What do you think about this story?

[fauxmaha]

The whole "UFO or not" thing has always struck me as really, really dumb.

And by "UFO", I mean something like "aliens from outside the planet sending spacecraft to do whatever it is aliens do when they come to Earth".

There is always an undercurrent along the lines of "the government knows about them/is working in concert with them to do something bad/etc".

I don't believe for one moment that the government (or any organization for that matter) is any where near competent enough to actually keep a secret of this magnitude for more than about seven minutes. I don't think such a secret can be kept.

If there are aliens from other planets on the Earth, I accept that we are powerless to keep them from doing what they want to do (unless, of course, the micro organisms in our atmosphere save us), so we might hope that they are friendly and benign.

But I don't believe that aliens have ever or will ever come to the Earth. I think if such a thing was going to happen, it would have happened, and if it happened, we would know. 

[epaul]

If the claimed UFO sightings and episodes are truly the result of encounters with alien beings, I do feel safe in making one observation; they may have more advanced aircraft, but we have it all over them in terms of maturity. Sixty years of vandalizing crops, tipping cows, playing doctor with sheep and lonely women, scaring old ladies and buzzing airplanes? That's it? What a disappointing, irresponsible, bunch of little perverts.

[majorminor]

Dec 19, 2017 11:08:01 GMT -5 epaul said:

playing doctor with sheep and women

Don't forget about Bubba and Cooter.

(majorminor rushes off to file a trademark patent for Alien Lube™)

[majorminor]

Oh, and like you haven't listed both of those things as qualifications on a job application before. Pffft.

[epaul]

I knew those half-dozen or three moments of candor would come back to bite me.

But, the human race would never send someone like me out into the universe to make contact with other life forms. No, we send forth cool stuff like Voyager and re-runs of Petticoat Junction.

No, from all indications, we have it all over these disappointing irresponsible screwballs from space.

[Marshall]

Dec 19, 2017 10:47:58 GMT -5 fauxmaha said:

The whole "UFO or not" thing has always struck me as really, really dumb.

And by "UFO", I mean something like "aliens from outside the planet sending spacecraft to do whatever it is aliens do when they come to Earth".

There is always an undercurrent along the lines of "the government knows about them/is working in concert with them to do something bad/etc".

I don't believe for one moment that the government (or any organization for that matter) is any where near competent enough to actually keep a secret of this magnitude for more than about seven minutes. I don't think such a secret can be kept.

If there are aliens from other planets on the Earth, I accept that we are powerless to keep them from doing what they want to do (unless, of course, the micro organisms in our atmosphere save us), so we might hope that they are friendly and benign.

But I don't believe that aliens have ever or will ever come to the Earth. I think if such a thing was going to happen, it would have happened, and if it happened, we would know. 

Why would anyone go through the gargantuan effort of traveling across space (and time) and get somewhere, and then turn around and head back without so much as stopping for a beer and a brat?


It makes no sense whatsoever. That's not intelligent life, if you ask me.

[fauxmaha]

Dec 19, 2017 12:01:10 GMT -5 Marshall said:

Dec 19, 2017 10:47:58 GMT -5 fauxmaha said:

The whole "UFO or not" thing has always struck me as really, really dumb.

And by "UFO", I mean something like "aliens from outside the planet sending spacecraft to do whatever it is aliens do when they come to Earth".

There is always an undercurrent along the lines of "the government knows about them/is working in concert with them to do something bad/etc".

I don't believe for one moment that the government (or any organization for that matter) is any where near competent enough to actually keep a secret of this magnitude for more than about seven minutes. I don't think such a secret can be kept.

If there are aliens from other planets on the Earth, I accept that we are powerless to keep them from doing what they want to do (unless, of course, the micro organisms in our atmosphere save us), so we might hope that they are friendly and benign.

But I don't believe that aliens have ever or will ever come to the Earth. I think if such a thing was going to happen, it would have happened, and if it happened, we would know. 

Why would anyone go through the gargantuan effort of traveling across space (and time) and get somewhere, and then turn around and head back without so much as stopping for a beer and a brat?


It makes no sense whatsoever. That's not intelligent life, if you ask me.

Plus, speaking as someone who has been to the Earth, I can tell them that it really isn't all that interesting.

Maybe that's the real answer. Any truly intelligent life would never bother.

[Village Idiot]

Dec 19, 2017 11:08:01 GMT -5 epaul said:

If the claimed UFO sightings and episodes are truly the result of encounters with alien beings, I do feel safe in making one observation; they may have more advanced aircraft, but we have it all over them in terms of maturity. Sixty years of vandalizing crops, tipping cows, playing doctor with sheep and lonely women, scaring old ladies and buzzing airplanes? That's it? What a disappointing, irresponsible, bunch of little perverts.

Love this.

[millring]

I KNOW there are aliens in our midst. LJ is from Kentucky.

[Deleted]

Dec 18, 2017 12:13:56 GMT -5 AlanC said:

abcnews.go.com/US/navy-pilot-recalls-encounter-ufo-unlike/story?id=51856514

I'm skeptical as it's hard to get around the distances to other solar systems and the pesky speed-of-light limitations but it is interesting.

I agree and the one thing that all unidentified objects have in common is that they are always unidentified. I've always wondered what if there are lots of alien races but the reason we have never met any is we are the most advanced. I mean someone has to be.  

[Deleted]

Dec 19, 2017 11:08:01 GMT -5 epaul said:

If the claimed UFO sightings and episodes are truly the result of encounters with alien beings, I do feel safe in making one observation; they may have more advanced aircraft, but we have it all over them in terms of maturity. Sixty years of vandalizing crops, tipping cows, playing doctor with sheep and lonely women, scaring old ladies and buzzing airplanes? That's it? What a disappointing, irresponsible, bunch of little perverts.

There's a good sci fi story in which the alien is a teenager on a joy ride in a stolen space craft. The Blue Man or something like that. 

[Shannon]

Dec 18, 2017 16:29:46 GMT -5 @pauls said:

I'll also say that my Christianity does not feel threatened by the existence of alien life. Sorry.

Interesting comment. I've never considered the issue.

The Christian apologist C. S. Lewis had an interesting take on extraterrestrial life. In an interview shortly before his death, he said the following:

I look forward with horror to contact with the other inhabited planets, if there are such. We would only transport to them all of our sin and our acquisitiveness, and establish a new colonialism. I can’t bear to think of it.

[Deleted]

My parents were aliens who
abducted and then tried
to raise me.

[TKennedy]

Again, it's all in "The History Of Future Folk". If you have not watched it do. Everything will clarify.

[Dub]

Dec 19, 2017 18:08:04 GMT -5 TKennedy said:

Again, it's all in "The History Of Future Folk". If you have not watched it do. Everything will clarify.

I’ll add it to our queue.

[jdd2]

Russell—what was C’s story again?

The one where the aliens couldn’t believe we were meat?

[Village Idiot]

Dec 19, 2017 17:52:21 GMT -5 @stormntwang said:

My parents were aliens who
abducted and then tried
to raise me.

You know, that is a way to look at it.