What is the point in showing people evidence of UFOs

[Gilhelmi]

To start I believe that Aliens exist and have been visiting Earth for at least 6000 years. Not important to this discussion but that is what i believe.

I was thinking today, why tell anyone you saw a UFO or that you were abducted by aliens. I mean other than a few people who seriously research extraterrestrials, few would believe you. Even this a video of the alien abducting you, bringing you back, and saying (in alien language) 'thank you for helping with our science', and a shirt stained with alien blood as you tried to fight the effects of the parallelizing ray in the spaceship; someone on youtube will still say it is that it is made up and anyone can synthesize alien blood using gelatin, black food coloring, and human blood and no lab will certify the results because then, they think, they will be discredited and lose their jobs.

So what do you think, is it still worth the pursuit of knowledge even knowing that no one will believe you (at least for the foreseeable future)?

EDIT

Spoiler: history channel shows found on youtube. If the history channel is no longer a valid source because of these shows, makes you wonder if thats my point.

There are another 7 parts after this that you can look up yourself

EDIT2
Yes, the woman who swears she will deny seeing the spaceship if I tell anyone she saw it is just looking for attention /sarcasm. Many of the people I have spoken to I have done so in confidence because they do not want the people next door to know they saw a UFO and think they are crazy. That is what I am up against locally. Members of my Church think I am crazy for believing in extraterrestrials (though they do like the philosophical view I have on them).

 

[The_Healer]

Proving that something does exist is often very difficult. But, if you have undeniable evidence that something exists, its very hard for people to deny it.

People are generally not open to the possibility, but if you present them with good evidence they will be quite easily persuaded. Giving up hope however means that it will never be proved to anyone, as the evidence will never be found (unless something unexpected happens).

So basically, if you believe, keep believing. If you are right you might get lucky and stumble upon some evidence that people can't deny. But if you just give up on believing, you will never find the evidence and thus nothing will be proved to anyone.

 

[oxiclean]

extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

I see myself as a skeptic, and I am not against the idea of the existence of aliens (though probably not visiting earth). in fact, i believe that alien life is very likely. but currently, evidence is either easily refuted or made by crazy people. show me empirical evidence, and I'll believe it.

 

[swolf]

"To those who believe, no explanation is necessary. To those who do not, none will suffice." - Joseph Dunniger

Plus, normal people + anonymity = jerks.

Plus, without definitive undeniable proof that's something that many people will not believe. I think it's possible but unlikely.

 

[dmase]

I for one don't think aliens have visited the planet, but i draw up the same conclusion for religion, I haven't seen it yet. My biggest thing is why wouldn't they make themselves known? Why would they fly their spaceships into areas where its obvious people are watching? There is equipment on earth to sense infrared cameras, jet fighter radio signals etc etc, yet they are seen. They can't be letting themselves be seen or they would have made a public introduction and people that developed space travel i'm sure wouldn't accidentally let themselves be revealed.

Some people want attention, some people are crazy, some people have an overactive imagination, and some people are too damn gullible.

 

[Eggsnham]

Because humans have a need for attention, we all do. Some of us will do more to get attention than others, and some will appear schizophrenic in order to get attention.

Speaking of schizophrenia, that probably plays a lot into the field of paranormal and extraterrestrial research.

Spoiler: And before anybody goes...

And tells me that I don't know what schizophrenia is really like; I do. I have an aunt with schizophrenia who will frequently mention seeing things such as long dead relatives and UFO's. Of course, by this point in her life she's accepted that these are all results of her disorder, but she still mentions them.

Just thought I'd say that. You'd be surprised at the amount of people who don't understand that schizophrenia can be that severe.

 

[Coldie]

Nobody doubts that UFOs exist, no evidence is necessary there. UFOs are everywhere, seen by millions every day, although they usually don't stay unidentified for long. Weather, planes, birds, but no Superman.

As for the so-called "aliens" that are supposedly visiting (or not visiting) Earth (or not Earth), Occam's Razor applies here more than anywhere else. Do not create unnecessary entities. If the aliens are real, good for them. If they are not real, good for us, I guess. Either way, all the cards are in their hypothetical hands and unless they choose to actually do something, their alleged presence (or lack thereof) here (or elsewhere) is absolutely irrelevant.

The simplest explanation is most likely the correct one. Until explicitly (and globally) proven otherwise, there are no "aliens" on Earth, no UFOs are a product of extraterrestrial intelligence, there is no Asari soulmate waiting for you just two Relay jumps away, the Borg are not going to assimilate you (at least in the next couple hours), and that thing in the sky is, in fact, a moon.

