Original post and comments from users at the source link here:
http://tinyurl.com/3k8hm6z
I Want To Believe, But Where's The Evidence For Alien Visits To Earth?
Categories: Science and Culture
by Marcelo Gleiser
09:09 am
June 9, 2011
Photo: Looking for signs of life.
Prompted by the Mars "structure" YouTube video posted on The Two-Way blog
the other day, I couldn't resist bringing back a classic, the alien autopsy
video.
You will watch, no doubt with your mouth agape, the autopsy of an alien
corpse recovered from the remains of his (hers?) spaceship, crashed (shot
down?) in Roswell in 1947. You can read a short story on the autopsy here.
The video portrays the exact reversal of what so many abductees say happens
to them: the surgical bed, the doctors performing tests, the gruesome nature
of the whole thing. (In fact, if you are a sensitive viewer, be advised. It
gets gross after about 3 minutes, or so.)
Too bad that Ray Santilli, the video producer responsible for the footage,
admitted that the video was a hoax. (Although he did say some frames were
original, you know, just to keep believers believing ... )
So, the question is: Why do millions of people believe in such nonsense?
As fans of the X-Files know, it's summed up in the poster hanging on FBI
agent Fox Mulder's wall: "I want to believe."
If we were to use current technology to fly to Alpha Centauri 4.4 light
years away, the closest star to the sun (Proxima Centauri is a bit closer,
but is a red-dwarf.), it would take over 100,000 years to get there. The
distances are astonishing and wormholes, as far as we can tell, aren't
opening up in space just yet.
There are many arguments against alien visitation and I will take this up
again soon. But just for starters, apart from the technological difficulties
of interstellar travel (what do we know, right? "They" could have found much
faster ways to move about), there is also a complete absence of convincing
evidence.
Sorry, but the video was a hoax and there is no conspiracy of scientists
hiding the truth from an unsuspecting public. Who more than a scientist -
who has devoted his/her life to the study of the universe and of life -
would love to have conclusive evidence of intelligent life elsewhere? That
would be truly amazing!
The fact is that no radio signals, no sample of alien technology, no truly
real sighting of a UFO that couldn't be explained with far simpler arguments
involving atmospheric disturbances, weather balloons or just plain aircraft
in funny visibility conditions, have been registered.
Perhaps it's time we simply accepted the fact that even if we are not alone
in our galaxy or the universe (absence of evidence is not evidence of
absence, as Carl Sagan liked to remind us), for all practical purposes our
cosmic isolation amounts to us being alone.
This doesn't make us less important, but, as I elaborate in my book A Tear
at the Edge of Creation, if we are rare, and so is our planet, we should
rise up and do all we can to preserve and celebrate what we have. We should
stop looking for advanced alien creatures to save us from our mess (or to
destroy us for what we've got) and take care of our own legacy to the planet
and to the next generations.
<!--~-|**|PrettyHtmlStart|**|-~-->
http://tinyurl.com/3k8hm6z
I Want To Believe, But Where's The Evidence For Alien Visits To Earth?
Categories: Science and Culture
by Marcelo Gleiser
09:09 am
June 9, 2011
Photo: Looking for signs of life.
Prompted by the Mars "structure" YouTube video posted on The Two-Way blog
the other day, I couldn't resist bringing back a classic, the alien autopsy
video.
You will watch, no doubt with your mouth agape, the autopsy of an alien
corpse recovered from the remains of his (hers?) spaceship, crashed (shot
down?) in Roswell in 1947. You can read a short story on the autopsy here.
The video portrays the exact reversal of what so many abductees say happens
to them: the surgical bed, the doctors performing tests, the gruesome nature
of the whole thing. (In fact, if you are a sensitive viewer, be advised. It
gets gross after about 3 minutes, or so.)
Too bad that Ray Santilli, the video producer responsible for the footage,
admitted that the video was a hoax. (Although he did say some frames were
original, you know, just to keep believers believing ... )
So, the question is: Why do millions of people believe in such nonsense?
As fans of the X-Files know, it's summed up in the poster hanging on FBI
agent Fox Mulder's wall: "I want to believe."
If we were to use current technology to fly to Alpha Centauri 4.4 light
years away, the closest star to the sun (Proxima Centauri is a bit closer,
but is a red-dwarf.), it would take over 100,000 years to get there. The
distances are astonishing and wormholes, as far as we can tell, aren't
opening up in space just yet.
There are many arguments against alien visitation and I will take this up
again soon. But just for starters, apart from the technological difficulties
of interstellar travel (what do we know, right? "They" could have found much
faster ways to move about), there is also a complete absence of convincing
evidence.
Sorry, but the video was a hoax and there is no conspiracy of scientists
hiding the truth from an unsuspecting public. Who more than a scientist -
who has devoted his/her life to the study of the universe and of life -
would love to have conclusive evidence of intelligent life elsewhere? That
would be truly amazing!
The fact is that no radio signals, no sample of alien technology, no truly
real sighting of a UFO that couldn't be explained with far simpler arguments
involving atmospheric disturbances, weather balloons or just plain aircraft
in funny visibility conditions, have been registered.
Perhaps it's time we simply accepted the fact that even if we are not alone
in our galaxy or the universe (absence of evidence is not evidence of
absence, as Carl Sagan liked to remind us), for all practical purposes our
cosmic isolation amounts to us being alone.
This doesn't make us less important, but, as I elaborate in my book A Tear
at the Edge of Creation, if we are rare, and so is our planet, we should
rise up and do all we can to preserve and celebrate what we have. We should
stop looking for advanced alien creatures to save us from our mess (or to
destroy us for what we've got) and take care of our own legacy to the planet
and to the next generations.
<!--~-|**|PrettyHtmlStart|**|-~-->
