Are we alone? This is one of the ultimate questions and, so far, there is no definitive answer. This reality is at odds, however, with the steady flow of confident but unsubstantiated UFO claims coming from prominent politicians, journalists, and podcasters.
Add to this the broad and persistent influence of entertaining films, deceptive pseudo-documentaries, and sensationalized releases of government and military files, and it’s not surprising that more than a third of Americans believe intelligent extraterrestrials have visited the Earth. According to a Chapman University survey, 35.3% of American adults believe that aliens have visited the Earth in modern times, and 42.7% believe aliens visited in ancient times.1 These are disturbing numbers for claims that have not even remotely approached scientific confirmation.2
A story is only a story until someone backs it up with enough appropriate and verifiable evidence. To date, all we have for UFOs are eyewitness accounts, ambiguous images and data, and conspiracy theories. This is why there is still no rational reason to conclude that aliens have ever been here.
Tips for Evaluating UFO Claims
The following list of points can help defend the mind against delusion-capture during those inevitable close encounters with UFO hype. After reading, please share the list with others to help promote clearer thinking about this topic.
- UFO enthusiasts often emphasize the sanity and honesty of people who claim to have seen alien spacecraft. The flawed or disingenuous implication is that a witness is either mentally compromised in some way, lying, or saw a real alien spacecraft. This omits another possible explanation: witnesses can be sincere but mistaken about what they remember seeing. Competent, sincere people get things wrong all the time.3
- A UFO (unidentified flying object) is not synonymous with “alien spacecraft.” The “U” means “unidentified.” A question is not an answer. Mystery is not revelation. Anyone who cares about reality must accept that an unusual observation, intriguing clue, or fascinating story may begin an investigation, but it cannot end one.4
- Human vision and memory are not perfectly reliable. The eyes and brain do not operate like a video camera system. What we see and what we remember are both constructs of the brain. Everything we see is a heavily edited representation of reality. Every memory is subject to distortion and sometimes they are entirely fabricated. It is also directly relevant to UFO sightings that our vision and memory can be strongly influenced by prior beliefs.5
- Your skeptical mind should go to red alert whenever you hear a person without relevant physics expertise declare that a UFO “defied the laws of physics.” Much of physics is counterintuitive. Objects can behave in surprising ways in the atmosphere and in space. Further complicating matters, an observer who doesn’t readily know the size, direction, speed, or identity of an airborne object can struggle to analyze it accurately. It is remarkably easy, for example, for an unknown object to seem as if it is hovering or maneuvering in impossible ways when it’s doing neither. In the age of drones, this has never been more relevant.6
- An unidentified radar blip is not proof of alien visitation. Machines are not perfect. Radar systems can malfunction, be improperly calibrated, or produce data that well-meaning people misinterpret.
- The expertise of some eyewitnesses, especially military and commercial pilots, is a popular selling point among UFO enthusiasts. However, all pilots rely on the same fallible vision and memory systems that everyone else does. This means their observations and memories alone cannot constitute conclusive proof.7
- Wanting something to be true can lead the best of us into irrational belief. For this reason, we must tread carefully when tempted by a claim that excites us. I am a lifelong fan of science fiction; Star Trek is practically my religion.8 I pay attention to UFO news. I’ve read countless books about astronomy and astrobiology, visited SETI Institute’s headquarters, and interviewed a variety of relevant experts. Fortunately, I’m sufficiently aware of my emotional vulnerabilities on this subject to have avoided sliding into fantasy somewhere along the way. I want to believe—but not at the expense of my intellectual integrity and personal dignity.
- The late astronomer Carl Sagan popularized the phrase, “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” This general concept could not be more relevant to UFOs. Intelligent extraterrestrials visiting the Earth would probably be the most significant event in our history. Therefore, the evidence for it must rise to an appropriately high standard.9
Some people in the UFO-promotion industry push the idea that skepticism is denial. This is not true. Many scientists, for example, are as open-minded and eager to know as anyone else. But they are responsible enough to wait for evidence.10 Given the enormous size of the universe and the vast number of worlds that might harbor life, a reasonable argument can be made that extraterrestrial life forms, including technological civilizations, are likely to exist out there somewhere. Despite the absence of strong evidence, it also is possible that intelligent aliens have reached us. However, until someone uses the methods and principles of science to establish that it happened, there is no reason to believe.
