Do you believe in UFOs?

[MikeG]

[Rick Myers]

1. I have TWICE observed objects

for extended periods of time that could not have possibly been terrestrial aircraft of any kind.

I don't know WHAT they were, but they were NOT aircraft or natural objects.

[Lorien]

57. Four times here

the first was when I was 5 years old, the last was about eight years ago. all except one were seen with several other witnesses, many of the strangers, and all occurred in well populated areas. Funny thing is, I didn't "believe" in UFO until the third sighting; I'm just a die hard skeptic by nature (and no, I don't do drugs or drink).

[indianablue]

2. Yes... OBJECT that is FLYING can be UNIDENTIFIED..so yes nt

[CityZen-X]

6. Witnessed To A UFO

On highway 5, 3:am one morning at Coalinga, Ca. I was 1oo-yards from one. I was sober and my vision was perfect. It was huge, vivid, and for real!!
Never will I forget that morning as long as I live. My wife was with me and was witness to the event also.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

26. I've seen two. Once when I was a teen and at a distance. Then again

about 15 years ago right outside my home. Lowflying, slow moving, nary a sound, surrounded by lights. Several of my neighbors saw it with me.

[Stop_the_War]

3. I have seen one.

[Stirk]

4. Of course.

I myself have seen several things I couldn't immediately identify. They turned out to be jets. But they were UFO's for a few seconds.

Do I believe that aliens visit earth? No.

[DrWeird]

5. Sure, I once saw one.

Turned out to be a full moon.

Do I believe aliens are visiting the Earth in flying saucers? No, and I think people who do are, frankly, morons.

[Pepperbelly]

8. you believe a lot then, partner.

Morons?

I think you should reconsider your intellectual hubris. The very remark you made paints a very dim picture of your own intelligence.

[DrWeird]

10. No.

I don't think so.

[Pepperbelly]

11. then you would be wrong.

Of course, as thick and ordinary as you seem, I do not doubt that you are unable to visualize the extent of your own hubris.

[DrWeird]

12. Did I hit the nail a little too close to the head?

You seem to be taking something a little personally.

There are a lot of morons in the world.

There are people who vote for George Dubya Bush.

There are people who believe that Iraq was responsible for 9-11.

There are people who believe in the mystical powers of crystals, chemtrails, chupacabras, and that aliens are visiting the Earth in flying saucers.

[xray s]

15. I had the Chicken Chupacabra at Taco Bell the other day

MMmmmmmm....tasty!

[Pepperbelly]

17. I think that you are ...

clearly someone who, on this subject, does not know your asshole from your elbow. And someone who mocks others, while declaiming their own intellectual superiority over people who may believe something different from them, is both naracisstic and insulting. So, continue to do so as you will but realize this: there are those who know more than you on a variety of subjects and your crowing serves only to expose your own shortcomings.

It is very easy to make these sorts of intemperate remarks on the internet. And that is what this is ... anonymous macho and posturing. I suspect that you have never called someone who voted for Bush a moron to their face in the real world. Only a fool would interact with people in that fashion.

[DrWeird]

19. No, I've never actually called a Bush supporter a moron to their face.

But then again, I haven't had a real opportunity to do so. And if I did, I doubt I'd just stick with "moron."

Regardless, they are morons. Same with people who believe in chemtrails, or homeopathy, or that the troops in Iraq are fighting for our freedoms, or any of a number of stupid beliefs that make people morons.

""I think that you are clearly someone who, on this subject, does not know your asshole from your elbow. And someone who mocks others, while declaiming their own intellectual superiority over people who may believe something different from them, is both naracisstic and insulting."

I believe the term is "narcissistic," you know, after Narcissis. Oh, and it's also spelled "pot" and "kettle."

fyi

[Pepperbelly]

21. whatever ...

But for you to sit there behind your little monitor and call the good people posting on this very thread morons is beyond the pale. And I suspect that your big mouth stops at your front door when you leave your house in the morning.

[DrWeird]

49. Hey, I'm not calling anybody on this board anything.

But if anybody who believes that aliens are visiting the Earth in flying saucers was offended, well, I stick by my original post.

[Skip Intro]

65. Pepperbelly

you effin' rock!

[HysteryDiagnosis]

29. or homeopathy

Yupper.... even congress has been exposed to some of this knowledge... but as you said, there's nothing to it at all.

