Do you believe in UFO's?

Originally Posted by Gecko3

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/0...rch/index.html

I myself am somewhat skeptical, but I remember when I was about ten years old, during the summer, and looking at the cloudy sky from behind my house in the city. After a while I saw 4 round objects flying through the sky, in almost a V formation. They didn't make any noise like an airplane does when it flies overhead, and they seemed to be moving pretty fast too (I think they were orange in color, but that might be due to the city lights).

I've been trying to figure out what exactly I saw that night. It couldn't be an airplane, because planes aren't round, and they make a lot of noise until they're very high off the ground (yes, there's an airport in my city, and I hear them often when they're first climbing up in the air). I doubt it was searchlights either, because the objects moved too uniformly across the sky, unless they had a new design that they've never used again.

It might've possibly also been ball lightning, but again, it's highly unlikely that 4 ball lightnings would happen to be "flying" across the sky in such a uniform way. And I doubt it's some secret military aircraft being tested (unless there's a secret base in Milwaukee, WI that we don't know about, but I doubt the government would build a base to test secret planes near a large urban population).

Hmmm...it could be geese. They tend to fly in a V formation, but they tend to fly with more than just four in a group, but they will sometimes fly with 4 or 3 within a group.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/UFO

Based on this information, I would say that I do believe in UFO's because when we don't know what is flying around the air (even though someone else may know what it is) it is unidentifiable to us at that moment. However, if you want to go on the belief of UFO's being strictly alien aircraft, then I am a little uncertain about it.

I'm more likely to believe that UFO's of alien nature have visited based on the large number of reports and video footage where at least 700 cases out of 1,200 have been left as "unknown". I don't think they will try to take over the Earth or talk to humans, but I don't think that all of the cases could be explained by something simple as "swamp gas" or "weather ballons".

One case that leads me to believe that they probably do exist is the 1897 case in Aurora, Texas. What is so interesting about this case is that something large flew into a windmill of John Proctor's land and crashed before the invention of flying aircraft. This was before H.G. Wells and the mainstream idea of little green men visiting Earth, so it's not a psychological fear portrayed by the media. The strange readings around the tombstone where the alleged alien was buried and the strong defense that the state of Texas built around the grave in the 1970's--when a group of ufologists wanted to search the grave after receiving the strange readings--causes me to wonder why sheriffs and other officers from around Texas would be called to block the ufologists for a week, and then the readings and gravemarker disappear by the time the ufologists are allowed back at the site.

As for aliens, I haven't seen any or received any alien messages or whatever, but I do believe they exist. Granted, there is a formula that tries to prove the chances of aliens visiting Earth is highly unlikely, but it formula does prove that there is a possibility of life on other planets (even if it is just a handful). I don't think they have created technology to talk to us, or have even thought that there was anything past their own planet, but to think that we are the only lifeforms within all the planets, galaxies, universes, and beyond is very hard to believe. I even have a hard time believing that God would only create one planet of life and not bother creating other planets for practice or to see if he could create lifeforms that would obey his wishes and live in their version of Eden.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Gechmir

You could apply this to stories of ghosts and cryptozoology. Could very well be histeria or fakers. Or misinterpretation.

Visavi --
Boy. Texas must be missing out on these fluorescent geese... =p He said they were orangish lights in a V formation.

Edit:: Also, a "Ufologist" doesn't sound like a credible scientific fellow. Could've been a group of quacks and the folks didn't want them around there. Block for a week and they might lose their tenacity or the members might taper off to elsewhere. Also, what readings would they take? Alienomagic Readings or some crap like that?

LOL, sometimes the white portions of animals tend to reflect light, but like I said it was probably unlikely since they don't usually fly in such little packs. There's a lot of crazy stuff in Texas that make fluorescent geese look normal .

