Okay. UFOs.

[otterinbham 0]

I haven't seen one. But a quick perusal of YouTube shows lots of convincing footage (By that, I don't mean midgets wrapped in tinfoil, but footage taken by military aircraft, etc.).

What's your take? Mass hysteria? Natural phenomenon? LSD? Or the real thing?

[Jenny AU-92 0]

I have never seen one, but I believe the possibility exists. I am not so ego-centric that I think God put all his eggs in one basket with us human beans.

[saniflush 0]

I have never seen one, but I believe the possibility exists. I am not so ego-centric that I think God put all his eggs in one basket with us human beans.

What she said.

[AUChizad 0]

In related news...

Clickit

[AU_tiger_2000 0]

I think most UFO's can be explained by natural phenomena, though when I was a kid my Dad and I saw something that I have never been able to explain. The closest I have been able to come to for an explanation is ball lightning but it was moving a lot faster than ball lightning is supposed to.

[otterinbham 0]

I think most UFO's can be explained by natural phenomena, though when I was a kid my Dad and I saw something that I have never been able to explain. The closest I have been able to come to for an explanation is ball lightning but it was moving a lot faster than ball lightning is supposed to.

I would agree. But there are residual videos that can't seem to be explained.

Here's an example taken by a Mexican Air Force pilot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKjD24vr9Bc

[AU_tiger_2000 0]

I think most UFO's can be explained by natural phenomena, though when I was a kid my Dad and I saw something that I have never been able to explain. The closest I have been able to come to for an explanation is ball lightning but it was moving a lot faster than ball lightning is supposed to.

I would agree. But there are residual videos that can't seem to be explained.

Here's an example taken by a Mexican Air Force pilot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKjD24vr9Bc

Pretty cool, but really the shocking thing about that video is that Mexico has an air force. What do they fly? Crop dusters?

[tiger88 934]

I believe that it is very likely that some other form of life exists out there.

When at school at AU me and a buddy saw a funny light that moved from one side of the horizon to the other in a second or less. Freaked us out, but it could have been a shooting star without a tail or something else.

[CCTAU 3,677]

I think most UFO's can be explained by natural phenomena, though when I was a kid my Dad and I saw something that I have never been able to explain. The closest I have been able to come to for an explanation is ball lightning but it was moving a lot faster than ball lightning is supposed to.

Was your anus sore when you woke up?

We cannot be so arrogant as to think we are alone. But is the truth revealed in Independence day or Stargate?

[AURaptor 1,137]

I've seen 2 in my life. The first, when I was around 11-12 yrs old. It looked like an orange meteor, slowly moving across the sky, at night. In reality, it turned out to be a large military cargo plane, moving away from me, with it's engines at full trottle. As it turned, I saw the wings and night lights flashing, and realized what it was. ( So I guess that makes only 1 UFO I saw, the 1st one being an I.F.O ) So the other thing I saw was in broad daylight, about 6 yrs ago. I was riding around 285 in Atlanta, and saw what appeared to be a 20- 30 ft long kite, flying across the interstate. It looked like a Japanese box kite, but it was moving in a straight, horizontal line. Scanning the sky, I couldn't find a 'lead' plane or anything. How this thing could fly along, all on its own, I'll likely never know. As we passed the point it crossed the interstate, I checked to see if it could have been pulled from a car, or something on the ground. Nope. Nothing else in the sky around it, nothing pulling it from the ground, and this thing flew straight as an arrow, dipping up and down, like a serpent, across the sky. Still have no idea what the hell it was.

But I've never seen anything which coudl be mistaken for an alien ship. I've seen a few experiemental planes though, flying out of Peachtree/Dekalb airport. Home made craft which look kinda neat.

[Ranger12 53]

I also think that most sightings can be actually explained as something that originated from earth or a natural phenomenon.

However, I do not discount the existence of intelligent life from other planets. Some Christians have a hard time resolving the possibility of life from other planets with the faith. But as a Christian, I do not see where it is such a hard thing to do. Just because the Bible does not mention life on other planets does not mean it does not exist. Why would we think God needed to tell us about it to begin with?

I have no problem thinking that God may have created others and He gave them the same set of guidelines for living that he gave us. Heck, we know that dinosaurs existed, but the Bible never goes into detail about them except for one little verse that said that "giants roamed the earth". God never told us why the went extinct and we are left to guess what happened to the dinosaurs. So, why would we think that God would not possibly leave us in the dark about alien lifeforms?

