Do I believe other sapient species exist out there in the universe? Yes. Do I believe they have interstellar travel and have visited Earth? I’m doubtful.
Yes, exactly. This is my main issue with the idea that they’ve visited earth.
For them to have made the great trip here they would have to either A) live extremely long lives, much longer than anything on earth or B) invented faster-than-light travel, which is a monstrous obstacle.
On the other hand, any civilization which is capable of FTL travel would almost certainly be able to conceal themselves from us somehow. Maybe some of the UFO/UAP encounters out there are instances of them making a mistake and allowing themselves to be detected. Generally, I tend to default to the simplest explanation- they’ve never been here because we’re too damn far and we ain’t worth visiting.
Which reminds of the notion that if extraterrestrials ever did come here it would mean the end of humanity because they’d be here to strip our resources away. Please… any species that can accomplish interstellar travel doesn’t need the stuff we have.