I'm surprised that a physicist would take the possibility of extraterrestrial aliens so seriously myself, but of course if he's going to take it seriously he's going to be thinking in terms of physical beings from other planets. If anyone is interested, there's a whole other line of thought on aliens that ought to be considered, which is, that they exist but they aren't physical, they're spiritual beings, or entities, beings that can manifest physically under some circumstances.
This gets discussed on some fringey websites including some theosophical and spiritualist sites. There is one genre that treats them as friends and indeed benevolent masters of the human race, and invites them to come and straighten us out, and another that treats them as evil beings, demons, interested only in deceiving human beings into submitting to them. UFO type spaceships are often part of the scenario.
Some Christians join in on this latter view, but it's by no means only Christians who hold it. Some years ago the UFOlogist Jacques Vallee proposed that the actual phenomena reported by witnesses of UFOs doesn't fit that of physical entities but entities more like the old traditional stories of goblins and fairies, and that their effects suggest intentional deception. Vallee isn't a Christian.
I wonder if Hawking has happened to have some personal experience of something like this since he's given so much thought to it. He probably wouldn't admit it if so.
Edited by Faith, : No reason given.
Edited by Faith, : No reason given.
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