

The modern alien visitation narrative was not, after all, born out of indigenous communities. exactly the opposite. It was created in part as a means for conspiracy theorists in racist Europe to "explain" how complex urban cultures could exist in places like South America before European settlement. 

Filtered through the counterculture of the 60s, the narrative was reversed and began to value indigenous peoples as possessing advanced technology in the past. According to this view, every indigenous culture was once Wakanda, a fictional country featured in an American comic book published by Marvel. 

If all of this had remained within its limits as an entertaining livery, everything would have been fine. But it isn't. Narratives about alien visitations tend to erase the natives' authentic stories about heaven and earth. 

This is a problem for everyone, not just the indigenous peoples struggling to preserve authentic traditions. It threatens our understanding of the past. When it comes to insights into our distant ancestors, the remains of prehistoric stories are few and far between, like the indigenous stories about the stars. 

Take the stories about the Pleiades constellation, known versions of which have existed for at least 50,000 years. 

This may be an explanation why these stories are a main target for alien visitation enthusiasts, some of whom even claim to be "Pleidians". It is not surprising that the Pleiadians do not look like the Lakota or Ojibwa people, but are fair-haired, blue-eyed, and Nordic in appearance. 

It is becoming clear that the belief in alien visits is no longer an amusing speculation, but something with real and harmful consequences.