Unidentified Flying Objects, Your thoughts on UFO's Options

"…nothing has come from the study of UFOs in the past 21 years that has added to scientific knowledge...further extensive study of UFOs probably cannot be justified in the expectation that science will be advanced thereby." –Edward U. Condon

A UFO is an unidentified flying object which has been identified as a possible or actual alien spacecraft. Such objects include meteors, disintegrating satellites, flocks of birds, aircraft, lights, weather balloons, and just about anything moving within the visible band of electromagnetism. So far, however, nothing has been positively identified as an alien spacecraft in a way required by common sense and science. That is, there has been no recurring identical UFO experience and there is no physical evidence in support of either a UFO flyby or landing.

There are as many photographs of UFOs as there are of the Loch Ness Monster, and they are of equal quality: blurs and forgeries. Other physical evidence, such as alleged debris from alien crashes, or burn marks on the ground from alien landings, or implants in noses or brains of alien abductees, have turned out to be quite terrestrial, including forgeries. The main reasons for believing in UFOs are the testimony of many people, the inability to distinguish science fiction from science, the willingness to trust incompetent men telling fantastic stories, the ability to distrust all contrary sources as being part of an evil conspiracy to withhold the truth, and a desire for contact with the world above. Belief in aliens in UFOs is akin to belief in supernatural beings.

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"UFOlogy is the mythology of the space age. Rather than angels...we now have...extraterrestrials. It is the product of the creative imagination. It serves a poetic and existential function. It seeks to give man deeper roots and bearings in the universe. It is an expression of our hunger for mystery...our hope for transcendental meaning. The gods of Mt. Olympus have been transformed into space voyagers, transporting us by our dreams to other realms."
--Paul Kurtz

Source

UFO's really are a modern concept. In days gone by people didn't have the vocabulary to explain space ships or aliens. Instead they had the God's in the sky. People weren't abducted, they had vissions. They were whisked away by the Gods to some strange otherworldly realm, not a space ship. Prophets who saw beings in brilliant light saw angels or demons, not aliens.

Only in the past say 200 years have people really had the science to explain the possibility of air ships, let alone people from other worlds and possibly different realities. As we continue to develope and advance its no wonder that what we're seeing in the sky and in our dreams would take on a new gise. I certainly believe there is something to all this we don't fully know yet. And I do believe that as we continue to advance as a species what is truely going on will enevitably be revealed to us. I only hope that when we get to that point, regardless if its within my life time, that what we find is positive to us as a species. It might turn out to be some natural phenomenom that triggers these things. It just might be ET. Or maybe even people from the future or alternate earths. Who knows?

But a UFO doesn't mean aliens in the sky. I don't care what anybody says. Just because one sees something in the sky that doesn't make sense to them doesn't mean its extraterrestrial. IN fact I think people who jump to that conclusion are stupid to do so. It flies in the face of reason. When I was a little kid I used to see strange lights forming patterns in the sky every day at about dusk. (this isn't the same experience I described earlier). Now these lights looked like they could be from airplains. The problem was airplains move. These lights didn't move and there was always multiple lights that seemed to hoover and just fade away. Then one night later in life when I had a license I desided to investigate.

Now what these lights were? Airplains. They were small aircraft comming *to and from* a local airport. That to and from part is important because it explains why the lights appeared to hoover and randomly disappear in the sky - From my vantage point looking in the southern skies at dusk the light from the sun was angled just right so that it reflected off the arcraft in the sky. The fact that the majority of the plains were heading north and south (as well as landing) meant that as a child looking south into the sky I saw these lights from a linear point of view. They appeared to hooever and disappear simply because of the way they were flying to and from the airport. This expierenced prooved to me that unless what one sees is truely remarkable (like when I saw the ball lightning) the human mind can not be trusted to accurately percieve objects in the sky.

As far as the alledged evidence from ancient sources and texts. Some people point to cave paintings and the Nazca lines or pyramids, not mention art work from through out all the ages, as evidence of ET interaction. I say don't doubt the human mind's ability to imagine. Especially if its being influenced by natural phenomenom it doesn't understand. As a child I didn't convieve that the light from an airplain heading away from me could explain hoovering lights in the sky. Imagine being a cave man and having just ate some plant or animal that had a hallucinogen. That could explain vissions and of course people will want to express their expeirences but with out the written language there's little verification.

While I do think its important to realize that the shear vastness of space indicates the probability that we are not alone and I think its important to not even throw out the alien visitation idea (that some ufos can be aliens and people can be abducted) I don't think we should be so quick to explain away the things we see in the sky as extraterrestrial. Its just irrational.