SETI: Array for Tax Dollars!

The SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) Institute (not involved in UFO research) uses radio telescopes in the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) to search for signals from space that indicate alien intelligence. They want tax dollars to fund their research, and made the outlandish promise that they will find extraterrestrial life in the near future so they can get the money.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

There are several reasons for this confidence (or arrogance, or even a con game). These include a great deal on luck, and the presupposition that evolution is a fact (it must have happened "out there"). Naturalistic assumptions are fanciful at best. Perhaps if they increased their membership drive (individual memberships begin at $50 USD), they would not need to make every pay for their evolutionary fantasies.

In hopes of keeping funding flowing, the SETI Institute promised US congresspersons that scientists will find extraterrestrial life in our lifetime.

According to Live Science, Seth Shostak of the SETI Institute told a House committee he believes we will find extraterrestrial life “within everyone’s lifetime in this room.” He bases his optimism on three improving technologies: (1) improved robotic searches within our solar system, (2) ability to detect biomarkers on earth-like extrasolar planets (see 4/29/14), and (3) vastly improved surveys for alien signals, searching millions of stars.

You can read the rest at "SETI Advocates Try to Persuade Congress for Funds".