>>Its a historical interest that the first use of a homeopathic preparation of an infectious agent, which are
called nosodes was done in 1830 by the German veterinarian Wilhelm Lux who?d reported
using anthrosynam which is derived from Anthrax for the prevention of Anthrax in animals. Data
collected from conventional, compared to homeopathic hospitals in the last century when it was
prominent, about 100 years ago, reported much lower mortality rate in homeopathic hospitals during
epidemics of small pox, scarlet fever, yellow fever, diphtheria, cholera and influenza. I refer you to the
testimony of Joyce Frye for a more complete discussion of this literature. But an example of this is a
comparison done in Ohio of 20--in 1920?s of 24,000 cases of influenza treated with conventional
therapy compared to 26,000 approximately treated with homeopathy. The mortality in the conventional
was 28 percent and the homeopathy was about 1 percent.<<

[DrWeird]

51. Plenty of morons in Congress.

Why they're supposed to be any kind of standard, I haven't the foggiest.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

64. They aren't the standard, what was stated was... facts are stubborn

things so they say.... so are some peoples' viewpoints on topics they don't understand.

Its a historical interest that the first use of a homeopathic preparation of an infectious agent, which are
called nosodes was done in 1830 by the German veterinarian Joseph Wilhelm Lux who'd reported
using anthrosynam which is derived from Anthrax for the prevention of Anthrax in animals. Data
collected from conventional, compared to homeopathic hospitals in the last century when it was
prominent, about 100 years ago, reported much lower mortality rate in homeopathic hospitals during
epidemics of small pox, scarlet fever, yellow fever, diphtheria, cholera and influenza. I refer you to the
testimony of Joyce Frye for a more complete discussion of this literature. But an example of this is a
comparison done in Ohio of 20--in 1920's of 24,000 cases of influenza treated with conventional
therapy compared to 26,000 approximately treated with homeopathy. The mortality in the conventional
was 28 percent and the homeopathy was about 1 percent.

[tinfoilinfor2005]

70. I totally agree

I am presently channeling Winston Churchill and he say's he agrees with you too.

[jayfish]

52. Color Me A Moran Then.

I've seen them and like the Sheriff's Deputy I just watched on ABC, I would testify to it in a court of law.

Jay

[Beetwasher]

7. There Are Lot's Of UFO's

I doubt any of them are extraterrestial craft though...I've yet to seen convincing evidence.

[Dem2theMax]

9. Would the person, ahem, alien, who identified himself/herself as an alien,

GET ME THE HELL OFF THIS PLANET till the * regime is gone?

Thank you. :)

[Broca]

13. Have never encountered one or heard a convincing argument

for their existence on earth. Carl Sagan and many scientists argue that statistically life on other worlds likely exists but also present good reasons as to why you will not see them here.

Perhaps like a few here if I were to have a personal encounter I might give up my disbelieving ways so if you see any of these things (or a bigfoot) feel free to send them my way.

[gratuitous]

14. May I just say . . .

Who gives a happy rat's ass?

Sorry. I know that ABCNews is breathlessly covering this major issue, and everyone's supposed to have an opinion and everything, but golly, wouldn't it be nice if the nightly news actually had some, I don't know, NEWS???

[NoMoreMrNiceGuy]

16. In this day and age there are still people who don't believe?????

Get over...they are out there. Those that still don't believe remind me of those who took forever to realize the world isn't flat and its not the center of the universe. Wake up and smell the coffee. There are suns out there a billion years older than ours...so guaranteed there are are civilizations millions of years older than our own. Think they might know a little bit more about physics than we do....HUH Einstein...what do ya think...time to get real.

[K-W]

20. Get over what, that you dont understand science?

Please dont compare the result of scientific discovery to a flight of imagination with a badly fitting set of facts thrown against it.

[Pepperbelly]

22. have you researched this topic?

Or do you merely bow in the direction of Sagen's fucking grave and recite the cant with the others?

Geez ... :eyes:

[K-W]

28. Ive never read a word Carl Sagen has written.

And when you learn the magic of parsimony we can talk about the 'science' of UFO's.

[Pepperbelly]

31. about what I expected ...

a Sagen devotee who has all the tools in the world to disassemble the phenomenom and yet leaves all of them in the box when it comes to something outside your personal beliefs.

Whatever.


btw: go here and then tell me I'm a moron.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=247x789

[K-W]

33. How can I be a Sagen devotee when I know next to nothing about him?

I guess you wont let the facts get in the way of the conclusions you jumped to.

My personal beliefs? What on earth are those? I believe in the validity of reason. Thats about it.

But youve created a comfortable fiction in your head of exactly why it is I dont see the obvious truth that you see.

[Pepperbelly]

34. did you follow my link?

Or are you just going sit there WALLOWING in your Sagen-love?

[K-W]

36. Why would I follow a link given to me by someone

that is either not reading my posts, screwing with me, or insane?

