Only idiots believe in UFOs

The view that "only idiots believe in UFOs" (or variations thereon, such as "only nutters report UFOs" or "only idiots bother investigating UFO reports) is one that I've heard friends and colleagues express.

It is also one that has been implicit in quite a few recent press articles in the UK, including the articles at the following links:

/8dtwe

/8z2v5

/dtwd9

I don't believe that I can be alone in hearing such dismissive views being expressed.

However, despite a fair bit of effort, I have not found any explicit statements of such views by any sceptics of any note.

Indeed, quite the contrary.

For example, despite a suggestion that Philip J Klass has made such comments , in fact Klass makes the following comment in his "UFOs Explained" (in the Introduction):

"Some skeptics dismiss the UFO question without investigation in the belief that reports come only from 'kooks'. This is not so, as numerous UFO cases analyzed in this book will demonstrate. Many come from seemingly honest, intelligent and often well-educated citizens, including scientists, law-enforcement officers and aircraft flight crews."

Similarly, the Condon Report (which, to put it mildly, is not generally considered to be biased in favour of ETH proponents) includes a section by Aldora Lee on opinion polls relating to UFOs. That section suggests that in fact there is some evidence that the _greater_ their education, the _more_ likely people are to think that flying saucers are "real". Page 320 of the version of the Condon Report available online at the link below includes the following: "Although the relationships are not strong, the results of the 1966 Gallup poll suggest that education is related to opinions. The greater the education, the higher the proportion who indicated they have heard of flying saucers, who think they are real rather than the product of imagination and who believe that there are people somewhat like ourselves living on other planets." See:

ncas.sawco.com...

So, whilst it seems that everyone agrees that some skeptics and/or members of the public think UFO reports only come from idiots/kooks, I'm still looking for an explicit quotation to this effect by any prominent individual. About the closest I've found in the last few days is in an article by Bruce Maccabee (at the link below) which quotes the editor of a magazine called "Applied Optics" referring to "UFO believers" as "99 and 44/100ths percent kooks." See:

www.stardrive.org...

I'm currently planning on writing more on this topic and am attempting to find a few pithy quotations which explicitly express such dismissive views of UFO witnesses/believers generally, but I'd welcome any references, suggestions or recommendations anyone has.

(On the more positive side, I'm finding it a fairly trivial task to pull together quite a lot of material that opposes such dismissive views.)

All the best,

Isaac Koi

My friend's girlfriend thinks that UFOs don't exist either. If she was smart enough, she'd see what might really be going on.

UFO's exist, there Unidentified Flying Objects. When the abreviation of UFO is said the majority of people think of aliens.

From the first post in this thread:

"Many come from seemingly honest, intelligent"

Klass is famous for being arrogant, opinionated and dogmatic and he never deviated one iota in his storied life.

Many of his critics noted that he was probably a well-paid skeptic on the payroll of the system in some sort of fashion as only they can do so well and hide it.

But I find it offensive that Klass infers in his comment that people that report UFO's are dishonest and not intelligent. Unlike Mr. Klass and his friends who of course would be the opposite I assume, being honest and intelligent.

It is well known in pyschological circles that there is three kinds of adoptees of new ideas and this is generally accepted theory and well tested and supported: non-adoptees period (eg. Mr. Klass himself), adoptees with information, and open-minded or eager adopties of new ideas.

That Mr. Klass and his debunking friends never read a book on basic psychology and not finding themselves reflected in the generally accepted profiles accepted in the profession makes me wonder how professional Mr. Klass was himself.

But I am not posting to kick dirt on dead men, even if I find them contemptable, I am writing to point out that even the well loved science which debunkers like to rely on to put simple explanations on the unexplainable can account for their narrowmindedness.

I posit that debunkers in general are that one-third of humanity that cannot bear the ugly truth and will go to any and all ends to avoid it and thus all they are doing is holding back humanity from realization and painting themselves into corners from which they can never escape frp, in the long-run.

It's only realistic to belive that aliens are visiting the earth actually!
I could explain why, but I don't see the point...

EDIT:
But I gonna explain it anyway :

The universe is infinitive, yeah it can have no ending actually.
And then there must be many alien civilizations out there, and many of them are so advanced that they have no problems finding other planets with life.
And when they find other planets with life they find it very interesting and study them as they evolve.
It's not far fetched at all!


[edit on 2006/4/13 by TrappedSoul]

believing in aliens visiting earth is as stupid as believing in a god

Originally posted by Zeratul
believing in aliens visiting earth is as stupid as believing in a god

Did you read what I said?
Why would it be stupid?
Open your mind dude...

[edit on 2006/4/13 by TrappedSoul]

dude, the fact that I keep visiting this page tells I am open minded.
Being open minded doesnt mean to believe everything you read/see/hear (altough if thats what you call open minded then I am not, but if you mean it this way, that itself would be close minded).

Open minded people consider all possibilities before reaching a conclussion, so what I posted was the result of an analysis done by myself considering many possibilities.

[edit on 13-4-2006 by Zeratul]

Originally posted by TrappedSoul
The universe is infinitive, yeah it can have no ending actually.
And then there must be many alien civilizations out there...

It seems to me you're saying something like:

- The universe is infinite.
- Therefore it must contain an infinite number of advanced, spacefaring civilizations.
- In fact, it must contain an infinite number of advanced, spacefaring civilizations who are constantly visiting Planet Earth.

All of the above follows naturally from the mathematical properties we ascribe to the concept "infinity.

- Therefore UFOs (alien vehicles visiting earth) must exist....

...but...

...the universe is not infinite. It has a very definite size and shape.

www.space.com...

There are methods of calculating how many intelligent civilizations can exist in a given volume of space: Drake's equation, for example:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Though applying it is tricky:

www.universetoday.com...

