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the planets most close to Earth are simply to far away in terms of light years in that we don't know where they are, have never seen them, and never will.

If intelligent life is common to the planets close to earth, then at least some life there should have had technology for at least a few million years which is less than a second in geological time and a few million years should be more than enough time for them to find us. Granted, we have been able to reach out and find them for only a few years, but if it is common, someone should have found us. We are rare, very rare, maybe divinely rare. Further, I was an atheist, until I studied physics in college. Then I realized how unique we really are.

If there is intelligent life out there that can get here, don't you think first, they'd be scientists? I don't know if they'd reveal themselves because our understanding to them would be too primitive. And wouldn't they want to explore our universe? (Art Bell mode ===> maybe they are already here) If our society advanced to that level, could explore millions of light years away in a feasible time frame, we'd be ambassadors for the human race on earth, not antagonistic barbarians. I kind of think if those who were more advanced than us experienced the consequences of wmd's. Physics and math explain our existence.

Granted, we have been able to reach out and find them for only a few years, but if it is common, someone should have found us.

Nope. We have been able to reach out and find a few planets (this is with 4000 years of technology and discovery under our belts).

Due to the fundamental nature of how this universe "works", SETI is still the best method for discovering tool building life out there. However, SETI has its own limitations:

There are two real sources of noise that limits the radio astronomer's ability to search for very weak signals. The Galactic noise halo interferes with us below 1 GHz and noise due to earth's atmosphere interferes with us above about 10 GHz. This pretty much keeps all SETI searches (at least radio ones) between 1 and 10 GHz. Inside these two frequencies, from about 1.4 to 7 GHz the noise level drops off even further to near the 2.7 Kelvin Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) that permeates all space. Hydrogen (H) molecules, the most abundant element in the universe, excite and emit (masers) at around the 1.4 GHz frequency (21 cm band) and the hydroxyl (OH) emits at around 1.65 GHz. This is where much of our radio astronomy and SETI research is concentrated. Since H + OH is water, the frequency gap between these two is often called the “Water Hole”.

Many of the current SETI searches are near the 21cm band. Since this is one of the coveted frequencies of radio astronomers, we have international treaties to not broadcast at this frequency at all. So here we are looking for signs of a narrowband signal heralding the fact that intelligent life is not wholly constrained to this little planet at this frequency. Now if any intelligent race develops radio and radio astronomy, they too will recognize the importance of this 21cm band for the exploration of the universe. And they also may instigate a SETI search using this very same frequency. So here is a question; would they hear us at that frequency? It is the one frequency we are not transmitting on at all. I could just see 500 races all looking for each other at the very frequency none of them are transmitting on due to the very nature of the importance of that frequency to the exploration of the universe.