[Pepperbelly]

38. {{sigh}}

what the fuck ever.

:eyes:

[K-W]

42. Read your posts, you dont have to take my word for it.

I dont know what your obsession is with Carl Sagan, but I know next to nothing about the man. Ive never read, nor am I familar with his work. I dont know anything about Carl Sagan, I am not and never have been even remotely a devotee. All you have done in this conversation is assume you are right and make untrue claims and insinuations about me and you want me to take you seriously?

[Pepperbelly]

44. {{sigh. sigh}}

Remind me to never initiate a conversation with your thick self again. Scratch that. It's been traumatic enough that I'll remember. Tell that to your dead fucking hero Sagen.

[DrWeird]

53. Sagan. Two "a's"

Tell that to the invisible alien overlords.

[Pepperbelly]

56. which direction is his grave from you?

I am certain that you will know.

And I'm interested.

[DrWeird]

74. Due east.

Ithaca, New York.

Had to google it.

In which four directions is Gene Ray related to you?

[AZCat]

35. You need a...

Of course, this one has been customized, but I'm sure we could get one to fit the circumstances. :)

[Pepperbelly]

40. but Keitaro IS a pervert.

Don't you know fucking ANYTHING?

[AZCat]

41. That's not the one I got

But I don't see why we can't beat on Keitaro, AND proclaim his perversity at the same time.

Damn that Keitaro! :)

[Pepperbelly]

43. you gotta watch him.

The son of a bitch.

[AZCat]

45. Yeah, but he never fails to cheer me up.

When the world is getting me down, I just take a little hop and know that Keitaro's world is much, much worse than mine. Imagine all these net denziens constantly using his mat - the cumulative effect must be enormous!

Too bad we can't get some sort of interactive thing going on - remember the guy with the internet hunting gig?

[Pepperbelly]

47. vaguely but that is true of many things. nt

[tridim]

24. Are you a member of the flat space society?

:)

[BBradley]

71. Now I believe that there is probably "intelligent" life out there

I just don't see any damn proof that they've ever visited the Earth. I think people who do believe that they have seen a UFO piloted by an extra terrestrial are (mix and match if you wish) lying, jumping to conclusions, mentally ill, craving attention, have false memories, have a hidden agenda.

So I don't think most people are really that skeptical about other intelligent beings in the universe. I consider myself a pretty die-hard skeptic, and even I believe in the existance of extraterrestrial life. I just don't believe they're stopping by for a quick probe and a spot of tea.

[tridim]

18. Yes.. Saw one (along with hundreds of other people) in 1988

in Kansas City. It was a beaut. The military gave two explanations, one was premature, "We're conducting tests in the area" and later, the official explanation of, "It was a Russian booster rocket re-entering the atomosphere".. Bzzzt.. Boosters don't re-enter from the north (especially Russian boosters over the US), and they tend to have a downward trajectory. This UFO didn't, it traveled slowly from horizon to horizon. Try again guys. Until I get a good explanation, I saw a genuine UFO.

[Democrat Dragon]

23. Yes, but "UFO" simply means it is unidentified, not that it's an

alien spaceship or something. If you cannot identify a flying object, it is an unidentified flying object-a UFO.

[Pepperbelly]

25. read this ...

and tell me that.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=247x789

[AZCat]

30. It's just a term

An alien spaceship - after being identified as such - would no longer be a UFO because of the Unidentified part of the term.

UFOs do exist - but alien spaceships are not necessarily the explanation behind them.

[Pepperbelly]

46. ok ...

maybe you would react to this then. Your Sagen-loving buddy above doesn't deign to, I suppose because he fears it might denigrate the Carny from Cornell.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=247x789

(p.s. I don't rember if Sagen was actually from Cornell although a vague memory tells me he was and it's really not important enough to boot another window to see so sue me if I'm wrong.)

[AZCat]

48. I read it when you originally posted it

What kind of a reaction do you want?

Sure, it's a UFO, but what was it? I don't know. You were there, you would be a better judge than me.

But until there is some sort of an explanation of what it was - whether weather or alien spacecraft/lifeform or Skunkworks testing planes - it remains a UFO.

[cynatnite]

27. I don't know

I voted other because I just don't know. I've never seen one and I've heard plenty of stories from people who seem to be credible. I don't feel comfortable calling them liars or think they were under the influence of anything.

I would prefer it to be true. Many christians think this world is the only one with life and I would love to throw it in their faces. Some need to know this little rock isn't the center of the universe.

