Is it E.T. -- or a Goose?: Why We Believe in UFOs

BreakPoint ^ | 14 Jan 04 | Chuck Colson

[Mr. Silverback]

The calls were coming thick and fast to a local news station. Callers claimed that a brilliant light had appeared in the night sky moments before. It hovered for a minute and then suddenly shot off at incredible speed.

What was it? Some callers were certain they had the answer: a UFO -- an Unidentified Flying Object.

Well, maybe it was . . . for about five minutes. After that, it would probably be an identified flying object: a comet, perhaps, or a satellite.

In his book, LIGHTS IN THE SKY AND LITTLE GREEN MEN, astronomer Hugh Ross writes that 99 percent of all UFOs are later found to have a perfectly rational explanation. But the fact that so many people think they may have seen a UFO shows how completely our age accepts the possibility of intelligent life existing elsewhere in the universe.

According to Ross, half of all Americans believe UFOs are real, not simply the product of someone's over-active imagination. One recent poll indicates that 13 percent of our neighbors believe they have actually seen a UFO. One researcher estimates that during the 1970s, around one hundred UFO sightings worldwide were reported every night. Given that many sightings probably go unreported, Ross writes, "the number of sightings may in fact range into the millions."

Since the so-called "flying saucer age" began in 1947, the U.S. Air Force and private investigators have looked into thousands of UFO reports. Their conclusion? Nearly all can be explained by natural or manmade causes.

For instance, people often report the planet Venus as a UFO because they don't realize how bright the planet can appear at certain times of the year. The same goes for stars close to the horizon: Atmospheric turbulence and columns of warm air cause them to twinkle rapidly in red and blue colors.

What else gets people into a UFO panic? Meteor swarms, hot ionized gas, ball lightning, reflected light, blimps, fireworks, military aircraft, high altitude ice crystals -- even flocks of birds, who sometimes carry phosphorescent dust on their bellies and wings.

Why do people automatically think "UFO" when they see something strange? A big part of the answer is that in recent decades, we've been hit with a deluge of cultural mythmaking about alien life. Every summer, for example, Hollywood gives us another blockbuster about extraterrestrials: like E.T., SIGNS, CONTACT, INDEPENDENCE DAY, and CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, to mention just a few.

Second, God designed humans to want to believe in something. That's the image of God that is in us. But as G. K. Chesterton famously put it, when we reject the God of the Bible, we don't believe in nothing; we believe in everything -- including Little Green Men.

Intriguingly, according to Ross, one percent of UFOs defy rational explanation. These residual UFOs, as they are called, are often witnessed by groups of highly credible people, like pilots and astronomers. Who or what are they?

Tomorrow I will talk about the answer. You'll find out why Dr. Ross believes that we ought to take these UFOs seriously, because the answer lies at the heart, not only of the UFO controversy, but of the Christian faith itself.

[Mr. Silverback]

One thing that's certainly very odd (no matter what the real answers are) is how the nature of the UFO pilots and the nature of abductions and other close encounters has changed drastically over time. They occupants used to be similar to us, now they're not; they often made peaceful contact, now people are supposedly getting tortured...weird stuff whatever the explanation is!

[Mr. Silverback]

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[Michael Barnes]

ping to ya

[Johnny_Cipher]

I have no problem believing that there might be other life in the universe. However, I can't come up with a valid reason why they would want to come here. Furthermore, any race stupid enough to WANT to come here would not be smart enough to build a faster-than-light drive that would make such a trip possible.

So yes, what you are seeing in the night skies is marsh gas or shiny ducks.

[Warren]

WORMHOLES! Or maybe a weather balloon or Venus.

[Shooter 2.5]

It looks like now that the JFK threads have died out, FR has to put up with the UFO threads.
Are the "We didn't land on the moon" threads far behind?

[Johnny_Cipher]

I resemble that remark. Any wormhole I travel through will make me look like a licorice whip on the other side. (Unless you're talking about those Arrakis sandwormholes. You could drive a city bus through those things.)

[Quix]

THANKS.

There have always been more or less all kinds of reports in modern times--certainly since 1947.

True, some waves of reports tended to be more this type than that type. But the range of evidence has mostly tended to be there in recent decades if one knew whom to talk to.

The strangeness of the forms various races of ET's have taken has certainly been there since 1947. Reports of human ET's and earthlings in cooperation with ET's tended to come later and now off and on.

Whether ET's are to be considered benign, helpful or evil has also ebbed and flowed.

Anyway--thanks. An interesting post.

[Quix]

BTW, did anyone on this thread view the recent HISTORY channel programs on UFO's in the last few evenings--forget exactly which evening???

IF SO, Any comments or observations you'd be willing to share?

[nopardons]

It was Monday night and I was just about to ask the same question, when I saw that you had done so already. :-)

While a lot of the things in that show, had already been covered in other shows, I thought they did a good job.

[nopardons]

They are NOT weather balloons. That's the government cop out for Area 51 and other things they want to cover up. :-)

[djf]

I picked up a double VHS cassette a few days back about UFO's. The first one is about the history of sightings, etc. The second is about coverup/etc.

There is a brief interview with the widow of a naval? aviator, one of the guys who had something to do with Roswell. She swore that he told her they in fact had picked up alien bodies and spacecraft parts and flew them to Edwards AFB. He is long since deceased and she seemed very, very credible.

[judgeandjury]

In his book, LIGHTS IN THE SKY AND LITTLE GREEN MEN, astronomer Hugh Ross writes that 99 percent of all UFOs are later found to have a perfectly rational explanation.

I found this item on a website regarding the US Air Force's Project BLUE BOOK:

From 1947 to 1969, the US Air Force investigated unidentified flying objects under Project BLUE BOOK. The project, headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, was terminated 17 December 1969. Of a total of 12,618 sightings reported to BLUE BOOK, 701 remained "unidentified."

So 701 out of 12,618 UFO sightings couldn't be adequately explained by the US Air Force. That works out to about 5.5% of the UFO sightings remaining "unidentified". A little more that the author's estimate of only 1% not having a rational explanation.

[discostu]

Why do we send scientist to the middle of nowhere Africa to get hyena poo? Anybody with the technology to make interstellar travel the equivalent of our scientific expeditions to the middle of Africa would probably be doing it for the same reason.

[judgeandjury]

So yes, what you are seeing in the night skies is marsh gas or shiny ducks.

I would like to hear somebody explain how this marsh gas or these ducks can make sharp 90-degree angle turns while traveling thousands of miles per hour as many eyewitnesses have reported over the years, including police officers, commercial airline pilots, and military personnel.

[Las Vegas Dave]

PROJECT BLUE BOOK was not a scientific study.

You should read (the late) Alan Hynek's book about it.

[Johnny_Cipher]

I would like somebody to explain why one has never landed on the Ellipse in Washington DC at high noon with CNN there. Heck, I'd settle for it overflying the Super Bowl at halftime.

[Ancesthntr]

Are the "We didn't land on the moon" threads far behind?

Oh, wait, Shooter. We're going back to the Moon in a few years, so now Spielberg's special effects guys get to do a really professional job of faking it this time. Remember "Capricorn 1?"

[DAPFE8900]

Well the classic abduction cases has seen the occupants using us for genetic, even interbreeding... One good reason would be if they are a dying species, and need our dna or say they need workers with our braun and their brains.. Most alien abductions have the same MO The greys very small except for the leaders... So if they are small and frail but need some braun why not pick earth as an unlimited pool of dna to make their own slaves...Scarey and even sounds kookie but What if?

[DAPFE8900]

Yes it was a cool bunch of programs.. I liked them..