Posted on 02/24/2005 3:55:40 PM PST by traumer
Almost 50 percent of Americans, according to recent polls, and millions of people elsewhere in the world believe that UFOs are real. For many it is a deeply held belief.
For decades there have been sightings of UFOs by millions and millions of people. It is a mystery that only science can solve, and yet the phenomenon remains largely unexamined. Most of the reporting on this subject by the mainstream media holds those who claim to have seen UFOs up to ridicule.
On Feb. 24, "Peter Jennings Reporting: UFOs — Seeing Is Believing" takes a fresh look at the UFO phenomenon. "As a journalist," says Jennings, "I began this project with a healthy dose of skepticism and as open a mind as possible. After almost 150 interviews with scientists, investigators and with many of those who claim to have witnessed unidentified flying objects, there are important questions that have not been completely answered — and a great deal not fully explained."
"Peter Jennings Reporting: UFOs — Seeing Is Believing" airs Thursday, Feb. 24 from 8-10 p.m. ET on ABC. The program will be broadcast in High Definition.
This two-hour primetime special reports on the entire scope of the UFO experience — from the first famous sighting by Kenneth Arnold in 1947 to the present day. The program draws on interviews with police officers, pilots, military personnel, scientists and ordinary citizens who give extraordinary accounts of encounters with the unexplained. Also included are the voices of professional skeptics about UFOs, including scientists who are leading the search for life forms beyond Earth elsewhere in the universe.
The program explores the facts behind the enduring mystery of the incident at Roswell, N.M., and looks into the strange stories of alien abductions. Among the UFO cases presented:
Minot Air Force Base, N.D., October 1968 — Sixteen airmen on the ground and the crew of an airborne B-52 witness a massive unidentified object hovering near the base.
Phoenix, March 1997 — Hundreds witness a huge triangular craft moving slowly over the city.
St. Clair County, Ill., January 2000 — Police officers in five adjoining towns all independently report witnessing a giant craft with multiple bright lights moving silently across the sky at a very low altitude.
Today if you report a UFO to the U.S. government you will be informed that the Air Force conducted a 22-year investigation that ended in 1969 and concluded that UFOs are not a threat to national security and are of no scientific interest. But as one of the world's leading theoretical physicists says in the program, "You simply cannot dismiss the possibility that some of these UFO sightings are actually sightings from some object created by … a civilization perhaps millions of years ahead of us in technology."
"Peter Jennings Reporting: UFOs — Seeing Is Believing" is produced by PJ Productions and Springs Media for ABC News. Mark Obenhaus and Tom Yellin are the executive producers.
Thank you.
I'll see if I can find one or more of these publications.
Wise words!
In any case, our planet sure looks pretty, doesn't it?
Uhhhhhh, do you insist on learning ALL heavy duty lessons in life FIRST HAND?
If so, Can I see a pic of the layers of scars you've earned?
The following question really is a kindly personally curious one. Do your teens ever think of you as bull-headed?
I understand your feelings entirely.
Fear, conscious and unconscious, can be a heavy motivator for denial and all manner of other mental gymnastics.
People without an intimate relationship with God have nothing with which to help them cope with absolutely devastating paradigm shifts in the very nature of reality as we have known it.
People with some sort of relationship with God who are naysayers may be brittle and insecure enough in their relationship with God to want to deny all possibilities. OR, they may feel it is their duty to prevent heresy from the standpoint of an overly narrow, rigid, essentially UNBiblical perspective on what The Bible actually says vs what they have constured it to say.
We dislike and resist change. It's uncomfortable to frightening for many of us.
Some people have a super inordinate COMPULSIVE NEED TO BE IN ABSOLUTE CONTROL. And the thought of aliens dinking around in ways that they don't understand really jangles that ADDICTION TO CONTROL very frighteningly.
There are probably other reasons.
Thanks for your kind posts. Have you read the excerpts I've posted? What do you think?
