-Caveat Lector-
Oct. 25, 1999
No evidence to support existence of aliens
By Donald L. Gilleland
A FLORIDA TODAY guest column
Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) have intrigued us since the beginning of
time. Now and then, however, they take on greater significance as something
spectacular thrusts them into the public consciousness again.
The recent FLORIDA TODAY forum in which a panel of authoritative spokesmen
examined the possibility of life elsewhere in the universe was such an event.
And we were fortunate to have such an illustrious group visit Melbourne.
However, before them, the popular television show and movie, "X-Files," and
the 1997 publication of The Day After Roswell, by Col. Philip J. Corso
(Ret.), also spurred public speculation about the possibility of aliens
visiting Earth.
Most UFO accounts rely on our willingness to believe that the U.S. government
has captured space ships and alien visitors and is keeping the details of
those activities under Top Secret wraps. And that aliens kidnap Earthlings
for short periods to experiment on them, safely returning them to Earth once
their alien curiosity is satisfied. It never seems to matter much that there
is little credible evidence to support these themes. At least the FLORIDA
TODAY panel treated the subject with the seriousness it deserves.
When most people ask if you believe in UFOs they really mean do you believe
in extraterrestrial space travel and do you believe aliens have visited
Earth? These are two very different questions. When we first sent men to the
moon in 1969, we demonstrated the feasibility of space travel, so we have
irrefutable evidence that such travel is possible. However, we have no
corresponding evidence that any aliens have been here.
Think about it. Everywhere we go we leave a mountain of debris: A flag
planted on the moon, a lunar land rover still sitting there, tons of
equipment left behind, exploratory probes on Mars and other planets,
satellites crashed on the surface of other heavenly bodies. It would be
impossible for us to deny we had been to space.
On the other hand, with more than 12,000 UFO sightings in the last 100 years,
we have no real credible evidence of any alien visitors to Earth. How
curious! If they've been here, where is their debris? Is it possible they
left nothing behind on any of their trips? Even if that was plausible, you
would think that in 12,000 sightings it would be at least a statistical
probability that someone with a still or video camera would capture a really
good photograph or film of these visitors, instead of the blurred pictures
that are occasionally published and are so easily faked.
Perhaps alien artifacts have altered the course of 20th Century history,
perhaps extraterrestrial visitors are studying our civilization from an
intergalactic vantage point that obscures our ability to detect them in any
detail, or perhaps entrepreneurs have just tapped into our curiosity and
fertile imaginations with very profitable entertainment ventures.
One thing is for sure: UFOs are real, until they are identified. Then they
become something else. Even though there are UFOs that remain unidentified,
that does not necessarily mean we have been visited by alien creatures from
outer space.
I believe in space travel and expect one day we will send an expeditionary
space shuttle to some distant planet. And, like the late Carl Sagan, until I
see some credible hard evidence to the contrary, I am not yet ready to
believe that aliens are visiting Earth - despite whatever agents Scully and
Mulder from "The X-Files" say!
But I sure appreciate that reputable scientists, like those at the SETI
Institute of Mountain View, Calif., think the question is important enough to
continue searching for life somewhere else in the universe. One day we may
truly have alien visitors here, if we don't visit them on their planet first.
Gilleland lives in Melbourne.
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