Autumn Grayson says:

When I was growing up, the idea of aliens existing was kind of seen as ‘silly’ or ‘crazy’. It was ok to have them in a story, but there was some caution around them because of how far off base people get when they go down the alien rabbit hole. Furthermore, some of the Christians I grew up around recognized that some people’s fascination for aliens started to come before their relationship with God. Somewhere in my late teens or early twenties my attitude toward aliens changed a bit. I wasn’t usually demeaning about it, but as a kid I didn’t really believe in aliens and was pretty sure they didn’t exist. Now that I’m older, I’m somewhat ‘agnostic’ on the idea — aliens MIGHT be real, but they also might NOT be real. I will watch, weigh out all the information and see, just as I do with a lot of other topics.

I do believe it is important to discuss the hypotheticals of this issue, though. When some shows and documentaries discuss the search for alien life, they sometimes talk about waltzing up to the aliens the minute they are discovered, trying to communicate with them and ‘introduce’ them to what humans and planet earth is like. That probably isn’t a good idea. We should observe any aliens as long as possible before we even consider introducing ourselves. With aliens, we would have very little idea of what we are actually dealing with, and the minute we make them aware of our existence, we can’t take that back. Like it or not, the side that is aware of the other first has the advantage.

When it comes to the trustworthiness of aliens, we could unfortunately have a scenario like in Young Justice, where some aliens seem to be benevolent, but we have no idea what is really going on with them and it turns out that their benevolence is a manipulative front for something horrific. But then we could have aliens that genuinely ARE good and act almost like missionaries in the sense that they have a genuine desire to help, and we could attack them or even start a war when it isn’t necessary. But even if the aliens were genuinely benevolent, that doesn’t mean we should automatically accept their help or leadership. Any ‘help’ the aliens give could backfire in a way that neither side anticipated.

I would rather people be more wary of aliens than careless. At the same time, humans getting scared and panicky is also a problem, and could be almost as devastating as being naive. We need to think of all the possibilities, account for them and learn how to handle them, but we need to do it in a wise and calm manner, not in a way that leaves us too panicked to see that we are stumbling toward (or being herded toward) a metaphorical cliff.

If aliens were real, spreading fear and confusion could actually be their strategy. They could be coming in just close enough to do all manner of weird, random things because they know it’ll send us all into a tizzy. One that will eventually weaken us or set off a chain of events that practically destroys us. The more varied, random and controversial the ‘encounters’ are, the more effective this tactic will probably be.

Or, this tactic could be one that humans use on each other. Whether or not aliens are real, there is a very heavy psychological aspect to this issue. People could easily use the idea of aliens to manipulate others.

As far as podcast length goes, I think it would be good for each episode to be about an hour on average, but if the conversation is good and flowing, go ahead and let the episode go longer.