I hate to bring an old topic out of the hole it’s dug for itself, however I feel that I need to make some important observations.
Lots of people like to cite technology development as an indicator that some outside influence helped us along. However, every technological development we have ever made is painstakingly documented. This argument is being made from utter ignorance. The steps taken to develop every “magic” technology can be read and understood by most laypeople. The thing about technology is that it is self-feeding. The more advanced technology is the easier it is to study and create better technology. Moore’s Law is a very good example of this. Name a technology you think is derivative of alien technology and I’ll explain to you exactly how it was developed.
It is certainly possible that life exists elsewhere in the Universe…..however the possibility that they’d be more advanced than us, or that they’d be able to discover us so soon is most likely very low.
As for other paranormal stuff, James Randi has yet to hand out a reward to anyone demonstrating paranormal activity. All he asks is a simple controlled demonstration…..and no one has ever passed.
Illusions are interesting things…..they are slight of hand tricks, things that appear to be what they cannot be. You cannot believe that magic actually exists because you’ve seen it with your own eyes, that’s exactly the point of magic; to trick the eyes (or other senses). To be reasonably sure of something many different observations must be made under objective conditions. UFO sightings, psychic readings, ghost sightings, and telekinetic demonstrations never fall within these objective conditions. Any time they are subjected to these conditions the paranormal goes away.