In reality, any serious minded extraterrestrial would behave like what happened in the movie “The Day the Earth Stood Still.” A flying saucer would land in Washington, D.C. and a humanoid named emerges and announces that he comes "in peace and with good will.” Of course, he is then shot, whereupon a big damn robot named Gort comes out and vaporizes the shooter and a few others. Anyway, the ET goes around showing how fucked up we are. But, in spite of turning off the electricity for a while, he gives up. He and Gort get back on the saucer to leave. But first, the humanoid gives this famous message “Klaatu barada nikto.” It means if you guys don’t gt your shit together, you’re all going the DIE!
That would be close to the real scenario if an actual intelligent space traveler wanted to contact us. Until then, UFO’s are just that, Unidentified Flying Objects. Wishful thinking.
Carl Sagan said, Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof." We have a lot of the former and none of the latter.
I have to admit, I find the UFO topic endlessly fascinating, not because I believe it’s ET (it’s not), but because of the entire subculture that exists around the topic, and the intersection of the blind faithful being mislead by government subterfuge. Good article.
I always ask committed UFO believers why they are so sure these phenomena are aliens. For example, maybe the objects are actually time travellers from the future who are trying to study the culture of their ancestors. Or maybe the objects are actually angels (after all, angels have been written about for thousands of years!). Or maybe the objects are all ghosts trying to contact us from beyond. It's very telling to me that these folks are so sure that the explanation is aliens, despite many other explanations that equally well fit the data.
I have been writing essays about the history of the belief in extraterrestrials. It is an ecumenical belief, and it was centuries old when Kenneth Arnold reported his "sighting." Emanuel Swedenborg clearly influenced the cosmology of Joseph Smith. Spiritualist Andrew Jackson Davis claimed that Swedenborg's force ghost was his spiritual teacher. Helena Blavatsky added a divine hierarchy of Ascended Masters overseeing our earthly evolution. By the 1930s, Theosophists Guy Ballard, George Adamski, and their ilk all claimed to be in regular "communication" with the Lords of the Flame on Venus. Public association of the Nazis with esoteric religion, as well as the misbehaviors of Aleister Crowley, reduced the demand for theosophical books to its lowest level in decades by 1950. Not coincidentally, Adamski was the very first "UFO contactee" in 1952. Note that, per Swedenborg et al, "Orthon" (Ascended Master name) was a human being from Venus. Most reported "aliens" were still human until after Spielberg's 1977 film. This is the influence of Swedenborg. All the early UFO cults were started by "New Age" Christian Theosophists, but the broader "church" of the alien was well-represented: The Seekers met through Scientology, for example. Not only is Sean Fitzpatrick correct that it is a cult, it always was a cult, even before the first UFO sighting.
In reality, any serious minded extraterrestrial would behave like what happened in the movie “The Day the Earth Stood Still.” A flying saucer would land in Washington, D.C. and a humanoid named emerges and announces that he comes "in peace and with good will.” Of course, he is then shot, whereupon a big damn robot named Gort comes out and vaporizes the shooter and a few others. Anyway, the ET goes around showing how fucked up we are. But, in spite of turning off the electricity for a while, he gives up. He and Gort get back on the saucer to leave. But first, the humanoid gives this famous message “Klaatu barada nikto.” It means if you guys don’t gt your shit together, you’re all going the DIE!
That would be close to the real scenario if an actual intelligent space traveler wanted to contact us. Until then, UFO’s are just that, Unidentified Flying Objects. Wishful thinking.
Carl Sagan said, Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof." We have a lot of the former and none of the latter.
“… Advanced Aerospace Weapons System Application Program …”
A pity they didn’t call it the Advanced Aerospace Weapons System National Application Program. Then it could have been AAWSNAP!
Sorry, couldn’t resist.
Giving you a like half out of amazement, half out of pity. 😛
:D :D :D
I have to admit, I find the UFO topic endlessly fascinating, not because I believe it’s ET (it’s not), but because of the entire subculture that exists around the topic, and the intersection of the blind faithful being mislead by government subterfuge. Good article.
I always ask committed UFO believers why they are so sure these phenomena are aliens. For example, maybe the objects are actually time travellers from the future who are trying to study the culture of their ancestors. Or maybe the objects are actually angels (after all, angels have been written about for thousands of years!). Or maybe the objects are all ghosts trying to contact us from beyond. It's very telling to me that these folks are so sure that the explanation is aliens, despite many other explanations that equally well fit the data.
I have been writing essays about the history of the belief in extraterrestrials. It is an ecumenical belief, and it was centuries old when Kenneth Arnold reported his "sighting." Emanuel Swedenborg clearly influenced the cosmology of Joseph Smith. Spiritualist Andrew Jackson Davis claimed that Swedenborg's force ghost was his spiritual teacher. Helena Blavatsky added a divine hierarchy of Ascended Masters overseeing our earthly evolution. By the 1930s, Theosophists Guy Ballard, George Adamski, and their ilk all claimed to be in regular "communication" with the Lords of the Flame on Venus. Public association of the Nazis with esoteric religion, as well as the misbehaviors of Aleister Crowley, reduced the demand for theosophical books to its lowest level in decades by 1950. Not coincidentally, Adamski was the very first "UFO contactee" in 1952. Note that, per Swedenborg et al, "Orthon" (Ascended Master name) was a human being from Venus. Most reported "aliens" were still human until after Spielberg's 1977 film. This is the influence of Swedenborg. All the early UFO cults were started by "New Age" Christian Theosophists, but the broader "church" of the alien was well-represented: The Seekers met through Scientology, for example. Not only is Sean Fitzpatrick correct that it is a cult, it always was a cult, even before the first UFO sighting.
Have Mark West and Mick West convened?! More here: Yes, We Need to Talk About the Unstoppable UFO Narrative
A parable about how appealing story lines trump objectivity when murk, consequence and motivated reasoning collide
https://open.substack.com/pub/revkin/p/yes-we-need-to-talk-about-the-unstoppable-22-05-17?r=26mx0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web