The Logic of a UFO Sighting

That's correct. The main idea behind the project was to quash what the previous project sign had concluded, that the ET hypothesis was the likely explanation. Clearly the scientists hired for Blue Book was to appear like an objective study of the UFO phenomenon, but it wasn't.

Damn, in my other thread I just mentioned that the press spokesman of the Blue Book project denied any photographs being taken of the radar confirmation of the washington UFO. Now why would he do that?

Simply because he was instructed that the public where not to have a shred of evidence concerning the incident.

''In any case - again - unless you are seriously delusional you must be aware that your opinion is not mainstream.''

Depends on what scientist you talk to. Some really respectable scientists, don't take Blue Book for it's worth.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

I don't think that pure logic would be very much help in this. Logic addresses the form of arguments, not their content. That's why formal logic represents things like propositions as variables. What's needed here is plausible reasoning.

Right. If we use the original meaning of 'UFO', unidentified flying object, it's clear that flying objects won't always be correctly identified by everyone who sees them.

Sure. I've seen several objects in the sky myself that looked seriously strange and that I couldn't identify, but when I grabbed my binoculars turned out to be conventional aircraft seen under unusual conditions. One was a small general aviation aircraft with an unpainted aluminum body making a turn and reflecting the sun, another turned out to be a rigid airship flying behind a cloud.

What's more, in many cases what are initially reported as UFOs don't turn out to be flying objects at all, but rather apparent flying objects. They are meteorological or astronomical in nature.

Real what? They are real UFO reports. Or at least most of them are, some are probably the work of nuts and pranksters and such. If 'real' means actual sightings of alien spacecraft, then I'd be inclined to say that most likely none of them are that.

Maybe. That assumes that whatever nation we are talking about has a government office that takes these reports and that the office has something to do with military intelligence.

That looks like a non-sequitur. How does it follow from 1 through 4?

I think that if the world's militaries really believed that they have interacted with advanced technology of extraterrestrial origin, then they would show far more interest in the UFO phenomenon than they in fact show.

And no, I don't buy the conspiracy theories about how governments all around the world are hiding their real interest, or running secret projects out in the Nevada desert with captured UFO technology, or are infiltrated and in league with the aliens, or whatever the claim is this week.

The UFO phenomenon is tremendously fascinating though. To me, it's an example of a new quasi-religion that I call the 'flying saucer faith' (that name isn't original with me). I think of it as a pseudo-scientific repackaging of the heavenly visitations of earlier centuries. Since prehistoric times the sky has been thought of as 'the heavens' and events up there have always been believed to have supernatural and transcendent meaning. Today, belief in old-style supernatural miracles has gone out of favor among a broad segment of the public, and suddenly we see what look a lot like the old ideas being reintepreted and repackaged in the public mind in new and thoroughly "space age" terms.

So I think that UFO belief is interesting and even important, but I'm inclined to interpret it in religious studies terms.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

Of course. Some really respectable scientists believe in creationism, ghosts and the 9/11 conspiracy theories. But again, they are not mainstream.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

Interesting analogy. By the way, whose faith?

I have seen 3 orb UFO's above my house many years ago, I am not relying on faith. I know the UFO's exist.

Calling it quasi-religion however may give the wrong impression. No one has seen God, many have seen UFO's. Those who run on faith are those who have read official reports but has never seen one.

 

How do you know that the 3 orbs weren't God!! Maybe it was the holy trinity, and you foolishly thought it was just some Jedi knights passing by. Hmmmmmm?

 

I've seen them too, so I know they exist. But odds are they're not space aliens.

A great many have seen God. Such instances are recorded in the Bible. Here's a more recent account:
========
By Michael Inbar
TODAY contributor
updated 3/21/2011 10:59:28 AM ET

After a burst appendix nearly cost 4-year-old Colton Burpo his life in 2003, his parents were thankful just to have him alive and well. But when he opened up about his brush with death a few months later, they were shocked when he described a very vivid trip to heaven, and spoke of matters about which he had no apparent way of knowing.

During an automobile trip, when Sonja Burpo asked him about his memories of being in the hospital, little Colton replied: “Yes, Mommy, I remember — that’s where the angels sang to me.” A sweet answer, to be sure — but then Colton made his parents’ jaws drop when he told them about sitting in Jesus’ lap, watching his parents while he lay seemingly near death, and meeting his great-grandfather.

