The idea that alien
beings are visiting us in spacecraft is exciting and imaginative.
Unfortunately, it's an idea not at all supported by the evidence. The idea that alien
beings are visiting us in spacecraft is exciting and imaginative.
Unfortunately, it's an idea not at all supported by the evidence.
While a considerable number of people have reported seeing unusual lights and objects in the sky, there is not a single case in which close inspection of the evidence suggests the cause to be anything so fantastic. Indeed, even believers in UFOs admit that more than 90% of all reported cases are quickly and easily explained. Tests have proven human beings to be extremely bad witnesses to aeronautical events. It is very difficult to judge the altitude, size and speed of an object against vast stretches of sky.
Most researchers agree that ordinary sights like the planet Venus produce an extraordinary number of UFO reports. In addition, the Air Force found that teenage boys were a dependable source for UFO photos, photos that usually involve a small model and some string... There are many still photos purporting to depict alien spacecraft. The images range from fuzzy blobs of light to sharp daylight snapshots of flying saucers. But still photographs are notoriously easy to fake. Many exposed UFO hoax photos are still reprinted year after year in pro-UFO books and magazines.
Since more and more people own video cameras, why is it that no convincing video footage of UFOs has been uncovered? This is just one of many questions that leaves UFO supporters silent, because there is no reasonable answer other than the fact that good video footage is much harder to fake.
The rejection of the UFO/Alien Visitor hypothesis is not a rejection of the possibility of life on other planets. Indeed, scientists such as the late Carl Sagan, who have flatly dismissed the whole idea of UFOs, are still supportive of the search for extraterrestrial life. However, the implausibility of interstellar space travel, the dearth of evidence for UFO's, and the sheer wackiness of the UFO community, has caused respectable researchers to distance themselves from the whole idea. The stories of global conspiracies, alien bodies, and crashed saucers all lead to the exact same unsatisfying dead end. The TV shows and books promise new evidence and proof-positive. But where is the payoff? Examining the evidence for UFOs will leave a reasonable person with only one conclusion: UFOs are a wonderful fiction and nothing more.
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