Should we be afraid of the aliens?

Spaceships descending, futuristic weapons we are powerless against, laser guns, vapourisers, in no time at all earth is nothing but a slave colony to a hugely advanced superior race.
Is this realistic?

If an advanced species travels across galaxies to reach earth, why do we automatically assume that they will be hostile, will exterminate and subjugate man just because they can?
This is obviously what humans would do, this is what we have done on earth throughout history, dominating and enslaving all those lesser than ourselves- human and non-human.
Does this have to be a prerequisite of civilisation- a superior arrogance and an uncontrollable need to inflict ourselves on all else? Is it possible to exist a civilised being that is actually civilised?
It seems as if we think the aliens will be the things of our own worst nightmares- they will be just like us.

And another thing- with their hugely superior technologies etc, whay would we think they would even give us a second glance? We're probably like a swarm of ants in comparison. Why would they be remotely interested in us?

the only thing we have to fear, is fear itself

Hello Hannah,
I don't think you're asking if we should be cowering in fear, but rather that there is a potential danger here that we would do well to understand, a threat we should try and measure ...?

I count myself fortunate regarding aliens, on two counts ; I saw a marvellous display of spacecraft when I was eight, and (thank goodness!), so did the rest of my school.
As a result, I've always had no doubt that space is as busy as the oceans, with an even greater variety of life-forms.
It would be strange therefore if Earth had not been visited many times, by many differing types of extra-terrestrial.

There are so many ancient accounts of "Gods descending in fiery chariots", and similar visitations, it seems we have been examined fairly comprehensively, throughout history, and during the millions of years prior to our present civilisation, when some say previous cultures - Lemuria, Atlantis, had plenty of time to rise and sink with hardly a trace, except in the unwritten anecdotal history which we are usually too civilised to pay attention to.

My guess is, that like parents with their kids in the park, E-Ts will only intervene if we threaten to destroy our environment with our toys.
Or if we mature sufficiently to contribute something sensible, should they open a conversation.

Were I an alien astronaut visiting Earth, I'd personally be much more interested in making contact with the Cetaceans.

It is a commonly accepted idea that life came to earth from space, did not originally evolve here from scratch- bacteria etc from possibly comets or general space debris first seeded earth. There was very little time between the earth's crust hardening and the first life forms appearing, too little for it to have evolved here. Bacteria can survive most interspace conditions- radiation, vacuum, solar rays etc.
Complex intelligent life is more of a problem. And if it did exist and did arrive here, it is likely that the conditions would be so vastly different from what they were used to that they would not survive for long.
The old stories of advanced gods etc, I wonder if they were actually advanced humans on earth, visiting more primitive cultures, rather like the Europeans arriving in pre-colonial Africa but without the ethos of exterminate and enslave. Likely the 'gods' were the Atlanteans themselves.
I did once read a book though, suggesting that modern humans have been genetically engineered in the past to be slaves for the 'gods/ETs' , among other things developed to rapidly breed- why a woman can have a new baby before the first is weaned/ independent, quite unusual in nature.

I don't think there are people who really believe in them. I think everybody would be know about them