Their readings are similar to other paranormal readings. Mostly, they read electromagnetic energy, and when they read high levels of energy that most objects would not radiate, they become suspicious. There is a History Channel exclusive on the Aurora story if you want to check out the skeptics and believer's views on the incident. Many times, when ufologists find something unusual, they will take it to credited scientists that study metals, geography, or biology to examine their readings or debris for clarification on what it could be.

Originally Posted by Mojougwe

But seriously, I couldn't believe in UFOs. Mainly because of technical reasons as to things such as what may power them. A berlilium sphere from Galaxy Quest? For a ship to rely on a consumable resource for traveling long distances, I don't believe there are such.
In order for something like that to happen, the ship's fuel device would need to be a larger size than the ship itself. Like, glueing on a golfball to a bowling ball. The golf ball is the ship, the bowling ball is its fuel. But collection of that much fuel for one tiny spaceship ride is uneconomical. No matter what the fuel is made of, even.

There was one theory that they may be able to use wormholes to skip across galaxies, but it's a very thin theory...about as thin as the belief in aliens.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Cellius

As someone said earlier, the statistical probability that other life does exist convinces me that there are aliens in the universe, but people who claim they've come to this planet still have a very Earth-centric perspective. WHY this ball of dirt?

Also, I'd like to hear what religion has to say on this matter. Would the revelation that there's undeniable proof of alien life shatter its credibility? Or would it refuse to acknowledge it? Anyone care to offer religious insight (as I have none)?

PS, thread creator, I live less than an hour west of Milwaukee. Cool.

Most of my very Christian friends believe that God created one life in his image and that he only watches over our planet and none other. Therefore, they believe that there are no other lifeforms on other planets. However, some people relate the people of Mt. Zion to aliens. Also, there are religions that believe aliens created humans and should be worshipped.

Biblical verses that supposedly relate to aliens:
http://www.ufoarea.com/aas_bible_accounts.html

Site to locate other UFO & Alien phenomenon:
http://www.doomsdayguide.org/UFO/ufo..._the_bible.htm

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Shonos

There's another problem with life visiting us. The fact that we carry tons of bacteria that could be harmful to anything that has not built up an immunity to them. This would be the same for any alien life coming here. Unless they're moving around us in suits there's no way to completely sanitize yourself and prevent contamination. They could make us sick or we could make them sick.

This is actually a real problem for us if we ever take a visit to mars or the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. We could kill any life living on those moons or have severe effects on the evolution of life on that planet just by being there. If I remember right, NASA has forced a few probes down into Jupiter instead of letting them drift in space because they feared the probe(s) would hit a moon like Europa and destroy any chance of life there.

They had a discussion about this on the Discovery Science Channel. They said that this is one of the main reasons why aliens are less likely to visit Earth since they would have to figure out how to get through the atmosphere and survive the unsual bacteria on our planet. Also, there's the whole thing about how they probably wouldn't talk to us b/c our communication pattern isn't as complicated as other animals (many of the physicists and astronomers that were addressed on the issue thought that htey would talk to whales first).

Originally Posted by x86

I don't care if UFOs exist or not. Aren't women weird enough?

Amen .

Originally Posted by Protom@nNeo

I think that things here on earth / this plane of existence are more complex than we realize. UFO's have always been mentioned by ancient man whether it be in the bible or other religious, historical, or mythological texts. My gut tells me they're here, they've always been here, and maybe watching us is part of their job (the only reason I can think of something being here thousands of years). Maybe we trully are trapped in a science experiment with amnesia?

One of the History Channel programs--wish I could remember the name of it--had a program about proof of aliens and UFO's being visible in religious text and Renaissance paintings. I think one of the Madonna w/ child paintings had a guy in the background looking toward the sky and his eyes were aimed right at a shadow in the sky that looked a lot like a flying saucer.

Hmmm...aliens using us as science experiments without our knowledge...I think that's part of the Scientology belief isn't it (either that or the idea about dead aliens possessing our bodies)? I remember Rodney Dangerfield talking about how he believed that aliens created us and were watching over us as science experiments before he died, then again he wanted to clone himself.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?