cowlick

This is one category set I use to divide the people I meet up into discreet unit which I then admire/ridicule. So which category do you fit:

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"It's a long story," says I, and let him up.

Misz

I believe in angels (guardians) and aliens but iam not religious at all.

CSflim

I was going to say 'shouldn't this be in Paranoia', but that might bias the sample a wee bit .

No angels or aliens or anything else for me thanks.

EDIT: By aliens I presume you mean ones actually secretly visiting the earth and rigorously anal-probing every redneck in sight.

If you simply mean life on some other planet, somewhere in the universe, I would plant myself in the "don't know" camp (not having visited every other planet in the universe, I cite a lack of evidence to make any kind of consclusive decision)

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cowlick

By aliens I do mean the anal probe type guys.

The 'there might be some kinda multicellular life somewhere else but I don't know' aliens are not what I mean.

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"It's a long story," says I, and let him up.

highthief

You might wanna edit the poll, goddammit!

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Si vis pacem parabellum.

ninety09

I don't believe in things that cannot be proven; I think that doing otherwise is rather silly.

Cervantes

I'm abivalent, I don't deny the possibility of life outside our planet.
With angels on the other hand I don't belive in them. I enjoy the romantic idea but I have no illusions about them being real.

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- "Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned.."
- "Religions take everything that your DNA naturally wants to do to survive and pro-create and makes it wrong."
- "There is only one absolute truth and that is that there is only one absolute truth."

connyosis

Well...isn't that kind of the point of faith? That you do not need proof? If there was proof, you would not believe, you would know.

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If atheism is a religion, then not collecting stamps is a hobby.

FatFreeGoodness

Yeah? Prove it.

FatFreeGoodness

Someone I know really likes saying that there "are some things he believes, and other things he knows, and he likes to keep a distinction between them." (He’s a retired engineer, if you haven’t guessed already.)
It’s occurred to me that virtually all (if not all) of the things he thinks he knows, he just believes. For instance, the “Electrical Engineers Handbook” he holds up as an example of facts is a collection of things that he mostly accepts on faith, because other people have tested the facts contained therein and they seem to work in the real world. However, since this book is at least 50 years old, I’m willing to bet that there are some “facts” in it that have been… shall we say, modified with time. And some others will be.
So, what do we KNOW?

Redlemon

Lousy poll; why does "not believe" turn into "hate"? That's way biased.

I don't believe in angels. I believe that aliens exist, but not that they visit earth.
So, are you going to ridicule me for that?

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I can't read your signature. Sorry.

Charlatan

I too don't believe in angels but believe there is life elsewhere in the Universe. I also believe the distances between the planets and galaxies is too great to make casual visitation a common thing.

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"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke

connyosis

If I fall down on a concrete floor, I know I will get hurt. If humans in the future for some reason stop feeling pain, that statement will no longer be true. That doesn't mean that I am wrong now does it?

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If atheism is a religion, then not collecting stamps is a hobby.

maleficent

Angels? As pretty celestial creatures with glitter and wings and halos? Maybe in pictures but in actuality -- angels do exist but they are real people who are there when you need them

Aliens... eh - I know the illegal type exist, but venutians or martians coming to pay a visit? Why on earth would they?

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Lasereth

You should edit the poll. When you said aliens, I thought you meant some form of intelligent life in the universe besides us. I don't think aliens have visited earth, but I do think there is intelligent life besides us. When I chose aliens, I mean intelligent life, not the earth-bound anal probers.

-Lasereth

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"A Darwinian attacks his theory, seeking to find flaws. An ID believer defends his theory, seeking to conceal flaws." -Roger Ebert

Grasshopper Green

My beliefs are more than complex than just...yes I believe in this and no I don't believe in that...therefore, I just voted undecided. However, I *do* believe you spelled believe incorrectly in all the options

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"They say that patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings; steal a little and they throw you in jail, steal a lot and they make you king"

Formerly Medusa

Redlemon

Oh, I'm also going to jump ahead to your conclusion for you. You are going to say that "aliens = angels for people who don't believe in religion". I just can't decide if your approach is "both of you are deluded" or "here's a pamphlet, come stop by my church so we can put you back on the straight and narrow".

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I can't read your signature. Sorry.

Jesus Pimp

Angels and Aliens are one and the same.

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Never date anyone who doesn't make your dick hard.

Astrocloud

You spelled "believe" wrong and I can't take part of this poll. (The angels and aliens hate people who spell things wrong).

Zeraph

Problem with a pole like this is that there are too many definitions for aliens and angels. I think there is at least semi intelligent (above dolphin) beings somewhere out there, but I don't believe they have visited us. As for angels, well it's really too complicated to get into here, but not in the classic sense.

