“The Vatican’s chief astronomer says that believing in aliens does not contradict faith in God.” May 2008

Then there was a study week on astrobiology sponsored by the Vatican Observatory and the Pontifical Academy of Sciences on 2009 to check the probabilities of alien life. Again saying they are cool with it, it’s almost a given and that aliens would be our “spiritual brothers”.

They have been making such conferences for a while back.

[Laughs] Science By Proclamation? Seriously? That is not how it works. And you only need to look at controversial ideas in the past to see that. Heliocentrism, evolution in general (ie, as understood in Darwin’s day), natural selection specifically, the big bang, etc.

Someone has controversial idea, or makes controversial discovery. Bunch of scientists like it, bunch of them attack it. Attacks are rebutted, experiments are enlarged, evidence mounts. A few of the milder attackers are convinced, the rest won’t accept the new science, the supporters won’t let it go.

If the idea is valid, it enriches the field and opens new areas of research. Those who refuse to accept it, stagnate. Their preferred alternative explanations produce no new insights, no new developments, and no new students. Eventually they die.

If the idea is invalid, it contributes little to the field. It stagnates while the rest of the field moves on. Eventually it’s proponents die.

There’s no magic moment where the Grand Priests of Science gather to Pronounce to all Good Citizens that a Scientific Finding or Theory is True. Science just treats bad science as stalled and leaves it behind. Individual beliefs are almost irrelevant.

(The exceptions, like the Copenhagen conference, or IPCC reports, are rare enough to prove the rule.)

Alternatively the reason could be that when polled the vast majority of people already believe in the existance of extraterrestrial life. Outside of the scientific community, people just don’t care about bacteria. They might be interested if they were presented with evidence of walking, talking, intelligent alien life, but bacterial alien life interests them about as much as terrestrial bacterial life. People are expecting disclosure from governments about alien visitation, and would quite probably rather watch paint dry than read an article proofing a bacteria came from off world.

But “three great traumas to the psyche: the Copernican, the Darwinian, and the Freudian”? Is that how old Fraud was shown to be just that, or rather bad science?

@ #11: This is OT the meteorite science, but Pumapunku is built of sandstone and clay, and dated to some 1500 years ago from known quarry within 10 km (more like 5 miles). Several possible methods of transportation suggested.

The oldest egyptian pyramids were build ~ 4 600 years ago.

Most of who? Most people? Or most Americans? Or most planetary physicist?

I would have guessed that most people (at least in the educated part of the world) believe that there’s some sort of life out there.

And the point which you made in your article

“If the evidence was legit, it wouldn’t just go away. It would invite and demand further scrutiny. Over the next few years, scientific journals would publish responses and further verifications. Corroborative evidence would begin to emerge, counter-theories and more plausible terrestrial-bound explanations would be published. ”

Whenever a convincing news story about UFO’s or aliens breaks out, very shortly it goes into cold storage, as if the higher authorities do not want people to know anything about these kinds of events and these events are discarded as pranks and hoax.