But most poignantly, Colton described meeting a sibling in heaven — even though he had no way of knowing that his mother had miscarried two years before he was born, since his parents had never told him.
==============================

 

Actually the odds are, is that they are. Especially when they seem to things we cannot do. When you understand this, the odds are entirely in the believers favour.

 

Understand also, my word is not the only thing you can trust. In my ... I think it was my second chapter, I have plenty scientists testifying to the same thing. Even the whole of Los Alamos labs in 1952 agreed with me!

 

When did you get your pilot's certificate, and how much night flying have you done?

 

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

I actually have an advanced understanding of the subject.

I've already told you, I am a UFO investigator, I have interviewed pilots like yourself. What you have is an opinion, I have many other similar pilots who have claimed they have saw things they cannot explained. I know about the science behind the subject as well, so I know when I read serious reports of UFO's moving at speeds that are practically impossible to today's standards and the standards 60 years ago.


Just because you are a pilot, doesn't mean I am incapable of discovering the facts for myself.



By the way... I was just made aware of some new evidence concerning the Cash-Landum case. Apparently they discovered that 100 helicopters where sent on a mission the night they claimed to have seen the massive diamond shaped UFO in the sky, with helicopters circling it. You know... this was the family of three who got severe radiation poisoning.

Anyway... For years the military have stated that nowhere in that vicinity they had performed any operations. The General responsible for saying this, turned out to have been the same General who signed the 100 helicopters in that area of that night. He claims, and I quote

''I have no idea why I would have wrote that.''



Just though I'd get that in there. It is interesting.

 

Are you a pilot?

 

You were at LANL in '52? In what capacity - guardshack duty?

 

I'm so glad you think I am old and experienced

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

But I am not that old, spoiler!


Edward J. Ruppelt, director of the USAF Project Blue Book UFO study visited Los Alamos Lab in 1952 (the same year as the major UFO event in Washington DC.). The scientists at the lab had been witness to an on-going phenomenon during that time which they called Green Fireballs.

During a period of years from early 1940's into early 50's, a number of military establishments and scientific establishments noticed that these UFO's where taking some considerable interest in them. At least, this was the consensus of people at the time.


Ruppelt talked with the scientists at Los Alamos concerning what they believed they saw. None of them believed they had a conventional explanation, ie. meteors, Earth-made craft. Instead, the scientists speculated that they were extraterrestrial probes "projected into our atmosphere from a 'spaceship' hovering several hundred miles above the earth." Ruppelt commented, "Two years ago I would have been amazed to hear a group of reputable scientists make such a startling statement. Now, however, I took it as a matter of course. I'd heard the same type of statement many times before from equally qualified groups."

Amazing isn't it. In face of what sceptics believe, here we have one of the highest labs in America confirming that they believed what they saw were extratterestrial probes. These are totally sane, intelligent men who where far from delusional.

 

No, I work with the experience of pilots I speak to. Or already documented evidence concerning loads of pilots who do come forward, among them was 120 Air Force officials who testified a few years back concerning their experiences with aerial craft which couldn't be identified and they testified that the craft did things we can't. Yet.

 

Perhaps if you became a pilot and got some actual experience seeing (and avoiding) other vehicles in flight, I might pay more attention to your interpretations of what other pilots saw. The Internet is a poor substitute for actual experience.

 

I take it this is before we discovered sprites.

 

Sprites occur above thunderstorms.

 

Are you just trying to be an arrogant little man?

I have spoken to plenty pilots who have claimed to have seen UFO's. I even have a friend in the Air Force who is a keen UFO believer.

I take testimony and weigh up how credible it is and in almost all cases, I can't find any reason why these people who say the things they say. They risk idiots like you attempting to crush their competency!

 

Arrogant? More amused than anything.

That's great. I've seen one too - but oddly you reject my conclusions because they disagree with yours. If you were a pilot you might have a better understanding of what you were posting.

Interesting how all cranks end up resorting to personal attacks when their beliefs are questioned.

 

What's with the charade then? Because you are trying to get some moral high ground in all this because you think you special because you are a pilot. Sorry, this isn't the case. There are plenty pilots, much better and reputable than you who will testify to the UFO phenomenon.