Quackery. May as well toss in some Freudian penis analogy for rockets too.
An interest in the prospects of space aliens is definitely escapism, but most people interested in the scholarly fields of astrophysics and astronomy are rational enough to confront life without clinging to spiritual mysticism or superstition.
Metaphysical experience, ethics, and philosophy are topics of interest, but why should it be that the topic of space aliens must invade such tiresome and belabored subjects. What are they, Klingons?
While that is true as a percentage of the population, as for total number of religious people the US is in the top 5 just due to population size. [1]
Also, some US states are larger than entire countries and the percentages vary greatly by state. So depending on where you live in the United States it may feel like literally everyone is religious.
I live in a relatively liberal part of the country and I still feel the need to stay in the closet as an atheist for fear or being disowned by my community and family.
But back to the topic at hand, I think finding aliens would be definitive proof that at the very least the part about God creating earth as something unique and special is bogus.
In other words I think the origional poster is completely wrong. If you believe in God you should fear finding aliens. Philosophically many religious people have trouble reconciling with evolution, never mind another living creature on a planet other than our own.
This is what happens when the majority of journalists both have a profit motive and cozy up to the establishment: they'll say anything and a low/no-information populace gobbles it up without a grain of salt.
The Intercept, Democracy Now, Thom Hartmann, TYT, et. al. are in a precarious position because they often speak the truth, which is inconvenient to those in power. Whether they can mostly survive and measurably supplant establishment media by demographics isn't certain. Whether Trump will target investigative journalists and net neutrality (likely) Erdogan-style is anyone's guess.
These will only be toys, and here's why: fuel efficiency (or lack thereof) per passenger. Good luck getting over 2 MPG considering having to haul around bits to meet both road and aircraft regs, fuel and passenger. Plus, do we really want to rehash the already decidedly terrible prospects of making average distracted/intoxicated/uncoordinated people into pilots? Give up lusting over Peter Thiel's science fiction pipedreams and move onto solving real problems like breaking dependence on fossil fuels or sequestering greenhouse gases.
There are literally thousands of cities with various levels of unsafe water. I had some extended familiy members whom all stupidly lived in the same house, drank/bathed/etc using the tap water near Durango, Colorado... and they all died prematurely of various terrible diseases like numerous forms of cancer.