 

[Gilhelmi]

All I am saying is why should I go out and find evidence when people are just going to assume (without any proof) that my evidence is fake. I could videotape and perfectly document a UFO landing and have 10 people as eyewitnesses and everyone who is a hardcore skeptic will still say we were making it up in an elaborate hoax. I suspect I could have a downed UFO in my back yard and it would still be called a hoax even after it restarted its engines and took off. No one (who is not termed crazy) is willing to come forward because they believe they will be a social outcast if they do come and tell what they saw.

 

[skitzo van]

I consider it that someone wants to feel like a discoverer, so that history will remember them as, "The guy who wandered into the forest with a camera" not, "The guy who couldn't get hired at McDonald's".

 

[maxben]

To start I believe that Aliens exist and have been visiting Earth for at least 6000 years. Not important to this discussion but that is what i believe.

I was thinking today, why tell anyone you saw a UFO or that you were abducted by aliens. I mean other than a few people who seriously research extraterrestrials, few would believe you. Even this a video of the alien abducting you, bringing you back, and saying (in alien language) 'thank you for helping with our science', and a shirt stained with alien blood as you tried to fight the effects of the parallelizing ray in the spaceship; someone on youtube will still say it is that it is made up and anyone can synthesize alien blood using gelatin, black food coloring, and human blood and no lab will certify the results because then, they think, they will be discredited and lose their jobs.

So what do you think, is it still worth the pursuit of knowledge even knowing that no one will believe you (at least for the foreseeable future)?

But here is the problem, you BELIEVE they exist so every piece of questionable "evidence" you have merely reinforces your pre-existing belief and makes you confused about why other people "just don't see it".
I would only listen to proof about extraordinary things from people who don't believe in it and have no pre-existing emotional connections to such a belief. That, or experiencing it for myself.

 

[RvLeshrac]

All I am saying is why should I go out and find evidence when people are just going to assume (without any proof) that my evidence is fake. I could videotape and perfectly document a UFO landing and have 10 people as eyewitnesses and everyone who is a hardcore skeptic will still say we were making it up in an elaborate hoax. I suspect I could have a downed UFO in my back yard and it would still be called a hoax even after it restarted its engines and took off. No one (who is not termed crazy) is willing to come forward because they believe they will be a social outcast if they do come and tell what they saw.

Of course, given that *every single bit* of supposed "proof" that flying-saucer proponents dredge up is horribly grainy or otherwise degraded footage, I wouldn't worry about having a flying saucer in your backyard.

Here's the deal: If an alien race travelled billions, or even a dozen billion, of light years to reach us, why would they only appear to the dredges of society? Why wouldn't they contact news-makers, kings, presidents?

If they arrived and had nothing to offer, why should we care? If they arrived and didn't want to be seen, why should we care?

These are the problems with "believing" in extra-terrestrial visitation. Exactly why should we care to debate it, even, when the supposed "evidence" is so incredibly poor, and no one can seem to present a coherent explanation of why extra-terrestrials advanced enough to travel through the vast void of space would primarily want to visit drunken backwoods folk?

*edit*

By the way, <a href=http://www.randi.org>James Randi has $1,000,000 for you if you truly have "irrefutable," scientifically verifiable evidence of extra-terrestrial visitation. There are sceptical organizations in nearly every country in the world which also have cash prizes for the same, or similar, proof of claims.

 

[Hollock]

OP is in regular text, my response is in bold

To start I believe that Aliens exist and have been visiting Earth for at least 6000 years. Not important to this discussion but that is what i believe.

I was thinking today, why tell anyone you saw a UFO or that you were abducted by aliens. I mean other than a few people who seriously research extraterrestrials, few would believe you. Even this a video of the alien abducting you

94% of the time people don't have pictures of the interior of the ship, they usually have pictures of dots in the sky

and saying (in alien language) 'thank you for helping with our science',

like this? sfal;jkfdaskljasd dkdlsale

and a shirt stained with alien blood as you tried to fight the effects of the parallelizing ray in the spaceshipsomeone on youtube will still say it is that it is made up and anyone can synthesize alien blood using gelatin, black food coloring, and human blood and no lab will certify the results because then, they think, they will be discredited and lose their jobs.

If a scientist had undeniable irrevocable proof, they would be praised, not discredited. If they were discredited, then they were most likely proven wrong

So what do you think, is it still worth the pursuit of knowledge even knowing that no one will believe you (at least for the foreseeable future)?

Sure if you like doing it, why not. Chances are we're not alone in the universe, go for it. But know that the chances are unbelievably slim of someone getting genuine proof.

 

[Oilerfan92]

The issue is that we have many top scientific groups scanning the space sky for life and they have found NOTHING. Yet every so often some hick from the south (not dissing all southerners, just the hicks) seems to either have one walk up to their back window or abduct them.

