Thoughts on believing....

I find myself becoming more and more skeptical, or maybe just more keen on researching before I believe. I think a lot of that has to do with my joining here and finding more people that really want to get to the heart of the matter and genuinely want to find the truth.

I am not sure if skepticism is even the appropriate word for what I feel though. I firmly believe that there is extraterrestrial life out there and want to SEE proof with my own eyes. I have seen things I can't explain, but I am sure there is an explanation for them. I want to KNOW. I can just feel a sort of emptiness in my body in that respect.....like there is something I just can't quite put my finger on but feel it is there...right in front of me.

I also have a hard time with weeding through a lot of the BS and realize this is where I get discouraged. As to why there are true hoaxers out there is beyond me other than the person(s) wanting to be famous for a few minutes. I do believe that some of the claimed "hoax" videos and pics may have just been someone doing and animation or project and somehow they got posted and people began thinking it was real.....as in the original artist did not intend for it to be released as genuine UFO evidence.

I know this is a HUGE site in comparison to others like it, but how many out there that may have had an encounter or may have a picture or film of alien life don't know about ATS? And how many people that have been a part of research and phenomenon related to extraterrestrial life are not involved in any shape or fashion with telling their stories? How can something this big with this many people involved not be broken yet?

With UFO and alien encounters being so widespread and documented how can we know so little?

Is there anyone or anything out there? Are we alone? Do we just NEED something to be there to justify our search and our humanity? Do we need it to answer why we are here, or how we became? Is this just a way for some to prove religion is false? Are we just here for the thrill?

Yes to all of the above. I think that is what makes this such a strange science to study. Everyone is here for a different reason, but all reaching for the same goal.....the ultimate truth.

I know I am here for that reason and will continue to stay here for that reason. I am not a faith based nor a religious person and most likely never will be, but something about this subject drives me to believe blindly. I say blindly because there is no 100% irrefutable proof that I have encountered in my research. I am no scientist and can only go by what me eyes see and my gut tells me when I read about these things. To that end I trust myself and, as I previously stated, have become a skeptic of what I read. It is that "feeling" that keeps me believing and that is what I will continue to do......BELIEVE.

-B

reply to post by Vasa Croe


Whenever I find myself wondering why I think like I do about certain subjects I try to reaffirm to myself the core basis of skepticism and belief. The information on this LINK and others like it go a long way to help leveling me out at times.

To me, believing blindly is a dangerous thing to do because it is a fertilizer for hope and even worse, false hope. When what you are blindly believing in does not produce anything tangible or substantive the hope is usually crushed and the belief withers and suffers as a result. That is if you even care if it does or not. Some people are puppets to their beliefs. This is very hard to determine in some people when everyone is anonymous and can be pretending to be anything they want to be.

I stick with the facts, with what I know and if I dont know enough to satisfy my thirst for knowledge go learn more until I do. Its hard work (harder than simply saying I believe in something, then not being able to rationally explain why) and the rewards for the work are far and few in between no doubt, but when the rewards do come through they are REAL and backed up by fact and good honest research.

For me facts, not faith increase knowledge. Mental sweat is good for you. Critical thinking creates calluses for the mind and is a great way to deal with the sublime and ridiculous. Speculation is a very necessary component to the thought process but conclusions can not be founded on it. Wild speculation can take a hike....

Anyway, my two rupees worth.

[edit on 4-1-2008 by Lost_Mind]

I think it's important to neither be a blind believer or a blind skeptic. The more knowledge we obtain, the more likely we are to piece together the mysteries. With more knowledge we can assign higher or lower probabilities to the possibilities that are available to us.

Possibilities such as:
Are UFOs earth based craft?
Are they from another planet?
Are they from another dimension?
Are they angels/demons?
Are they hallucinations?
Are they manifestations of the collective unconscious?

There are more possibilities, but the one thing we do know is that something is going on. Too many people are experiencing the same things.

I myself have seen both spirits and UFOs, yet I still don't know what exactly they are, and if they're related. So for me, it's not a question of whether or not they exist, it's more of a question of what they are.