I hope one or more will at least 50% meet your criteria for such. I don't know--have read them too long ago. But I think those I listed will at least give even you some pause for thought.
What have been your impressions of the excerpts I've posted?
I don't think the bias is nearly as 'blanket' as you like (or need?) to think. I don't think there is any blanket assumption that a person who sees a UFO is necessarily drunk, stupid, uneducated or insane at all.
On this thread or on others? Please direct me to the particular threads and posts and I'll check them out.
Happy to extend trainloads of leeway.
Just want you to avoid being unnecessarily blind sided by a heavy duty consequence to toooooo stiff a criteria.
Much appreciate your tone with me in this thread. Greatly appreciate it.
Yes, I've read your posts.
I'm not sure what to make of the abduction stories. I've awaken with sleep paralysis that lasts for 30-45 seconds. And while I found it mildly amusing, I could see where some might find this frightening. Thus, when I hear of people stating they have awaken, and sensed another presence; I'm skeptical.
Are these aliens related to God and Angels? Personally, I think not. To quote Kirk from one of the more lame Star Trek moves "What does God want with a star ship". Now, if these are other developed lifeforms, they may be studying us. This is the least of what we would do if roles were reversed, historically speaking.
You see, my view of God is that he is a Omni-potent diety, and he's bored out of his ever-loving mind. Think of having infinite time (time truly has no meaning), having no equal, and infinite knowledge. What do you do? How about create earth, populate it with billions of souls; and now you have a multi-billion 'Reality' series. At least that would be entertaining.
If there is not life outside of earth, then I believe that I am mistaken; and that God truly wasted a lot of time and effort on naught. Instead of creating Nebuleas beyond our ken, why couldn't he make toast never land butter side down?
Post 935 of this thread. Will track down the other post number.
I forget that not everyone reads every post! LOL.
Post 868 will probably cut no ice with you at all. It's basically one man's story.
But, if you could BEAR to discuss it PRETENDING it were true, that could be interesting to me.
For some reason, I have long felt that there would come a day when electronic communications were severely limited if nonexistent. I don't know why I've long felt that way. Felt it before I read his book.
Part of me has even imagined that when the meek inherit the earth--things will be back to a very Amish agrarian society sort of setup. Many Christians disagree. I could see it going either way.
Really? OK, before you rush to make any judgements, why don't you try a little experiment all by yourself.
Say something like "I saw something really odd last night, ... I don't know what was .... but I believe it was not of our world". Or, anything else like this that you think would work, I'll give you full creative licence here. Then watch for the reactions. Some will be positive and inquisitive, while a great many will be rude, and will either insult you to your face, or attempt to deride your character behind your back. Just a little experiment .... go ahead.
Love your sense of humor. Have had similar thoughts.
I have - I wasn't outwardly derided as a drunk, insane, or anything like that.
I think that was more the case in the 50s and 60s than today - most people belive that UFOs are real and that alien life exists. It's not as bad as you think.
I don't know if this was in the Jennings report, but I heard Michio Kaku later saying that if there were space aliens they wouldn't be 100 years ahead of us but a million, and what they wouold be doing would be as noticeable to us as a 10-lane superhighway being built past an anthill would be to the ants.
Not sure what to say about the survey except that there seem to be a few seriously disturbed people out there, and many others who have simply been lured into the UFO pop culture fantasy.
The fiction excerpt was interesting. "pretending it to be true, if the government had such a plan for dealing with the "greys" then at least our tax dollars are being put to some good use.
Uhhhhhh, sorry, but hereon,
he's right.
A lot of people on FR are kind of in the dark ages of attitude toward UFO's as a topic. There's usually a group who rush to with great hostility, insult, derision, etc. assault anyone who dares hereon to treat the topic seriously, worthy of thoughtful discussion.
This thread has been way better than ever in recent years. Not sure why.
Interesting thought. But doesn't fit the current evidence. I suspect the good Dr knows that. Not sure why he said it.
Sounds clever.
Who's right?
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