Do Aliens Love?
A guided philosophical discussion.
Up until I was about 10 or 11 years old, at the turn of the 90’s decade when alien abduction stories in the news were the stuff of mass hysteria (along with the Night Stalker and NKOTB), the thing that I absolutely feared the most was being taken by gray or green aliens.
Perhaps it was because I occupied the top bunk of a bunk bed set with my little sister and thought for sure that made me a prime target. Or perhaps it was the fact that I’ve always been an insomniac/night owl. Perhaps it was because I would sneak downstairs and watch scary episodes of Unsolved Mysteries and other non-kid-friendly shows that my dad would watch on TV when he got home from working the graveyard shift, and they filled my head with fear of the unknown. Whatever the cause of this fear was, it suddenly and completely left me once I entered puberty, and since then I’ve always known that, in a very logical, pragmatic way, we are not alone in this universe. And that fact only made me feel even more powerful as an immortal being of light, as I believe we all are.
You see, I’ve never wanted or needed religion, despite being raised Polish Catholic. I have always known that we simply go on. Because science. Because matter an energy and the laws of physics say that energy is never lost, only transferred, and that everything that has ever been and will ever be in the contents of the known universe has been here since the beginning and will be here until the end. Science is my god. Reason is its right hand and Love… well love is the source and driving force behind it all. The connective glue of the energy ball that is our expanded Big Bang.
These are my holy trinity.
I can’t pinpoint an event that made me not fear aliens, nor did I know that a shift had occurred until recently, nearly 25 years later, as I find myself pondering the question at the top of this page, and wondering why I suddenly and completely stopped any and all fear of “the other”. The answer to this question is irrelevant, however. I state the before/after mindset simply because it seems appropriate in the contextual set up for this particular prompt.
Whatever we think of aliens or Fermi and his paradox, I ask you, dear reader, to revel for however many words the musing on this page tallies and suspend yourself in the realm of a philosophical equation. Just for the fun of it. This is the kind of stuff I like to think about and examine in the virtual laboratory that is my mind. The most sacred space of my grounded, earthly form equipped with organic connections to all of time and space via the Akashic record, if you know of such things.
A guide for this discussion:
We will use a philosophical formula — or philo form —in combination with the laws of thought to outline the logical boundaries/realm for our dialogue:
First, let’s assume the following:
Athat life+intelligent life (aka “alien”) on other planets exists throughout the universe
B that your answer to the question of whether or not aliens love is not dependent on whether or not aliens and humans have come in contact
C the known laws of physics apply
D the opposite of ‘love’ is ‘the complete non-existence of love’; both in theory and application
E ‘to love’ in this discussion means possessing the understanding of and capability to love
Now, layer on top of those assumptions the following:
- Any existing belief system or philosophies you have (i.e. scientific reasoning, religion, mantra, etc… the highest, meta-level thoughts about the universe/the true form of love/our existence as a functioning system from top to bottom)
- Your definition of “love”
Finally, formulate your argument, including definitions, statements, evidence and conclusions. Throughout your thinking, if either 1 or 2 above stop functioning within your logic causing you inconclusive results in an answer to the question at hand, go back and refine 1 and 2 for yourself and begin again.
So, in short, your conclusion must be either
YES aliens do love
or
NO aliens do not love
To kick off the discussion, I asked the question in simple poll-format on all of my social media platforms. Here were the results:
Instagram: 100% of respondents voted yes.
Facebook: 100% of respondents voted yes.
Twitter: 100% of respondents voted yes.
Here is how I outline my personal answer:
Macrocosm level: Love is the connective force of all of life; the glue that holds the universe together. It is source, it is light, it is existence. It is why energy persists and why the universe expands.
Microcosm level: humans know and name love; animals know love and show love without naming love, and humans and animals show love towards one another despite being different species. Ergo, love must span the universe in these same ways but applied to different groups of life-forms. Conceptual thinking about love may differ, however love exists and thus persists throughout. Aliens must, therefore, also love in some manner.
What do you think? Do aliens love?
