New polls imply believing in aliens is crazy

A few new polls about conspiracy theories leave me feeling a little… crazy.

A new poll from Insights West found that 52 percent of British Columbians believe somewhat or completely that UFOs exist, while a Public Policy Polling survey indicates 29 percent of Americans believe in the existence of aliens.

A similar poll from Insights West showed that only 45 percent of Albertans harboured a belief in UFOs.

While the polls asked questions about a variety of popular "conspiracy theories"—including the death of John F. Kennedy,  the moon landings, and mind-control technology being blasted out through our television sets—I really have to quibble with the assumption that believing aliens exist is a "conspiracy theory".*

Considering there are over 125 billion galaxies in the universe, it seems like more of a stretch of the imagination to believe Earth is the only place life has developed.

Here are Carl Sagan's thoughts on the possibility of life in other parts of the universe. 

I feel okay being on his side about the whole thing.

Disappointingly, only four percent of Americans believe shape-shifting reptilian people control our world by taking on human form and gaining political power to manipulate our societies, since that one's obviously true.

*In truth, I have a serious quibble with the phrase "conspiracy theory" altogether, but that's a rant for another day.