hastalavista2u

>Not sure if this is the right forum,but the other night I think I saw a UFO.
I was walking along the road near my house,and suddenly saw what appeared to be a shooting star in front of me near the horizon.
Then a few seconds later i looked to my left and saw it again.
I say 'it',because i didn't think shooting stars went sideways?
Basically,it just zoomed across the sky for about 1-1/2 seconds and then disappeared.

But after a few minutes of looking all around,i never saw any more.
So it just seemed kind of strange to see those two in the same general area,and then seeing no more?

Anyway,regardless of what it was,i was just wondering how atheists viewed the whole UFO phenomena and what it means to them in general,if anything?
Of course any comments are welcome,but a good argument for or against the existence of extra-terrestrials would be nice.
Unlike God,it seems we have a bit more 'proof' to go by in this case,if you count all the alleged eye-witnesses down through the years.

Another question would be,if THEY are out there,then are they similar to us as far as being 'evolved' as many think we are?

Shadowy Man

I think Richard Feynman summed up my feelings best when he said:


P.S. The most commonly reported UFO is the planet Venus.

[ December 17, 2002: Message edited by: Shadowy Man ]</p>

Mageth

I say 'it',because i didn't think shooting stars went sideways?
Basically,it just zoomed across the sky for about 1-1/2 seconds and then disappeared.

A meteor, no doubt. They can appear to go "sideways" across the sky, depending on one's relative position. I once saw one streak across the sky for several seconds in daylight. An impressive sight, needless to say.

And what Feynman said.

Plebe

I remain agnostic on the matter but some of the info online and reported experiences of friends are interesting to speculate on; until we have 'hard evidence' none of us really knows.

In the 1940's or 50's according to a WWII Veteran who was there at the time, our White House was 'buzzed' by a 'V' shaped cluster of disk shaped UFO's which none of our Air Force jets at the time could chase. The Veteran relates these had no lights, only a cold metallic exterior. He says they must be so advanced as to not need lights or windows as we know them and frankly states after this direct sighting 'No, we really are not alone and there are things out there that are definitely not from down here.'

Here are some sites if you like to pique your curiosity some more:

<a href="http://www.blackvault.com" target="_blank">http://www.blackvault.com</a>

<a href="http://www.roswellproof.com" target="_blank">http://www.roswellproof.com</a>

<a href="http://www.artbell.com" target="_blank">http://www.artbell.com</a> [home of the recent posting of al-Qaeda prisoners by an unknown photographer. This incident set off a flurry of investigation by the FBI and Pentagon since Art Bell had no idea who sent it in or that it was an 'illegal' photo.

[ December 17, 2002: Message edited by: Plebe ]</p>

Godless Dave

Shooting stars can easily appear to be going sideways; I've seen it myself. It all depends on the angle it entered the atmosphere and the angle you're observing it from.

As to your other questions:
I view it as another widespread delusion. Confused or mentally ill people tell stories; impressionable people believe them and spread them. It's been happening for all of human history. Remember, hundreds of people claimed to have seen Elvis alive in the 80s.
Well whether extra-terrestrials exist is a completely different question from whether they've visited the earth. My personal inkling is that there is almost certainly life elsewhere because it happened once and the universe is huge, with lots of yellow stars with planets. Not as sure about sentient life but I think that's likely too, since sentience seems to confer a big survival advantage.

But by the same reasoning I think it's very unlikely that such life has ever visited earth, and I'm positive it isn't in the process of visiting us now. The universe is, as I said, huge. Just as I think there are many planets capable of supporting life there are many, many more star systems that aren't. Even if life were "common" in the universe we could be the only civilization in our galaxy. Even if we're not, anybody more than 90 or so light years from earth would have no idea we are here (just as we have no idea they are there). And even if they did, they would have to have extremely advanced technology to be able to travel that distance.

To sum up, existence of extra-terrestrials, probably but there's no direct evidence. Extra-terrestrials visiting earth, no way.

Walross

While I suspect that the universe is probably brimming over with extra-terrestrial life, this is separate from the much more doubtful question of whether or not we're being visited by unearthly beings.

When did you see these objects? Maybe there was a meteor shower taking place. Regards,

Walross

Edited to add: D'oh! Cross-posted with Dave.

[ December 17, 2002: Message edited by: Walross ]</p>

Tom Sawyer

It was probably just a bit of rock or debris that broke up in the atmosphere, which is why you saw two of them.

Personally, I see the UFO stuff the same way that I see the God stuff. Things much more powerful than us who don't reveal themselves to us directly and act in mysterious ways, blah, blah, blah. I remember reading something from Carl Sagan where he talked about how the ET sightings are exactly the same as demonic sightings used to be before science became more of the context through which people saw things instead of religion.

In terms of the eye-witness accounts, I don't buy them and God has the same things going for Him and he's fake too.

Jamie_L

You DEFINITELY saw a UFO. That is, an unidentified flying object. Interesting that people call them UFOs after concluding they are spacecraft. Once you classify it as a spacecraft, it's no longer unidentified.

Which is a semantic game that doesn't answer your question. But it was fun.

Check out the <a href="http://skepdic.com/ufos_ets.html" target="_blank">UFOs entry</a> in the <a href="http://skepdic.com/" target="_blank">Skeptic's Dictionary</a>. Always a good source for a summary of the skeptical viewpoint on various topics.

Jamie

Shadowy Man

That was in The Demon Haunted World, a book that should be required reading for everyone.

Kosh

"He is intelligent, but not experienced. His pattern indicates 2 dimensional thinking." - Spock, Wrath of Khan