Glenbard North’s Opinions on Aliens

What pops into your head when you hear the word “aliens”? There have been years of people debating whether aliens exist or not. Constant back and forth of people saying they have evidence, but then being debunked by a logical conclusion. For those that believe in aliens, why do you believe? Did you think you made contact with an alien life force? Have you witnessed an unexplained phenomenon? Is believing In aliens like adopting a religion? And for the people who don’t believe in aliens, would you say that you’re more of a logical thinker? Do you think everything the believers have as proof Is a hoax? Are we selfish to think we’re the only form of life In our universe? There are so many questions for the people who do believe in aliens that we want answered.

Before showing the Interviews with staff and students, let’s look at the U.S statistics of how many people believe In aliens. In a study published by Courtney Kennedy and Arnold Lau, posted on June 30 2021, the percentage of U.S adults who say their best guess Is that Intelligent life exists on other planets. The results are that 65% of Americans believe In life on other planets, 34% do not, and 2% refuse to answer. This survey was taken by 10,417 U.S adults.

First, I asked a total of 118 staff and students In the school If they believe In aliens. The results were 71.2% said yes, 20.3% said no, 6.8% said they were undecided about their stance on alien beliefs, and 1.7% replied “no comment”.  As you can see from the data, statistically according to the survey, the majority of people at our school do believe In aliens. I did note that during the process of taking this survey, and going up to people asking for their answer In tally marks, some of them preached that there is no way we are the only life form In our solar system. It seems like the popular reason why people believe In aliens is that they believe that the earth is small compared to our universe so there must be some other life form out there. I also noted that some of the people that don’t believe In aliens (the minority) reacted as If this survey was foolish and scoffed. Sometimes responding after taking the survey claiming they are right and questioning how people could believe otherwise. 

I verbally Interviewed a total of 5 people. 3 with the opinion that they do believe In aliens. 2 claimed that they do not. 

The first Interview comes from a Glenbard North social studies teacher named Mr Kerwin. Mr Kerwin has stated that he does believe In aliens. When I asked him If having a belief In aliens Is similar to having a belief In religion, he responded, “Sure. I could see the parallels, I suppose. Right. Like, people who believe in a god have a faith in something that they’ve never maybe directly witnessed, but they sense through their life experience that there’s something out there. And they have a belief in something that maybe they don’t always feel a presence or directly witnessed a presence around them. I suppose it’s possible. Yeah. And then aliens, I suppose people who believe in aliens maybe have never directly witnessed an alien encounter, but they have heard stories or maybe seen film from other people just as maybe like some religious people hear stories about saints and their experiences. Yeah, I can see the parallels. Yeah.” Mr Kerwin agrees that there’s a similarity between having a belief In aliens and having a belief In religion. He says that people don’t have to have proof to have faith In what they believe In. The next question I asked him was If he thinks people are selfish to believe we’re the only ones In the universe. Mr. Kerwin’s response was, “Interesting. I don’t know If I’d use the word selfish I think we’re inward looking. Yeah, I guess. Self centered, is that the right word? I don’t know. But, yeah, if you’re unwilling to entertain the idea that there might be intelligent life somewhere out there, I think that would be, I don’t know. Yeah. I don’t know if I use the word selfish, but I don’t know. I think it’s definitely a possibility of it. Right?” Mr. Kerwin Is hesitant to use the word “selfish”, but he does think It’s somewhat self centered to neglect the idea that there might be life out there. Since he believes In aliens, he claims It’s a possibility that there Is life out there.

Another Interview I collected was from a sophomore student named Tristen Tayaban, who at first was hesitant to believe In aliens, but switched his answer to yes he does. One of the questions I asked was why he believed In aliens, which he said, “Because the earth is pretty much really small compared to everything else.” Tristen’s theory here is that the earth is only a small portion of our universe so there might be the possibility that we’re not alone In our universe. The next question I asked was If he himself witnessed any evidence of aliens. Tristen said, “Only old, like Google images, but those are pretty much unreliable. No, not really. I don’t think so.” Although Tristen does believe In aliens, he himself never witnessed aliens. This tells me that people don’t need to see something In order to believe It, and without Tristen seeing anything to directly prove alien existence, he gives his reasoning of why he believes In aliens. 

But now, let’s take a look at my Interviews with people who don’t believe in aliens. Another person I interviewed was Mrs. Bray Parker who claims that she does not believe in aliens. The first question I asked her was why she Is opposed to believing In aliens, where her answer was, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen any proof of aliens, and it seems like a weird concept. It seems like people write about aliens or make movies about aliens because they’re kind of a fun make believe thing. So I think they’re just make believe.” Mrs. Bray Parker wants to see It to believe It, and as stated she’s never seen evidence of aliens, she claims that aliens do not exist. She sees the idea of aliens to be a fun make believe subject, but not real. The next question I asked Mrs. Bray Parker was If she thinks all evidence to prove aliens Is a hoax, her answer was, “Yes, I believe actually, no, not a hoax. More of a… they’re taking bits and pieces to create something. So not necessarily like a full on hoax but they’re making stuff up.” In this quote, Mrs. Bray Parker Is saying that evidence of aliens isn’t full of lies, but I twist or an altered narrative of the truth. She suggests that people are taking bits and pieces to create a false impression of evidence that proves aliens. 

My next and final Interview was with a substitute teacher, named Mrs. Beatty, who Is another person who does not believe In aliens. I asked her why she didn’t believe it when she explained,  “Because I don’t think any life can exist beyond our earth. But I’m really not sure.” Mrs. Beatty doesn’t believe that there’s life outside our planet earth therefore doesn’t believe In aliens. The next and last question I asked Mrs. Beatty was If she saw herself as selfish to think we are the only ones In our universe. The Idea of this Is not to Insult or judge the people who don’t believe In aliens, yet to show their confidence In their claim that aliens don’t exist. Mrs. Beatty’s response to this question was, “I do think we’re the only ones in the universe and I hope it’s not a selfish thought.” 

This newspaper was meant to show different perspectives of what people at our school believe In. This newspaper was also written to get answers to questions of people’s views about their stance on aliens. According to my survey, the majority of people do In fact believe In aliens leaving the people that don’t believe to be the minorities. For the people that believe In aliens, hold on to your belief. For the people that don’t believe In aliens, don’t be afraid to challenge the popular belief In our school to believe In aliens.  And for those of you who are undecided, I hope this reading helps you to come to your own conclusion.