I have engaged in this discussion many times, almost always witnessing the same dichotomy in the debators. One group seems to hold that UFO's are alien vehicles; they can show you thousands of photographs, eyewitness reports and web sites to support their claim. The other group seems to look at the UFO phenomenon as an unknown, slanted against the possibility of alien visitation; they can sit down and point to the fishing line in the UFO photo, the physics and the holes generally in the concept.
I am of the latter school of thought, a self labled skeptic and I do not believe that UFO's are alien vehicles. It is not that I don't believe in extraterrestrial life, I do. Given the enormity of the universe, it would not be suprising to me to know that alien life has existed before us, or will live after us. I conceed the possibility that we might co-exist with another life form somewhere in the universe. But so many obstacles lie in our path. Obstacles which are fully provable; derived from the collaborative efforts of every school of science.
The first is the speed of light. Special relativity has extensive mathematics on the subject. To achieve the speed of light, an infinite amount of energy needs to be expended. More energy than there is in the entire universe.
The second is the effort issue. The amount of work put into making a space craft, equipping it with very high powered engines, supplies, fuel, technology and passengers is large. Accelerating it to even near light speeds requires a tremendous amount of energy. Would it not be simpler, more cost efficient and more productive to use high powered radio signals to make contact with us? Yet, we see absolutely no transmissions from anything other than natural cellestial phenomena.
The third reason has to do with evidence. The truth of the matter is that there is nothing that undeniably proves that aliens are visiting us. No tools, gizmos, trash, books, corpses, bacteria, waste, equipment... nothing. Absolutely nothing that would undeniably show that aliens are here. We have had instances of very odd situations, but these don't point in only one direction.
This fact invites further dellusional paranoia in the construction if the MIB myth. "We don't know because THEY are hiding it from us". The scope of such a conspiracy would be so immense that there would be no way to hide it. EVERYONE would need to be involved on some level, and EVERYONE would have to be so totally secretive. With my dealings with people, I have found that a secret rarely stays a secret for very long. The belief that the alien issue is somehow immune to this social truth is laughable.
I heard once that there have been 12 million eyewitness reports of UFO's. If we stretch this out over 1000 years, we have 32 a day. Thirty two sightings every day somewhere in the world. Yet there are NO videos which document UFO's to any conclusive degree. We can't even say for certian that UFO's are vehicles.
There have been many alternate possibilities offered for the UFO phenomenon. Plasmoids (like ball lightning), fire balloons (used deliberately to cause UFO sightings), misidentified aircraft...the list goes on and on and on and on...
The basic facts are that we have hundreds of other possibilities, none of which are seriously considered by people who want to believe in alien visitation.
I'd love it if it were true. Much like the believers, I would welcome the reality with open arms. However, unlike many believers, I need something a little more reliable than someone else's say so.
I invite comment.
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I am of the latter school of thought, a self labled skeptic and I do not believe that UFO's are alien vehicles. It is not that I don't believe in extraterrestrial life, I do. Given the enormity of the universe, it would not be suprising to me to know that alien life has existed before us, or will live after us. I conceed the possibility that we might co-exist with another life form somewhere in the universe. But so many obstacles lie in our path. Obstacles which are fully provable; derived from the collaborative efforts of every school of science.
The first is the speed of light. Special relativity has extensive mathematics on the subject. To achieve the speed of light, an infinite amount of energy needs to be expended. More energy than there is in the entire universe.
The second is the effort issue. The amount of work put into making a space craft, equipping it with very high powered engines, supplies, fuel, technology and passengers is large. Accelerating it to even near light speeds requires a tremendous amount of energy. Would it not be simpler, more cost efficient and more productive to use high powered radio signals to make contact with us? Yet, we see absolutely no transmissions from anything other than natural cellestial phenomena.
The third reason has to do with evidence. The truth of the matter is that there is nothing that undeniably proves that aliens are visiting us. No tools, gizmos, trash, books, corpses, bacteria, waste, equipment... nothing. Absolutely nothing that would undeniably show that aliens are here. We have had instances of very odd situations, but these don't point in only one direction.
This fact invites further dellusional paranoia in the construction if the MIB myth. "We don't know because THEY are hiding it from us". The scope of such a conspiracy would be so immense that there would be no way to hide it. EVERYONE would need to be involved on some level, and EVERYONE would have to be so totally secretive. With my dealings with people, I have found that a secret rarely stays a secret for very long. The belief that the alien issue is somehow immune to this social truth is laughable.
I heard once that there have been 12 million eyewitness reports of UFO's. If we stretch this out over 1000 years, we have 32 a day. Thirty two sightings every day somewhere in the world. Yet there are NO videos which document UFO's to any conclusive degree. We can't even say for certian that UFO's are vehicles.
There have been many alternate possibilities offered for the UFO phenomenon. Plasmoids (like ball lightning), fire balloons (used deliberately to cause UFO sightings), misidentified aircraft...the list goes on and on and on and on...
The basic facts are that we have hundreds of other possibilities, none of which are seriously considered by people who want to believe in alien visitation.
I'd love it if it were true. Much like the believers, I would welcome the reality with open arms. However, unlike many believers, I need something a little more reliable than someone else's say so.
I invite comment.
-242