CIA admits to being responsible for at least half of UFO sightings in the 50s and 60s

[longship]

375. But this ignores the undoubted fact that space aliens are not visiting Earth.

And that fact is demonstrable.

And trotting out Jimmy Carter is just a sleezy argument from authority, just as putting forth police officers, airline pilots, military pilots, and all the other anecdotal evidence which, if one understands science, one should know is utterly worthless.

Plus, then there's all the made up bullshit flooding the Internet, like that idiot Billy Meier with his UFO dangling from a string and his alien babes "Asket and Nera" who somehow resemble pictures from a television set of dancers on a Dean Martin television series, which has been shown to be actually where the pic came from.

Before one can establish a new phenomenon (space aliens are visting Earth), one must establish what evidence suffices to support such a hypothesis. The problem is that the UFO believer kooks -- the only applicable description -- never step up to that line. They merely mine for anecdotes and anomalies and trot those out as evidence. Which they are not.

But here's what science says:

1. It is highly likely that life exists out there, even intelligent life.

2. The distances between intelligent life bearing planets is likely rather large. This goes way beyond the 4+ light years to the nearest star.

3. Travel between stars is an extremely costly endeavor, either in energy or time. (Take your pick; it's either one or the other and there are no saving throws.)

4. There are thousands of both amateur and professional astronomers looking at the sky 24 hours of the day. If there were alien space ships visiting Earth, certainly there would be evidence beyond the somehow always blurry disks -- yes, they are always disks for some bizarre reason -- imaged by the UFO kooks.

5. UFO culture seems to follow popular culture. Flying saucers came into vogue when a witness claimed that it "was shaped like a boomerang and moved like a saucer". It was reported as a flying saucer in the press in spite of the fact that the witness described it as boomerang shape, a media report fail that lives in popular culture to this day. There are many other cultural influences which have changed UFO culture, most importantly Spielberg's "Close Encounters".

Therefore, UFOs are a cultural effect, not a real one. Certainly it is interesting and fun to discuss. I like science fiction as much as many. But if there are space aliens visiting Earth, they certainly are not landing at the Ellipse on the Mall in Washington, DC. Why would they only show themselves to rural loser hicks?

BTW, there is nothing I would like better than for there to be proof of alien life in outer space -- as long as they do not bring a book entitled "To Serve Man". But science has had top people working on this very problem for many decades. Alas! There is zero evidence, no matter what the UFO kooks state.