Good grief.
I don't think anyone seriously is looking for “saviors” in learning if extraterrestrial intelligence exists.
Simply searching for an answer to a question humans have had since we first looked to the stars and realized there were nearly limitless possibilities for someone else out there.
And only really in very recent history have we had the tech to make serious attempts to do so. Is there really need to preach over a SETI thread?
I was hoping to take this post onto a philosophical- religious turn. To put it in Carl Sagan's words: "The search for extraterrestrial intelligence is a search for who we are. Exobiology is not satisfied with the search for a few one celled lifeforms. It is the search for intelligence. Hence, we are trying to make contact with them:
The Arecibo Message
It would take a very intelligent mind with the technology and the intellect to decipher the above transmission. Many astronomers believe that extraterrestrial civilizations may provide technologies and information to solve man's most difficult questions. As Dr. Sagan put it, "maybe it's a long shot, but the discovery of extraterrestrial intelligence might play a role in unifying our squabbling and divided planet"