[DuaneBidoux]

32. I voted no because I presumed you meant space ships from strange

and wonderful advanced civilizations far away. However I did see a UFO yesterday, that on very close examination proved to be a hot air balloon with a kind of metallic commercial sheen.

I've often wondered if in fact these creatures that visit us aren't time travelers (our descendents) trying to figure out how in the hell we made it through this period full of idiot fascists on all continents. At least that's what I hope they are, because I'd like to believe we make it.

[Celeborn Skywalker]

37. I don't know where flying saucers exist or if aliens have visited or not,

but I do think there are probably advanced lifeforms out there somewhere.

[charlie]

39. Believe?

Can't say that I have a belief in any popular explanations for UFOs, but I've been lucky enough to have seen weird somethings in the sky on 3 remarkable occasions, once alone, once with 6 other witnesses, and once with 3. What they were, I have no idea.

[signmike]

50. At the risk of being called a name by someone who should know,

I have on maybe 10 or 12 occasions seen lights in the sky, daytime and night time, which I cannot explain. I have not been abducted, experimented upon, seen cigar shaped objects nor saucer shaped ones...never seen an E.T., never seen one of these up close. I have yet to discover any new metallic objects stronger and lighter than anything on Earth, with or without strange indecipherable markings thereupon. I even missed out on Skylab.
I do not know what they are, but I have to wonder.

Don't you love it when the government has several experts each with a different story on any sighting? One says there was no such object, "Mass Hysteria", another says it was a weather balloon, another that it was swamp gas - another claims all those air force pilots, sober police and hundreds of witnesses were "Chasing Venus around in the sky", and that "they do that all the time".
Sure. I figure if the government denies it, it must be true.

:shrug:

[catbert836]

54. I think intelligent life is out there somewhere,

but I can't say whether or not they have visited us yet. I'd like to believe everything that UFO witnesses have seen, but I also realize that people can be decieved (by their own body), or just lie to get attention and forge things to prove it. So the answer is I don't know, but I want to believe. Call me alien agnostic.

[Walt Starr]

55. I chose other

I know for a fact people see flying objects they cannot identify every day.

That said, the probability that any unidentified flying object is an extraterrestrial visiting our planet is extremely minute.

[Minstrel Boy]

58. I do, but I like Jacques Vallee's take on the subject.

Like Vallee, I don't accept the presumption that they must be the vehicles of extraterrestrial visitors. I think they are much more mysterious than that.

Extradimensional, more like it.

[Cush]

59. Yes

[gulfcoastliberal]

60. Where there's smoke, there's fire

Why does the FAA and CIA have directives for UFO reporting? Why is it CIA SOP to publicly discredit sightings through their lapdog media? I don'tknow if I go whole hog into the Majestic thing, but I definitely think the UFOs are indeed otherworldly. I think anyone who believes we are the only "intelligent" life in the universe are morons.

[scarletwoman]

61. Voted "Other" -- I really don't care.

I have no problem at all in speculating that there is other sentient life in the Universe. I take it as a given -- to me it's utterly absurd to presume that in the entire cosmos, only ONE small rocky spheroid on the outskirts of ONE minor galaxy has what it takes to develop sentient biological forms.

But, UFO's of "alien" origin? Who cares? Unless and until these purported "visitors" make their presence known unambiguously, like establishing a clearly identifiable diplomatic mission to the world at large -- sending a delegation to the UN, for instance -- their existence or non-existence has no real bearing on the fate of our planet.

That fate, as always, lies in OUR hands.

sw

[johnnie]

62. I saw one

Years ago. What I don't get is how some people can rely so much on "science". Science is bullshit. It's a decent way to study some things, but to actually believe that man is so intelligent that we can only prove what is "real" by the means of science seems a little naive to me.
I'm not knocking scientists or the people who dig science, I just believe that it is not as superior as people like to believe. I still believe that man is basically at the beginning of their existence.

[Baclava]

63. Oh yes! I've seen one...

...(why else would I be saying "yes"?)

[HalfManHalfBiscuit]

66. Scientologists sure do

As do other UFO/Alien cults: Raelians, the Hale-Bopp Comet Suicide Squad, and others.

Because I am not a cultie and there is no proof that aliens exist, I would have to say no.

Realizing, of course, that strictly speaking a UFO is just something flying that has not been identified.

[ghostsofgiants]

67. I believe in UFOs and I believe there is extraterrestrial life somewhere

However, I do not necessarily believe that UFOs (unidentified flying objects) are necessarily extraterrestrial spacecraft nor do I really believe that extraterrestrials are visiting earth.

It's a fascinating notion though and I've been interested in such things since I was really young.

