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Lived in old house that had thumping sound in kitchen and played a loud song from attic. I can deal with this. Never saw a ghost. (Learned previous occupant had been run out by the song playing. I only heard it couple times in 12 years and not why I sold. Bad policing and too many expensive problems from wrong people was why I sold...Too bad. Was really lovely 1950s place we did a ton of work to fix up. WAY LOW utility bills too.)
Friend's victorian has blender running noise even when it is put up. Only when all are eating.
Which would seem scarier? I'd actually say the ghost, since it's supernatural, while the alien is probably at least flesh and blood.
I do not see either of them as inherently scary so it is hard to answer.
I guess since there is NO arguments, evidence, data or reasoning on offer to suggest ghosts exist.... it would be scarier to see one of those because it likely means that I am hallucinating and what I am looking at is indicative and symptomatic of something wrong with me..... probably a brain tumor or the failure of another organ or a viral disease.
That said, were ghosts to exist we could assume.... since they were originally human..... that they have mostly human concerns. Aliens, being alien, would not. So purely in terms of fear of the unknown.... aliens would be scarier. Because their intent and motivation and goals would be more divergent from our own.
There is also the issue of how we treat animal forms we see as "lower" than us. The concern many have with aliens is that their would intellectually be the equivalent to us as we are with ants. Our concerns and goals are so divergent from ants that we do not consider them at all, and do not think twice about wiping them out, when we pursue our goals. If we were to lay down a road, and find an ant hill in the way, we would think nothing of paving over them.... destroying their life and home.
How certain could we be that aliens would look at us any differently that we do ants?
That's a hard one. I think both would scare the bejeezus out of me. Especially if the encounter was the middle of the night and I awoke to them standing next to my bed watching me sleep.. Creepers
Ghost. I am 100% atheist, and believe in no god, nor afterlife, no anything supernatural at all for that matter. To see one, a 100% bona fide ghost that I could not explain would be startling to me.
An alien wouldn't scare me. It would be extremely moving, perhaps. I think the likelihood that there are other intelligent life forms out there is possible. However, I think the distances involved in space will keep us from making physical contact for many, many, many eons, if ever.. To see one in person would be amazing as I'd instantly wonder how they conquered the entire vast space-time issue.
Another way to look at it is to wonder what confirmation of the existence of either of these things will do to us as a species.
IF we confirmed the as yet entirely unsubstantiated existence of ghosts, what would this do to us? No longer would we have armies of theists merely pretending they think there is an after life. We genuinely will KNOW there is one. What effects would this have? What will happen to our inherent view of the value of this life, if we realize it is only a stepping stone to the next? I find people can barely apply themselves to their job, when they know they have another job lined up which they will be moving themselves to in a few weeks.
If confirmed the existence of aliens however what would this do? Star Trek paints a rosey pictures that it would unify humanity in a way nothing else ever has. And I find that both plausible and unlikely at the same time, which feel strangely contradictory in my mind. What I fear is that we will fall over ourselves in complete stupidity at the revelation. Some of us will instantly want to go to war with them, with a first strike mentality, in some possibly well meant exercise of self preservation of our species. Others will want to exploit and trade with them. Still others will want to OWN one somehow as if another sentient being should be a slave or a pet. Worryingly some small number of our species will want to have sex with them, eat them, or both. And another section of us will worship them or invite them to be the new governing overlords of our species. Still other will just go into some mad blind panic. And even our stock markets would likely react in extreme and unprecedented ways that it likely is not built to handle.
So both would be worrying but I think in terms of just pure stupidity, embarrassment, self implosion, and horror I think meeting an alien species is the one that could go most wrong for us in the world and as a species. It is no wonder Star Trek invented the philosophical moral notion of the "Prime Directive" where Humanity agreed never to reveal it's existence to any species below a certain level of technological, moral and social development.
I'd say a ghost, at least an alien is likely to be in our dimension.
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