In 399 b.c., the great philosopher Socrates was accused of not believing in the gods in which the state believed. He was tried and found guilty of corrupting Athenian youth and religious heresy.
He was sentenced and put to death by the use of a poison he chose to ingest. Galileo was warned not to defend Copernican Astronomy because it went against the doctrine of the church. In 1616, the Roman Catholic Church demanded that Galileo stop teaching the theory that the sun was at the center of the cosmos and everything revolved around it.
The belief at that time was that the Earth was the center and the sun (and everything else) revolved around the Earth. Galileo was eventually hauled before the Catholic Inquisition and condemned to house arrest, for life. After 10 years, he died while still under house arrest.
We know today of course, that Galileo was indeed (more or less) correct. Thoughout history people have been unjustly ridiculed, harassed, and even severely punished for their views and ideas that didn't seem to quite fit in with the current socially accepted beliefs. Are we arrogant to assume that man is the only intelligent life out there? We think so.
Over the past 8 years, we have spent much of our time privately researching this subject, (which is sometimes a hard subject to research, when considering that most people do not feel comfortable publicly sharing their experiences). Although most polls show that the majority of the population believes that the governments are hiding what they know about worldly visitors, the general attitude towards this subject is often one of total disbelief and ridicule.