Why is it that believers in ET life presume that said life is of higher intelligence?
Because, relatively speaking, our Sun is fairly young. Also, other civilizations may not have had a 'Dark Ages' like we did; or if they had one it may not have lasted as long as ours did.
Consider, if you knocked just 100 years off the 'Dark Ages'. Our 'Dark Ages' lasted ~300 years. Can you imagine where we would be today, if we were at this level of tecnology back in the early to mid 1700's?
The better question should be, why do believers in ET assume that they should be benevolent and morally superior to us?
It seems to me the odds would favor it . If you were the Creator , is this the best you could do ? The UFO I saw was far more advanced than anything earthlings have produced . Stupid , primitive me , I was surprised its crew , if any , were not interested in my group at all . Next time I kick over a rock and I am going to ask the ants to take me to their leader . Years ago , I abducted members of the ant species for observation , as I recall it did not end well for them , so I guess I should be glad the aliens ignored my requests for transport off this rock . Maybe there is wisdom in the prime directive .
It would require significant intelligence to find us and travel here.
If we found and visited other planets with life, good chance we would be mroe nitelligent than them.
“Why is it that believers in ET life presume that said life is of higher intelligence?”
Because we know there isn’t any intelligent life on Earth. :)
Well if any life has made it to our planet, they are clearly of a higher intelligence. I believe there are planets out there with all kinds of life, but most will never have the technology to reach or contact us.