[immoderate]

72. Agree. There are unexplained phenomena, but

they are not extraterrestrials. There would be traces or other corroborating evidence. I know that the true believers have an answer to every objection, but when you add up all the qualifiers, "they" would have to have the powers of gods to get here undetected. So then you get into, "if they're so good at hiding, why do they sometimes slip up and let us see them, when they don't slip up and drop an artifact?" Yeah, they're playing with us, blah blah.

OK, there are about 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars. How did they happen to find us? We've only been sending electromagnetic signals for 150 years. They would have to be within 150 light years to know about us. Therefore we would be able to detect them. To refute this would be to accord them with unimaginable super scientific acumen. They would have to have absolute control over matter and energy. Like moving and hiding black holes. And colonizing millions of stars, without leaving energy trails. That's out there. And the more you pile on the conditions, the smaller the probabilities that the LGMs are coming.

And why would they? What are they going to learn from us? I love those stories of abduction, where they control the subject's mind and memory, and levitate the subject into the space ship, to do what? Stick a finger in his butt?

Are there other civilizations out there? Probably. Are they visiting? I think not.

--IMM

[DemoTex]

68. Not in our airspace!

I've got 40 years in our skies. Over 17,000 hours. And I ain't seen shit! Karl? Trof? Other bone-fide pilots? Are we blind?

[Pepperbelly]

73. Gordo Cooper sure say them ...

And Gordo just about hung the moon for me. He was the cat's pajamas and no one sez anything bad about him in front of me.

[Deja Q]

69. Only if they believe in me first.

</ego>

:7

[Stop_the_War]

75. I believe in aliens, but not alien abductions.

There is no proof of abductions, and there is a psychological explanation for them. I think it's called sleep paralysis disorder or something. When you sleep your body is paralyzed, and people with this disorder wake up while they're still paralyzed and they start seeing things with their imagination, usually a creature of some sorts. This happened in the 1500s with incubi and succubi demons. And now it's happening with aliens.

But I do believe there are intelligent civilizations out there in the universe.

But there is one theory I used to have, that aliens in fact were distant time-travelers, who represented a future humanity that was very evolved.

[CornField]

76. I think it is arrogant for us to sit here with all we know about the

great expanse "out there" and claim that we are the only intelligent forms of life.

[arwalden]

78. But Not Believing In Extraterrestrial Visitors Isn't The Same Thing As...

denying the possibility that intelligent life forms exist elsewhere in the cosmos.

[arwalden]

77. Depends On What You Mean. Literal UFO's? or Extraterrestrial Spaceships??

There are many things that are UFO's... in the strictest literal sense, they are flying... and they are unidentified. So sure, I believe in the existence of flying objects that are not identified.

I **DO NOT** believe that Extraterrestrial Spaceships have visited our planet.

[China_cat]

79. I voted other because I believe in UFO's

I just don't believe they automatically mean flying saucers and little green/gray men.

U=UNIDENTIFIED.

[Bridget Burke]

80. Unidentified Flying Objects? sure...

Undiscovered natural phenomena, military secrets--there are several possibilities.

But--do I belive the Saucer Brotherhood is Here to Save Us? Not really. Too many of the abduction tales resemble old stories of travelers captured by the Faerie. Lost time, sexual contact & all.

I like the Fortean way of looking into the odd & unusual.

[ProfessorGAC]

81. How Can You NOT Believe In Them?

UFO and "flying saucer" aren't absolutely synomomous. UFO means something in the sky that can't be IDENTIFIED.

There has to have been things at some point that were seen and not fully understood. A flock of birds in a strange formation showing up on radar and looking like a slow moving or nearly hovering craft, is a UFO, potentially. That doesn't make it an alien craft, but it's still unidentified.

A special spy plane or a stealth aircraft seen by someone who wasn't supposed to see it yet, would be a UFO. But, it's not extraterrestrial.

So, we HAVE to believe in UFO's. But, we don't have to believe in alien spacecraft.
The Professor

[barb162]

82. saw one once several years ago

[steve2470]

83. Does George Bush count as a UFO ? nt

[UdoKier]

84. I put NO. (assuming you mean alien flying saucers)

Of course there ARE unidentified objects. But I think they are of terrestrial or natural origin.

I do believe there are alien spaceships. In a universe this vast, it's almost certain that there are a race of beings SOMEWHERE who have mastered some level of space flight.

I just think it's unlikely that they have found a way around the law of physics that says you cannot travel faster than the speed of light so that they could travel here. If they're out there, they are on the other side of the galaxy, or even in another galaxy. And I'm sure they have better things to do than kidnap toothless hillbillies and stick tubes up their butts.