As far as witnessing a UFO, well I witnessed something when I was 16. My buddy and I both saw it while camping one night. There was something that was moving across the sky at about the same speed as an airplane, but it looked like it had a red tint and then the tint seemed to change to blue, green, and then back to red. We thought maybe dust in the air was just making it look that way, the same way that stars seem twinkle. Anyway, we noticed that the light started to get a little bigger like it was moving closer to the ground, but at a high rate of speed. Then all of a sudden it stopped and just sit there for a few seconds. Then the freakin' thing shot across the horizon at a speed that no aircraft I knew of could do. The best way to describe the speed and how it looked was like when you see a meteor fall from the sky at night, but it did not look natural at all. My buddy and I could not believe what we saw, but we both came to the understanding that it had to be some sort of military aircraft or some freak act of nature, because we sure the heck was not going to tell anybody that we think we say a flying saucer.

[TitanTiger 21,665]

I don't believe in them.

And why do we always assume that if there is life out there that they have vastly superior technology compared to us that they can reach us in some kind of amazing spacecraft?

[Tigermike 3,903]

If they are out there, it's a little arrogant to think they would want to come see us don't you think?

But to answer your question, no I have never seen one. But I was living in Mobile when Close Encounters of the Third Kind was filmed.

I have seen the northern lights which are spectacular.

I did see some strange lights while camping in the desert back in the 70's. But that's another story.

[DKW 86 7,975]

Once saw a huge green object. I would say it looked like a "Ford" ellipse. It was that glow in the dark green. It ascended over Florence Alabama, over Hickory Hills, May of 1975. It was probably, no kidding here guys, 400'x200' and it backlit the overcast clouds for several minutes. I bet half of my old neighborhood saw it, whatever it was.

It did not move horizontally. It just ascended very slowly thru the clouds. The outside of the hull was completely smooth. No blinking lights, just a medium bright green glow that rose up thru the clouds about 8:30PM.

[Wishbone 0]

Yes, I got within 10 ft of it and had visual contact for about 20 second. It was about 2 foot in diameter and flat/rectangular in shape. It oscilated as it moved. It glowed green and was slightly transparent.

[quietfan 233]

I did see some strange lights while camping in the desert back in the 70's. But that's another story.

To paraphrase Rick James: "Peyote is a hell of a drug".

I've never seen anything strange in the sky, but am totally open to the possiblity. I think the odds are overwhelming in favor of intelligent life elsewhere in the cosmos. Probably there are many intelligent species and at every level of development from stone age to thousands/millions of years more advanced than us. Of course, it's only the advanced ones that might have the technology to reach us.

That being said, I can't say there is any conclusive evidence that they HAVE reached us. At least none of the publicly acknowledged sightings can be said to be conclusively proof of alien ships. [...unless of course the Roswell/MIB conspiracy folks are actually right, not just paranoid, and evidence has been hidden from the public.]

As for why they would want to reach us? I doubt it would be for "Independence Day"-type conquest simply because if they have the technology for intersteller travel, they also probably have the technology to sustain an efficient, renewable resource-type civilization at home much more cheaply than the tremendous energy cost of flying light years away to bring back a small cargo of material, food, or even slaves. I think only natural curiousity or geniune altruism could drive such expense.

Many have argued that the very fact that their civilization lasted long enough to develop interstellar travel without destroying itself would be an indication of a peaceful culture. On the other hand, we know that on earth, in the case of homo sapiens, every time a more advanced culture has come in contact with a less advanced culture, the lesser advanced culture has lost out--even if the more advanced culture had the most peaceful, benevolent of intentions.

[bojack34 2]

Check this out!UFO sighting in China

[AURaptor 1,137]

Just to follow up, the odds of intelligent life detecting our civilzation , traveling the distance from their planet to ours, and then leaving absolutely no physical evidence of their existance..... I'll remain skeptical until one lands in a highly populated area, something comes out and says " Splyxttttth!! " .

[Ranger12 53]

Speaking of the question on why do we assume they would be vastly superior technologically to us, maybe they did not hit the wall with space travel like we seemed to have. We landed on the on the freakin' moon in the late 1960s with technology that we would not even dare use to launch a satellite with now, but yet all we do is now orbit the earth conducting experiments.

