UFOs going maintstream

[sardiscat]

Taking on a subject normally left to the History, Travel, and National Geographic channels, ABC is showing a 90 minute special on UFOs tomorrow night with all new footage. Question: is there anything they can show that might convince you that UFOs actually are spacecraft from another planet/solar system/dimension?

[Will Lavender]

I'm sort of in the middle.

I tend to be skeptical by nature, because there are a lot of nuts out there, and government conspiracies are normally based on the sort of "proof" that swims out of the mind of borderline psychotics. But some of the photographic evidence that exists is pretty interesting.

I guess I'm in the Carl Sagan school. In his excellent book The Demon-Haunted World, he says that no one on the planet has spent as much time and energy looking for evidence of UFOs as he has, but at the point of that book's writing (early '90s?), they did not exist. He offers up very interesting theories on UFO sightings and other psuedo-science in the book. Recommended reading.

[Matt Dillon]

I have an open mind on the subject. I've never understood why some people think that life on other planets is an impossibility.

[UK78ALUM]

I'm sort of in the middle.

no one on the planet has spent as much time and energy looking for evidence of UFOs as he has, but at the point of that book's writing (early '90s?), they did not exist.

But they absolutely do exist. In fact, they exist, by definition!

Do "flying saucers" exist? Don't know. Are the "grays" flying them? Don't know. Have there been "alien abductions"? Don't know. But I do know that there have been literally thousands of observations of objects that were flying and were also unidentified.

Then the discussion becomes from where they came - which is what I think he really means. The existence of alien spacecraft is what he cannot verify.

[Will Lavender]

I have an open mind on the subject. I've never understood why some people think that life on other planets is an impossibility.

But that isn't the debate. The debate is whether that life has shown up on Earth via flying saucers and such.

Most scientists--who tend to be the most skeptical people in the debate--agree that the chances of there not being extraterrestrial life are very, very slim.

[Will Lavender]

But they absolutely do exist. In fact, they exist, by definition!

Do "flying saucers" exist? Don't know. Are the "grays" flying them? Don't know. Have there been "alien abductions"? Don't know. But I do know that there have been literally thousands of observations of objects that were flying and were also unidentified.

Then the discussion becomes from where they came - which is what I think he really means. The existence of alien spacecraft is what he cannot verify.

Well, true.

Sagan spends a lot of time in the book talking about what these "sightings" really are.

I don't really get too angry about it either way. Like Bigfoot, like ghosts and ectoplasmic goo and Virgin Mary sightings, I think it's a pretty fascinating discussion and I'm definitely open to people's opinions. I've never seen anything out of the ordinary in my lifetime, though, so I continue to be sort of skeptical.

[UK78ALUM]

Most scientists--who tend to be the most skeptical people in the debate--agree that the chances of there not being extraterrestrial life are very, very slim.

I completely agree with this. I'm not that much of a statistician, but I have to believe the chances of us being alone have several dozen zeroes in the number.

[Catligula]

There is almost certainly life outside of earth. But is there intelligent life - that's the question. Even if it is out there, it's an awfully big universe.

[UKSam]

Scary

[wilecatgrl]

I look at it this way: We are but one single planet, in one single galaxy, in a whole tangled web of other galaxy's and planets. There are THOUSANDS of other galaxy's with planets, I'm sure, similar to ours in our "outer space". Why would God put all his eggs in one basket (contengient upon your belief in God)? If there is a "being" who can make us as intelligent as we are and as ignorant as we are all at the same time, all with with opposable thumbs of course, then why couldn't He have put life on other planets, in other galaxy's, as well? And if He did, why wouldn't it be possible they have been around longer, moving forward with their technology as we do here on earth, to a point where inter-galactic space travel is a possibility? Maybe there's a planet of God's. And they all have their own galaxy to look after, like we're their children. Maybe that sayin "God's just a big kid with an ant farm" isn't too far off from the truth? Naaaa. We're the only ones out here floating around.....;)

[Ukosumu]

http://www.xfilesmerchandise.com/pictures/thetruthisouttherelarde.gif

[Sir Richard F. Burton]

The distance to travel makes it unlikely that they have arrived unless a route like "wormhole" exists.

[sardiscat]

Okay, the ABC show sucked. Very little actual footage, just lots of talking heads and animations. I've seen a lot better UFO programs on the History Channel and National Geographic.