It seems the chances of contact are actually very small. Unless, of course, there is something unbelievably special about our planet (or ourselves) that makes us particularly worth visiting.

Hard to believe, though not altogether impossible, I suppose.

[edit on 13-4-2006 by Astyanax]

Originally posted by Zeratul
dude, the fact that I keep visiting this page tells I am open minded.
Being open minded doesnt mean to believe everything you read/see/hear (altough if thats what you call open minded then I am not, but if you mean it this way, that itself would be close minded).

Open minded people consider all possibilities before reaching a conclussion, so what I posted was the result of an analysis done by myself considering many possibilities.

[edit on 13-4-2006 by Zeratul]

Bla bla bla...
You said "believing in aliens visiting earth is as stupid as believing in a god"
That's not beeing open minded... is it? You just call us stupid!!
Why is it stupid to believe that aliens are visiting us?
Even my own father have had expieriences with aliens...

Originally posted by IsaacKoi

The view that "only idiots believe in UFOs"

Comments like this cost regular postings!!

Regards

J

(Quoting Astyanax)

"...the universe is not infinite. It has a very definite size and shape."
How can anyone be shure of that?
I don't care what some stupid scientists say, yeah I called them stupid.
I didn't read everything on that page but I guess what they are talking about is the size of the "big bang" they think "started" the universe.
But there are many big bangs out there, the big bang is not the universe, it's just a part of it!

"It seems the chances of contact are actually very small. Unless, of course, there is something unbelievably special about our planet (or ourselves) that makes us particularly worth visiting."
Offcourse we are worth visiting, they can learn much by studying us, just like we study animals in the deep sea...
And you may think the chances are small, people may get us to believe this, but it's not true.

"It seems to me you're saying something like:
In fact, it must contain an infinite number of advanced, spacefaring civilizations who are constantly visiting Planet Earth."
I didn't say that, calm down.
I only said that it was for me realistic to think that atleast SOME was visiting us, not a infinitive amount...

And yeah, I got nothing to back up what i'm saying, I'm no scientist, and I did no calculations!

Originally posted by TrappedSoul

Originally posted by Zeratul
dude, the fact that I keep visiting this page tells I am open minded.
Being open minded doesnt mean to believe everything you read/see/hear (altough if thats what you call open minded then I am not, but if you mean it this way, that itself would be close minded).

Open minded people consider all possibilities before reaching a conclussion, so what I posted was the result of an analysis done by myself considering many possibilities.

[edit on 13-4-2006 by Zeratul]

Bla bla bla...
You said "believing in aliens visiting earth is as stupid as believing in a god"
That's not beeing open minded... is it? You just call us stupid!!
Why is it stupid to believe that aliens are visiting us?
Even my own father have had expieriences with aliens...

Its stupid because I say so And yeah, I got nothing to back up what i'm saying, I'm no scientist, and I did no calculations!

If I am close minded, then you are too.

Please if you wish to continue, U2U me.

From what I've seen and read,

I believe in UFOs less and less.

I mean seriously, where is the proof?

Every picture can be hoaxed, or doctrined.

There is no hard evidence yet people keep saying what has happened to them. Perhaps it's something in our subconciousness or demonic entitites from another dimension?

- Nazgarn

(Quoting Zeratul)

"Please if you wish to continue, U2U me."
I'm not going to U2U you, I'm going to use this thread to discuss this!

"If I am close minded, then you are too."
What a stupid thing to say...
Is it close minded to believe in aliens now?
I do understand that many out there have absolutely no reason to belive, but I respect and understand that!

"Its stupid because I say so"
Ok, we'll have to trust you then!
It's also stupid to belive in them even if you have seen them with your own eyes and flown in their spaceship!

I just want to have some agruments on why people think it's stupid, I don't want everybody to JUST write that it is stupid.
Even I gave some silly arguments on why I think it's NOT stupid.

Originally posted by nazgarn
I believe in UFOs less and less.
I mean seriously, where is the proof?
Every picture can be hoaxed, or doctrined.

I understand that, but there is actually many people out there who have strong reasons to belive/know!
And the whole scene is not unrealistic as most people might want to think.
Offcourse you should only believe in it if you have had your own experiences with them or other strong reasons to believe.
But the thing is, "they" DON'T want us to know yet, I guess we're not ready!
That's why we have no proof... they wont let us! And they have the power to stop it!
Who are they, you might ask? Government, aliens, both? I'm not shure yet.

But you could get proof yourself!
If you really want to have conntact with them you can, but i'm not going to tell you exactly how!
Only tip I have is to start with spiritism!
And if you got proof and want to share it, you might get killed...

Originally posted by TrappedSoul
If you really want to have conntact with them you can, but i'm not going to tell you exactly how!
Only tip I have is to start with spiritism!
And if you got proof and want to share it, you might get killed...

Spiritism (do you mean spiritualism?)....

Wouldn't that add substance to my above account that 'aliens' are 'demonic' in nature or similar?

Some food for thought,

- Nazgarn

Originally posted by nazgarn
Spiritism (do you mean spiritualism?)....
Wouldn't that add substance to my above account that 'aliens' are 'demonic' in nature or similar?

Spiritism/spiritualism whatever, guess it's the same.
You know; communicate with spirits/souls!

I'm not shure what you mean with them being demonic, or why that would add substance to it...
I'm not very much into demons and such, feel free to explain!

Zeratul, if what you say is true about aliens not existing how is it possible that we are the only intelligent lifeforms in the INFINETE universe????? Explain that to me. Also, explain how every thing would be created if God was not real.

Originally posted by spidy
Also, explain how every thing would be created if God was not real.

Are you shure there must be a god for the world to exist?