Tophat665

I divide people up for ridicule or indifference based on whether or not they can spell "believe" properly.

OK, I think that most people who believe in Angels or Aliens are idiots, not because they believe in them per se, but because belief in Angels tends to accompany an affinity for the works of Thomas Kincaid, doilies on toilet tanks, manicheanism, and theocratic politics, which I loathe, and belief in Aliens tends to accompany irrational fear of globalism, veganism, crystallomancy, and suchlike squishy thinking which I despise. More to the point, one may suspect either or both without incurring my disdain but to "believe" in them implies faith, and faith is just self confidence misplaced. To those I say, "Grow a pair! Own up to the fact that we wrecked our own planet and threw ourselves out of the garden, and start fixing that. There ain't no cosmic mommy coming to clean up after you, so get cracking or stop bitching."

Personally, I think that there are likely extra terrestrial intelliences, but they have probably not visited here. Winged bipeds as messengers from the beyond, however, have more to do with Jungian Archetypes than any sort of objective reality, such as it is.

(I sterotype broadly here for humorous purposes. The core argument, though, is, I believe, valid.)

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Light a man a fire, and he will be warm while it burns.
Set a man on fire, and he will be warm for the rest of his life.

shesus

I agree with your take on angels. I also think there are guardian angels even though I am not a christian. There have been too many close calls in my life where I should have been badly hurt or killed and survived without a scratch or scar.

As for aliens, I think that it would be narrow-minded to believe we were the only intelligent (and I use that word loosely) beings in the universe. As for them coming to Earth, I don't know. The reason they might come is why we go into space, curiousity. Also, after they found this place, it could serve as god entertainment.

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Whatever did happen to your soul?
I heard you sold it

Choose Heaven for the weather and Hell for the company

meembo

Can I consider my ex-wife to be an alien?

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less I say, smarter I am

canuckguy

haha meembo.



"i believe in aliens as i am not ignorant enough to think that we are the only "ones" out there" some quote like that i remember reading, thats my feelings. i don't believe in angels as there the fairy tales of the weak. kidding of course.

cyrnel

Jesus Pimp beat me to it. If there's any chance of other intelligent life that travels about, it would be a great explanation for angel stories.

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There are a vast number of people who are uninformed and heavily propagandized, but fundamentally decent. The propaganda that inundates them is effective when unchallenged, but much of it goes only skin deep. If they can be brought to raise questions and apply their decent instincts and basic intelligence, many people quickly escape the confines of the doctrinal system and are willing to do something to help others who are really suffering and oppressed." -Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, p. 195

Borla

I believe in angels, though not as winged fairy type characters. I'm kind of undecided on the alien thing, so I picked the "angels" thing without saying I hate people who believe in aliens.

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Coimhéad fearg fhear na foighde!!!!

basmoq

I believe in the scary slimy aliens, but I'm not so sure about those beings of light, the whole concept seems a bit wacky, unless your a bible thumper

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"There's someone out there for everyone - even if you need
a pickaxe, a compass, and night goggles to find them."

zen_tom

Where's the "I don't believe in Angels or Aliens, and I have no issues with what anyone else might think - except that hating someone over their beliefs strikes me as being a bit weasley." option?

freeload

I believe in angels, as God's creatures - working in a "spiritulal dimension".
(Unfortunately that also includes demons, but that's another poll )

Angels 1 - Aliens 0
:

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The future ain't what it used to be.

cowlick

Actually I agree with you. I guess I was feeling particularly dour.

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"It's a long story," says I, and let him up.

cowlick

I am embarrased.

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"It's a long story," says I, and let him up.

Ananas

Obviously, not embarrassed enough.

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it's gritty

Gilda

I didn't vote, because there isn't an option for what I believe.

Angels?

I like the tv show Highway to Heaven because it's really just about a couple of guys wandering around helping people.

I hate the tv show Touched by an Angel.

So no. I don't believe there are pretty heavenly feathered creatures who help some people.

I'd sooner believe Warren Worthington was real.

Aliens:

I believe there is certainly life elsewheer in the universe. I believe that there is intelligent life of some kind out there somewhere. I don't believe any of it has visited us because the physics of interstellar communication and travel are just prohibitive.

I believe in UFO's. As in, I believe that their are objects people see in the sky that are unidentified, and for which no reasonable explanation is readily apparent. I also believe that jumping from not having a reasoable explanation to alien spacecraft is silly. Can I explain all UFO's? Of course not. That I don't know the explanation doesn't mean that there isn't a reasonable one. The onus is on the believers to provide evidence that these are aliens, not the other way around.

