"A major liberal falsehood of the mid-20th century was that intelligent life in outer space must exist, and that America should spend billions looking for it."
No, Andy. It doesn't have to exist. It's just that there's a damn good likelihood of it existing given the incredible vastness of the universe and the number of stars and planets that we can see--to say nothing of those we can't yet see. And that's not even taking into account that it's entirely possible that life is far more diverse than what we believe to be possible in the first place so there's even more possibility than if we just stick to life as we understand it.
You're a smart guy, Andy (or you believe yourself to be, anyway). Surely you're familiar with the Law of Large Numbers?
"This falsehood had political overtones in favor of nuclear disarmament, globalism, environmentalism, government spending and atheism."
I'm afraid I don't see the connection. Then again, you probably don't either as you seem prone to just stringing words together--particularly if those words end in "ism" or are the word "atheist."
"Political and Atheist leaders who supported research into extraterrestrial life, or were strong advocates that intelligent life must exist in outer space were:
Jimmy Carter
Adolf Hitler
Carl Sagan "
Your point?
"Belief in ET's is as strong among atheists and materialists as the belief in angels and departed saints by religious believers."
Except that one side has evidence that their belief is at least scientifically plausible and the other doesn't. I'll leave it as an exercise for your immense intellect to puzzle out which side is which.
