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Good well thought out response. But a minor flaw:

Up until about 100 years ago, "alien sightings" were always described in terms of devils and angels, complete with horns and fire and brimstone, and wings and halos and messages from God. As soon as science fiction stories of aliens and their spacecraft became widely popular, those incidents went away to be immediately replaced by pale, noseless, almond shaped head aliens with huge eyes who ride around in flying saucers and who bring messages of warning from the great galactic civilization.

This power of suggestion applies to non-fantastic explanations as well. If a real angel or space alien were observed, many in our culture would undoubtedly think "there must be a rational explanation..."

[This power of suggestion applies to non-fantastic explanations as well. If a real angel or space alien were observed, many in our culture would undoubtedly think "there must be a rational explanation..."]

Sure, but if real angels appeared and started flying around on their wings at shopping malls and at sporting events, talking to people and allowing themselves to be touched and videotaped with a glowing halo floating above their heads, there would be no choice but to be convinced; the evidence would demand that. Something similar is true for aliens. Surveys show that about a million people in America alone believe that they, personally, have seen aliens up close and may even have been abducted by aliens. Many of these people have video cameras, so why aren't there any videos of aliens visiting these people? The usual explanation seems to be that some kind of mind control or geas is put on them so that they don't think to get the video camera and start recording. Maybe. But I would ask why there are no videos taken by any the NEIGHBORS of these people as they're being abducted and led away from their houses by aliens in their pajamas in the middle of the night. You'd think that at least a few people would notice and grab the video camera. Or are all of the neighbors being put into trances as well?

At some point Occam has to step in and say that it's just not plausible to believe that aliens have been browsing here among us for so long, making themselves so obvious to the ones who want to believe in them, yet not once leaving a scrap of evidence to convince the skeptical.