(April 10, 2014 at 7:58 am)Pickup_shonuff Wrote: Bill Hicks! Awesome.
Boru, what makes you so sure that nobody has ever encountered an alien? You sound like a pseudoskeptic.
Because the reports of people doing so are: 1) sketchy in the extreme; 2) never verifiable; 3) amenable to more prosaic explanations; and 4) unlikely by their very nature. Attend:
-Why, in all the thousands of reported encounters with ETs, we haven't had a single artifact or piece of knowledge produced that was unquestionable not of terrestrial origin?
-Why, with all the vastly advanced technology it would take to cross an interstellar gulf to reach the Earth, haven't the aliens developed a fool-proof mind wiping technique so abductees wouldn't remember the experience?
-How do the aliens get here? Remember, the speed-of-light barrier isn't a technological one, it seems to be built into the very fabric of the universe (I'll save you some typing on this one: ALL potential answers will be ad hoc, wishful thinking, or fantasy).
-What could the aliens possible want from us? It can't be resources, as ours aren't depleting any faster than can be accounted for by our gross appetites. It can't be to study human beings. If it were, the aliens would abduct people and never return them, avoiding all possibility of detection. So...why do they keep coming here?
-How is it possible that no disinterested observer has ever witnessed an abduction? When told of the Bigelow 'report' that about 100 million Earthlings have been the victim of alien abduction, Carl Sagan is said to have commented, 'It's surprising more of the neighbours haven't noticed.'
-Many abductees claim they've had implants. Why have we never - not once - found such an implant?
-Why, if the aliens are so interested in us, are they always showing up in out-of-the-way places where teeth outnumber IQ points? Why not London, Moscow, or Washington DC? Why hasn't a ship landed in Beijing and announced, 'Here we are!!' ?
I don't dismiss the existence of extraterrestrial life. I think that life in the universe - even intelligent life - is probably common, if not ubiquitous. But I've read the accounts of alleged abductees, as well as speculation on how the aliens bred us from apes, built the pyramids, sank Atlantis, et cetera ad nauseam, and none of them stand up to scrutiny. So, if looking at the evidence and coming to a reasonable conclusion makes me a pseudo-skeptic, so be it. Better that than a credulous git who assumes that since some bloke wrote a book about it, he actually encountered aliens.
Boru
‘I can’t be having with this.’ - Esmeralda Weatherwax
