Do you believe in UFOs or alien sightings? Consider this...

Question

There have been hundred's of thousands of UFO sightings, crop-signs, weird lights in the sky, etc, etc.

However, I was reading that the nearest solar system to ours is 4.3 light years away (Proxima Centauri). Being that (if for some miracle) this other intelligent life lived on our closet solar neighbor and some how found a way to travel at light speed...it would still take them 4.3 years to travel to Earth, plus the fuel reserves.

Knowing that, does anyone still think it is logical that an intelligent species spent the resources, technology and time to travel so far just to scare a pick-up truck driver in Utah, or draw weird figures in corn fields? I cannot find this reasonable at all.

I think it would be a big waste of space not to have other intelligent life, but I just can't imagine us ever coming in contact with them...EVER

Answer 1

The best and only reasonable solution to the Fermi Paradox is that we are the ONLY show in town: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_parad...

If you just HAVE to believe in ETs, they have something special in store for you soon. Google/youtube: "Project Bluebeam"

'Aliens' that are somewhat similar to your appearance and just in time for 2012!

Many will be fooled...

Later, ask yourself how we knew this ahead of time

Answer 2

UpTownBoy, lets put it up this way.

Did you know that our civilization is only around 7,000 yrs old.? in fact, the universe is 14 billion years old. Human is a very young specie. We barely stepped outside of our own planet earth.

So you can just imagine that some alien civilization may very well be ancient and might be thousands or millions years older than our earthly civilization. They could very well be having technologies far far far more advance to the point we cannot comprehend the science behind it.  

Answer 3

unles you will be able to go around the universe that's when you will know if they really exist, but for m they don't they are just made up by the human mind.

Answer 4

i dont believe in it.sometimes it may seem possible, but it you put evey asset out there and think about it, it's highly impossible.

1) where would they get the fuel to travel 4.3 years without stopping?

2) ANY type of life form needs air, and space is lacking it.

3) it's way too hot on the other planets for a surviving life form they would burn from the heat to close to the sun in the state of form they're in.

Answer 5

Well that is the question isn't it?   The most logical or perhaps easiest  answer to that question would be to say it does sound unreasonable.  However;  can you say it is reasonable that from the hundreds possibly thousands of reported cases of sightings of unknown flying crafts that everyone of them could be explained away as nothing...   If you can say yes to that;  Then I would have to say that is an unreasonable answer.   It is not a black and white issue.  Sure, some of the sightings reported can be explained as overactive imaginations, mistakenly identifying an object as a UFO, or even some as outright hoaxes...everyone i think would say that was the case, but consider this.... if even a fraction of the reports were true and some folks actually saw something of unknown origin flying through the sky..  then you would have to concede their is intelligence out there in outer space that we have yet to explain or fully comprehend.  So that is the question inside the answer.

Answer 6

Unless of course they could warp space as Einstein said was possible.

Then the time and resources would be negligible.

And what if they found a way to create a power source we can't even imagine yet?

We send objects out in space to check out other planets and objects so why wouldn't other civilizations?

If we had the ability to travel vast distances in a short time, we would most certainly do it.

Curiosity is a powerful driving force.

And if we did travel and found another planet with life on it, do you think we would panic the whole planet or just be discreet and gather info on them? Such as diet, intelligence, breeding habits etc.

Answer 7

Written in the way that you put it... h**l no.

However, you make a single flawed assumption:  Travel is limited to what we know now.

Is it possible that there are wormholes, that once you reach the speed of light that it possible to exceed it, there is such a thing as spacial folding... who knows what else...

I don't know.  It would be really cool if there was.  So if these UFO's are all based on engines kicking a saucer across the universe, then no it's not likely.  BUT, if these advanced civilizations have found some other means of transportation, sure it's possible.

Personal beliefs... I don't know.  But, I'm keeping an open mind.

Answer 8

Of course it would be silly to limit a hypothetical alien spacefaring race to our concepts of the universe.  Our understanding is reasonably correct, as far as we take it, but we must anticipate the possibility of additional monumental discoveries that may already be known by an advanced intelligent race.

The problem comes when you try to explain UFO sightings, crop circles, cattle mutilations, abduction claims, etc as the result of extraterrestrial visitation.  In order to have testable, explanatory power, a hypothesis must have clear boundaries.  You have to be able to say what space aliens CANNOT do before you can logically hold a conclusion whether they did a certain thing or another.  And yes, that functionally means you need to know what aliens are like before you can try to attribute effects to them.

That is the grand circular argument of the UFO enthusiasts.  They want to believe in space aliens.  They claim that UFOs and other phenomena are proof of space aliens.  But when you ask them how they know that UFOs come from aliens, they tell you it's because it's "logically" or "possibly" what space aliens would use.  In other words, they simply reshape the hypothesis like a lump of dough in order to "fit" each new set of observations that they wish to attribute to aliens.

That's not science, even though "ufologists" sometimes claim what they do is.  The activities of UFO "researchers" seem more aimed keeping themselves and their interests relevant than in actually answering the questions they say they want answered.  It's more about collecting and publishing just enough information to keep people on the hook without drying up their gravy train.  As with most pseudoscience, the goal of ufology is to keep the questions controversial and lively, not find an answer.

Yes, I believe in the likelihood of extraterrestrial life.  Yes, I believe that now and throughout history things happen or have been seen that are difficult to explain by known and testable causes.  No, I don't believe that aliens are visiting Earth and that UFOs are their spaceships.  Nor do I believe they're sucking people out of their bedrooms to probe them, nor that they are stealing cow lips.