Looking, the Right Way

 AN ASTRONOMER at Harvard is absolutely convinced that there is not only life on other planets circling other stars, but that, as he put it, that we are not the "smartest kids on the block". That, upon even cursory examination, is probably not a particularly ambitious claim. A survey of the world's astronomers, physicists, exo-biologists, and indeed the entire professional scientific community would almost certainly reveal that scientists by and large tend to be convinced that there is not only life on other planets, but that in fact the universe is probably abundant with life, perhaps billions of inhabited worlds in our galaxy and others, many forms of life of which are more than likely at least as advanced as ours, if not much more so, in terms of understanding the universe in which they live, and in their ability to control the forces of nature to make their own lives more comfortable and healthy. Carl Sagan put it best: "If we on Earth are the only inhabited planet in the universe, it sure is a lot of space going to waste". The first planet orbiting a star other than the sun was discovered twenty five years ago, and since then thousands more have been discovered by advanced telescopes. It turns out that every star we can see has its own solar system of orbiting planets, and that many of these planets seem to be suited for life, in terms of temperature ranges and chemical composition. out Harvard astronomer agrees with all this, plus, he says that he has seen objects passing through the solar system which appear to be other than natural objects; objects that appear to him to be of purposeful design in their shape and motion, as if space probes or ships. We will doubtless hear more about all that soon. the important ting is to listen to the experts, the professional astronomers, the scientists, the people who have made the effort to become educated and trained in science. These are the people to whom we should listen. Having our own thoughts, dreams, and opinions is wonderful, indeed essential. But we modern Americans for some reason seem to have turned our backs on expertise, and expertise matters. in our politically correct intellectual culture we seem to have decided that we are all entitled to our own facts as well as opinions, and that all paradigms, all opinions are created equal. They most certainly are not. Your local new age self proclaimed guru with the high school education telling you which extraterrestrials are doing what to whom on planet Earth, and how many multi dimensional beings are currently infiltrating our government are not the go to people for knowledge and facts. Books fill libraries with pseudo science and nonsense written buy people who claim to know much, but in fact know only their fantasies, and how to make money peddling them. Mainstream empirical science is under attack today, in our culture of the fantastic and the bizarre. Ironic, since mainstream science, not pseudo scientific cult-ish nonsense has given us all the blessings we tend to take for granted in our high tech world we so enjoy. The next time somebody tries to tell you that there is a global conspiracy to take over the world by Democrats and scientists to take over the world by implanting computer chips in everybody's brain, remember to ask him to prove it.