Don't get me wrong, I am a big supporter of the space program or I would not be changing careers and going back to school for the education I am getting now. But, does it not seem strange on how we made so many advances in the space program so quickly and then we lost that desire to explore space almost as quickly? I have been told by those that work in the space program, it is not because of lack of vision, but it is because of government bureaucracy at its finest.

Makes me think of a movie I was watching the other day (forget what it was), but it was made back in the 80s, but set in 2000. There were floating cars, lazer guns, and all that neat sci-fi stuff. I couldn't help but laugh at first, then I realized how sad it was that we are not advanced today as anticipated. But on the other hand, things like cell phones, portable media storage, laptops, blackberries, mp3 players, are some pretty advanced gadgets that have developed rather quickly from when the were first introduced to the mainstream consumer.

[TitanTiger 21,665]

But using the principle of Occam's Razor not to mention simply mathematical probability, it's far more likely that if there is life on other planets, they could be far less advanced than we are and have yet to even get out of the discovery of fire stage. Or perhaps the most intelligent life form on that planet thus far didn't discover fire and they died out. Or maybe they're dumb as a bag of doorknobs.

Just sayin'.

[Ranger12 53]

But using the principle of Occam's Razor not to mention simply mathematical probability, it's far more likely that if there is life on other planets, they could be far less advanced than we are and have yet to even get out of the discovery of fire stage. Or perhaps the most intelligent life form on that planet thus far didn't discover fire and they died out. Or maybe they're dumb as a bag of doorknobs.

Just sayin'.

..."the simplest solution is usually the best one". True in many cases, but, if the great 14th century Padre was alive today, he may not think so when it comes to aerospace engineering and astrophysics.

[TitanTiger 21,665]

But using the principle of Occam's Razor not to mention simply mathematical probability, it's far more likely that if there is life on other planets, they could be far less advanced than we are and have yet to even get out of the discovery of fire stage. Or perhaps the most intelligent life form on that planet thus far didn't discover fire and they died out. Or maybe they're dumb as a bag of doorknobs.

Just sayin'.

..."the simplest solution is usually the best one". True in many cases, but, if the great 14th century Padre was alive today, he may not think so when it comes to aerospace engineering and astrophysics.

All kidding aside, that's still assuming that whatever life is out there has the capacity to understand physics or is even curious enough to care.

[Ranger12 53]

Oh, very true. I do believe there is life on other planets, but intelligent life is another question. If there is intelligent life out there and they are capable of space travel to earth from another galaxy, more then likely they would have had to been around for hundreds or even thousands of years before humanity.

If there is intelligent life in another galaxy somewhere, I doubt they do not have the desire to explore space one day. I would like to think that any intelligent life form has the same desire to explore just as humanity does. Heck, even the animals on our planet have a natural instinct to explore, just not at the level that humans do.

Of course, then that opens up a debate on what you consider "intelligent life". Some say dolphins and whales are intelligent, but do they have a desire to explore anything beyond the ocean?

[GalensGhost 0]

I'm not entirely convinced there's intelligent life on this planet.

[AU_tiger_2000 0]

Don't get me wrong, I am a big supporter of the space program or I would not be changing careers and going back to school for the education I am getting now. But, does it not seem strange on how we made so many advances in the space program so quickly and then we lost that desire to explore space almost as quickly? I have been told by those that work in the space program, it is not because of lack of vision, but it is because of government bureaucracy at its finest.

Ding ding ding! Two thing were different back then.

1. NASA had virtually unlimited funding. If you needed an exotic material or a better rocket engine you got it. The only limit on the rocket was the engineer's creativity and the current limits of technology. If you wasn't sure how something would act you tested it and if you destroyed it in doing so you just went back to the drawing board. Nowadays you have to document everything you need and the budget is a big driver in rocket design. Testing has been cut back to only the what absolutely has to be tested to get things qualified for flight.

2. In the '60's all the astronauts were military personnel and were not viewed as scientists in the way they are today, they were looked at as soldiers in the fight against communism. When Apollo I burned with all men on board it set about a redesign but not one day was lost wondering if we should continue with our mission. After the Challenger and Columbia disasters virtually two years were lost in the advancement of space flight and the mission of NASA was seriously questioned.