sky to heaven - the invisible life.

How often do you think of aliens? Probably not a whole lot.

Some people think aliens just don’t exist – simply because we haven’t found them. But of course we can’t find them - we don’t know how to get off our own planet to look for them. We can’t even prove there’s no life on the other planets in our own solar system – so how can we say there’s no other life in the universe?

Because we don’t see them, we think they’re not there. We think that we’re all alone – and every day of our ordinary lives, we live as though we’re all alone. We live as if we are the masters of our planet – and perhaps, masters of the universe as well. As far as we can see, no other species threatens our supremacy. The second most successful species surviving today are cockroaches, and when we look at cockroaches, we see them as being extremely primitive compared to us. They have no technology of any kind, and apparently not enough intelligence to produce any. And as long as they stay in places where we can’t see them, we don’t really care. But if they get in our way, we step on them. Hard.

Other people say, well if there are aliens out there, why haven’t they found us? Any aliens that can find us will have advanced space travel. They’ll be able to go from star to star without too much trouble. We, on the other hand, can barely get to our own moon. From an alien point of view, we are probably an extremely primitive civilization. To them, we might seem like… well, cockroaches.

Come to think of it, most of us are absorbed in the same daily survival activities as cockroaches are: harvesting, feeding, grooming, mating, avoiding danger, and protecting ourselves. To aliens, we might even be as disgusting as cockroaches are to us. And like cockroaches, we’ve multiplied so successfully in so many environments that we’ve infested much of the planet. But there’s a difference - we’re cockroaches that also kill each other. Regularly.

Think about that. If cockroaches killed each other the way we kill each other, would you think they were very advanced? Would you want to establish a diplomatic relationship with such a species? Would you wish to contact them, or rather observe them from a distance? So my answer to the question of, “Why haven’t they found us?” is - why would they want to?

Because if I were an alien looking down at us from outer space, I would notice that human beings have an extensive, ongoing track record of interspecies abuse. We show a serious lack of respect for the welfare of other species. Look at the way we treat other life forms on our own planet. We kill them for food or pleasure. We destroy their habitats if we think it will benefit us. We enslave them and make them work for us. We put them in cages to look at them. We use them as pets. And if that’s not enough - look at the way we treat other members of our own species. We fight, steal, rape, torture, and kill each other. I can imagine that from up there, it looks like we don’t really respect life. And all of this is clearly visible – you don’t need a microscope to see these things happening. So if you were an alien, would you show up on this planet amidst all this chaos and say, “I come in peace?”

If I were an alien, I’d eventually expect humans to show the same kind of disrespect to me that humans have shown to both other species and their own kind. I’d predict that eventually, humans would want to kill me – after they tried to acquire our technology, of course. So contact with humans would just not be worth the time or potential trouble. In fact, it might even be considered stupid or insane.

I could see how more aggressive aliens might even think that wiping out the human race might really be doing the galaxy a favor. They’d be preventing us from spreading to other planets and killing off other species and destroying other planets. Exterminating us would probably save the lives of millions of other species. But wiping us out wouldn’t be that much of a challenge to aliens who have spaceships– they’re in space, and we’re stuck on our planet. It’d be as easy as stepping on cockroaches.

My bet is that aliens are probably more peaceful. Any civilization that has managed to get off its own planet without destroying itself must have learned to keep the peace to a certain extent. And peaceful aliens are probably more concerned about us not spreading too quickly to other solar systems (like theirs) and subjugating other species. To aliens, we really might just be like cockroaches – as long as we don’t spread or get into their territory, we’re harmless and they’ll leave us alone. The humanitarian thing for aliens to do is to keep us stuck on Earth until we get our act together and learn to live in harmony. They could keep us contained on our planet – perhaps by slowing down our progress in space technology so that we don’t make it to space until we’re ready. Maybe that’s why our rockets and space shuttles blow up so often.

Because really, I’m not sure we’re ready to join the galactic community of aliens. We can’t even establish a peaceful global community on our own planet – so how can we be expected to peacefully interact with alien species? We don’t even listen to our own United Nations – so who would believe we could participate in a United Galaxy? I can imagine that from up above, it looks like we’re still a bunch of warring tribes – or swarming cockroaches. Human beings are still either too afraid, ignorant, or selfish to work together. Because the reality is, most of us aren’t all that interested in working for peace. Some of us probably wish for peace, but wishing isn’t the same thing as working for it. We’re still more interested in harvesting, feeding, and mating. Peace is not our first priority.

The only reason why aliens would get near humans would be the same reason why some humans intentionally get near cockroaches – to study them. Our behavior and biology must be as fascinating to aliens as cockroaches are to humans. And the only way to do research is to capture individuals and put them in a lab – which sounds similar to all those stories about people claiming they were kidnapped by aliens. Let’s just hope that aliens are more humane to human beings than human beings are to cockroaches.

So perhaps we’re all alone because we’ve been left alone. But just because you don’t see them, doesn’t mean they’re not there.

The truth is, you don’t want to think there are aliens out there. You probably hope that aliens don’t come to Earth, because if they ever do come, we will no longer be masters of the universe - and perhaps not of our own planet as well. That will change our whole lives completely – including the way we live, what we believe to be true, and the way we see ourselves. We’ll have to face the reality that we’re not the advanced ones, but the primitive ones - that we’re probably more like cockroaches than a highly evolved species. We don’t want to know that there are beings out there that are more evolved than we are – that there are others who are better than us. You don’t want to be humbled, because you’d rather be proud. You’re proud to be a human being – and not a cockroach. Our pride makes us think that we are more evolved than we actually are – that we deserve more respect than we really do. That we deserve more of all things and other species deserve less. And perhaps it is our pride that prevents us from respecting other species. Perhaps it is our pride that keeps us from evolving on the path to peace and harmony on this planet we share with so much life. Perhaps it is our pride that aliens view as primitive, and so causes them to leave us alone.