More simply, no on angels, yes on aliens, not on anal probe aliens, but don't dislike those who do beileive in those things.

Gilda

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I'm against ending blackness. I believe that everyone has a right to be black, it's a choice, and I support that.

~Steven Colbert

Redlemon

BWAHAHAHAHA!!!

Sorry, cowlick, but that is too funny.

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I can't read your signature. Sorry.

the_ref

This is not as easy to answer as it first appears.

I believe in the concept of aliens, in other words the very strong possibility of extraterrestrial lifeforms of various sorts, some of which might not even be recognized as "living" by our current standards. However I am less certain of the notion of such individuals having already visited our planet; it is possible, but not high on the list of probability.

As to angels, well, you open up the whole Judeo-Christo-Islamic ball of wax there, or at least potentially so. Actually, I am qute fascinated by people who believe in angels but don't believe in God in the classic sense -- just what is it that you mean when you say the word "angel" at that point? Equally, if people believe in angels, do they also believe in demons/devils? What of djinni? Faeries? Ghosts? Where is the dividing line in such instances? I think there is a vague chance that such beings exists; I am not willing to dismiss them outright. Conversely, I have yet to see any solid evidence of them.

But (to confuse the issue further) I do recognize that many inexplicable events have taken place in my life. Some of this might come down to quantum fluxuations, but what is the difference between, say, a charmed quark and magic?

In other words, I remain open to possibilities.

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"Jack! You've debauched my sloth!"

SecretMethod70

ugh, I voted that I believe in aliens, but I did not think you meant aliens who have visited Earth. I think most people who voted that way probably did not think that's what you meant.

Anyhoo, I definitely believe that there is life elsewhere in the universe. As for angels, I don't really like the idea of anthropomorphizing spiritual entities, so I'm not big on the "angel" thing.

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Le temps détruit tout

"Musicians are the carriers and communicators of spirit in the most immediate sense." - Kurt Elling

FatFreeGoodness

connyosis: I posted that most of the things you think you know you really only believe. You said that if you fall on a concrete floor you know you will feel pain.

I will pass on the obvious counters that (a) no, you might die instantly; (b) no, some falls are too slight to hurt; (c) no, you may be knocked unconscious and wake weeks later in a hospital, resting comfortably. I will accept that we are talking about a fall that scrapes the skin off your elbow but does no other harm.

From experience I know I have felt pain when such things happen to me. I have your word that you also feel pain. I can observe that you act like you feel pain. I have a very high degree of confidence that you do feel something you call pain.
But, I don’t really know that the feeling you call pain is the same as my feeling, do I? Pain is how my body and brain presents the triggering of nerves to my mind… or perhaps, how my mind interprets the signals presented. Since I need to react to pain, this sensation needs to be unpleasant. But there is no requirement or certainty that my mind perceives this sensation like yours. Therefore, what you call pain may be subtly or even very much different from mine. That would explain why some people have a much higher tolerance for "pain", wouldn’t it?
I have no idea that this speculation is true, but it’s plausible, and it does cast doubt on whether you feel pain as I understand it.

You may argue that you don’t need to prove it to me; you are arguing that there are some things you know, and this is one of them.
Recall that I did not say that no one know anything, just that there are very many things that we think we know that we really only accept on the testimony of others, and these things are better called “belief”.
The example I cited was "laws" regarding the behavior of electricity as presented in an electrical engineering handbook. I am pretty sure most all of them work. But if the book is old (say, fifty years) then some of them have probably been tweaked or even radically changed. I have no reason to assume the same will not be true of a new book in fifty years.
See what I mean?

Jinn

I too voted "Aliens," thinking you meant the extraterrestial non-anal-probing type. That said, I'm happy to allow my Alien to be your Angel. Hell, "Angels" could actually exist on another planet. It could be an airy non-dense atmosphere where glittering white wings and all that business is required for survival. In this situation, I would defintiely believe in Angels as well. Having mystical powers and coming from the land of the Wonderful God.. nooooot so much.

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Pacifier

I don't believe in the anal-probing aliens. But I believe that there is life somewhere out there, perhaps even intelligent.
I don't believe in angels

I don't hate anyone who belives in anal probing angels or aliens, but i see them with some sort of pity for believing such nonsense.

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"It seems to me that the idea of a personal God is an anthropological concept which I cannot take seriously. I also cannot imagine some will or goal outside the human sphere. Science has been charged with undermining morality, but the charge is unjust. A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death
— Albert Einstein

xepherys

I don't believe in beliefs... score one for nihilism! ;-)