Aliens and UFO's
Searchlights converge on an unidentified object over Los Angeles on February 25, 1942. The bright blobs around the flashes are anti-aircraft shells exploding (Source:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/howaboutthat/3447508/UFO-sightings-140-years-of-UFO-pictures.html?image=5)
Recent developments 2017
Because there is so much to write about this subject I will try to post a chain blog on this subject everyday. Here an introduction with a personal POV on whether believing in aliens is crazy or not.
Introduction
Aliens and UFO's, like many other mystical subjects always facinated me. I don't really understand why people try to deny the existence or perhaps presence of aliens in our universe and on our planet.
Believing in something that is not eazily proved to some people is the same as being insane.
Some of the arguments I often come across are; (1)if there where aliens and governments knew about them they would have told us. (2)Or aliens would have presented themselves in a way that everyone would know about them. (3)Newspapers and TV shows would report on it with a great intensity.
Other arguments are simpler and have a rational feel to it; (5)Ive never seen either an alien nor a UFO so I don't believe.
Before I get into countering these arguments I have a personal story that will help with explaining my point.
Almost every child in the country i'm from (the Netherlands) believes in what we call Saint Nicolas, (in most respects quite similar to Santa Claus). We are taught that around the end of November Saint Nicolas comes to the Netherlands sailing his giant steemship to give us presents if we've been good that year. Almost every city or town has a parade where someone dresses up as Saint Nicolas or one of his helpers. I remember being in Amsterdam when I was 5 years old, there where so many people, so many of Nicolas' helpers. And there he was. Saint Nicolas. As a high priest of jolly, he was escorted down while being filmed by television camera's, escorted by the major to be interviewed later on. I can honestly say that I am still consciously aware of that memory, and how much I believed in the story of Saint Nicolas and that the man I saw there that day was him.
(These pictures don't even begin to grasp the scale in which Saint Nicolas' arrival is celebrated in the Netherlands.)
The sceme of things proved to be beyond my imagination.
Not long after, I suspected something was not right. My older brother slipped me some info that Saint Nicolas might not be real and some of his friends allready knew this and they acted all cool and mature about it. I could not believe him and thought he was going mad. Still the seed of doubt had been planted I needed to counsil the highest autority on this matter. My mother.
She told me Saint Nicolas was not real. Still I couldn't believe. Who where all those people I asked, who was that man getting of that giant ship? They where all dressed up, it was a big ruse she said. And again I asked why would you lie about this, I was shook that such a thing could have happened on such a grand scale.
To this she had no clear answer. She told me it was a tradition, a festival for the kids to enjoy and get candy and presents.
Long story short my young mind was blown.
Ofcourse, children are easy to deceive. Because they know very little. But then again the whole practise seems kind of strange to me now.
The reason I am telling you this story is that I learned something very important because of it. Every person can be deceived and it seems to depend on; the effort put into the deceit, our own ignorance on the subject or about what we see and most important our willingness to believe one thing over an other.
(Gettier problem)
In philosophy and science, one might be credited with knowing the truth when they have a justified true belief. We measure our beliefs against the reality we seem to experience. When I have a rock in my hand and I let it go, I believe that it will drop to the ground. The fact that it does justifies my belief. In this way we are able to make out (just for a little bit) what is real and what is not, what is true and what is false.
1)if there where aliens and governments knew about them they would have told us.
Try to imagine what the existence of intelligent life would implicate for us as humans and the way that we are living today. Differences from cultural, socio-economical, ethnical or religious perspectives would seem less important all of a sudden.
Lots of things that are managed by governments are classified. I don't think they would declassify a phenomenon that could not only change the world substantially but would probably also topple the current political powerstructures.
(2)Or aliens would have presented themselves in a way that everyone would know about them.
I think it is hard enough to speculate about what humans will do tomorrow, how can we start to imagine what motives other intelligent beings might have?
(3)Newspapers and TV shows would report on it with a great intensity.
There have been many reports of UFO sightings in mainstream and alternative media. There are many astronauts, scientists, high ranked military officials and civilians that have reported sightings of UFO's. Most of these reports have radar, video or many eye witness claims that serve as evidence for these reports.
Here are some astronauts that believe in the presence of aliens:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4386290/Nasa-astronauts-reveal-think-aliens-real.html
The former director of NASA loosely talking about the existence of aliens.
This was just an introduction!:) I will write about recent scientific standpoints on extraterrestial life tomorrow and a possible alien structure being build around 'Tabby's Star'
Dyson sphere being build around a Star.