Abductions are another thing. Theyre taking us to study, or atleast thats the theory. But if this civilization is capable of developing space travel, youd think theyd have technology to give them longer than one night (or however long it takes the "abducted" to sober up). Like, your can travel at the speed of light (which from what ive heard, mathematically means that (assuming they came from the Andromeda Galaxy (the closest galaxy to us) they have been traveling for 20 years (in our time, when you go the speed of light time changes, i dont remember how though)) and youve developed teh technology to not get picked up by the afformentioned scientists (yet they are easily spotted by rednecks and insane "scientists") and abduct the people. Yet they always take the person, and have him back in 3 days like a DVD rental.

Why dont they just abduct one/several homeless people or whoever, you know, people that have NOBODY that knows they exist, then just take them for as long as they need... or maybe they already do...

 

[Godavari]

I think the reason you see no point in showing people evidence is because whatever evidence you have isn't good enough. If you had legitimate hard evidence of aliens, then you should have no problem convincing a lot of people. But I doubt that such proof will appear any time soon.

 

[Oilerfan92]

Also, whenever people "describe" the "aliens". They always give them prodomitly human characteristics (eyeballs, 10 digit fingers, legs, general body structure (2 arms where we have them, 2 legs where we have them, a chest cavity), similar face design (eyes, ears, nose and mouth are in the same place as ours), etc).

We have evolved (assuming they also evolved) countless lightyears away, how is it that they managed to develop the same or similar "design" as we did ?

 

[Gilhelmi]

To start I believe that Aliens exist and have been visiting Earth for at least 6000 years. Not important to this discussion but that is what i believe.

I was thinking today, why tell anyone you saw a UFO or that you were abducted by aliens. I mean other than a few people who seriously research extraterrestrials, few would believe you. Even this a video of the alien abducting you, bringing you back, and saying (in alien language) 'thank you for helping with our science', and a shirt stained with alien blood as you tried to fight the effects of the parallelizing ray in the spaceship; someone on youtube will still say it is that it is made up and anyone can synthesize alien blood using gelatin, black food coloring, and human blood and no lab will certify the results because then, they think, they will be discredited and lose their jobs.

So what do you think, is it still worth the pursuit of knowledge even knowing that no one will believe you (at least for the foreseeable future)?

But here is the problem, you BELIEVE they exist so every piece of questionable "evidence" you have merely reinforces your pre-existing belief and makes you confused about why other people "just don't see it".
I would only listen to proof about extraordinary things from people who don't believe in it and have no pre-existing emotional connections to such a belief. That, or experiencing it for myself.

But I believe because I saw something that I can not explain. No I am not going into it here because I do not feel like being called a lier tonight. So by your definition of credible sources if I convinced you that UFOs visit Earth then you are no longer a credible witness or if I showed my evidence to a skeptic and they now believe then you would not believe them either, because they believe.

snip

*snip*

By the way, <a href=http://www.randi.org>James Randi has $1,000,000 for you if you truly have "irrefutable," scientifically verifiable evidence of extra-terrestrial visitation. There are sceptical organizations in nearly every country in the world which also have cash prizes for the same, or similar, proof of claims.

The only irrefutable proof they will accept is a dead body, and I will not to kill those that might be followers of God (though their actions suggest they are not, but to err on the side of caution I will not, because I do not know why they are here, I suspect a few thing but I do not know). They will not give me a ship without a fight (probable I never asked) so still between a rock and a hard place.

I swear, if the alien were a serial killer and the abducted were the victims (which, in a since, they are) the alien would be fried on the electric chair.

 

[fletch_talon]

But I believe because I saw something that I can not explain. No I am not going into it here because I do not feel like being called a lier tonight.

You wouldn't be called a liar. You'd simply be told what I'm going to tell you.
Just because you can't explain it doesn't mean it can't be explained.

I'm like most people here I neither believe, disbelieve or care whether aliens have been visiting us.
To be honest your assumption that nobody would believe it even if there was undeniable proof, is pretty far out. How can you know how the world would react to undeniable proof when it has yet to have been provided?

 

[Extraintrovert]

But I believe because I saw something that I can not explain.

That... no. Just no. That is what is called "jumping to conclusions" and is opposed to basic scientific principles and simple logic. If something is not explained, gather more evidence, don't conjure explanations.

On topic: Yes, evidence of any kind should be shown, but it should not be claimed to be anything more than it is. If for example someone produces a photograph of an unidentified flying object, then it should be presented as evidence of an unidentified flying object, not evidence of aliens, as it is UNIDENTIFIED. If proponents of alien contact could do that more often, they would have more credibility.

EDIT: Damn, ninja'd. Well played.