what will it take for you to believe?

i have been thinking about this a lot lately, especially every time a thread explodes with some people offering flimsy evidence, others defending it and still others debunking it.

i'm certain there are ufos. on the other hand, i believe that most encounters since the late 40s have been very carefully controlled and that the contactees have been men who know how to keep secrets. i tend to be very skeptical of random sightings.

here's the thing: i don't think a single photograph, even if it was legitimate, would be enough to convince me. i think that any single photo or even video, even if genuine, could be successfully debunked as a hoax. it's an old saying in intelligence/psy ops that's been appropriated in politics and marketing "it ain't true, but i can prove it".

stories about encounters and abductions, although i enjoy reading them, are even less convincing. some do have the ring of truth, but i always reserve judgment.

for me, i think what it would require would be multiple photographs/videos/accounts from different angles by unconnected witnesses. it's possible there could be a single photo or a single account so compelling that i believe it, but that doesn't seem very likely to me.
what standard of proof do you think you'll need to believe an incident really happened?

I would need to see a craft or aliens first hand.

Or for there to be a fragment of a ship or alien body part or something analyzed by reputable scientists who conclude it is extraterrestrial. Or if NASA came out with pictures of alien space craft or if SETI had a definite transmission.

Extraordinary proof. A regular person's first hand account is not proof to me and amateur photos and video are too fakeable to be believed. I want to believe and I think all the accounts mean something is happening.

But if someone says they are god incarnate you don't take their word for it because it is an amazing claim and requires amazing proof. Same thing for UFO's, can't take someone's word for it. Need amazing proof. Though, that isn't to say all the accounts aren't compelling. They just don't prove anything.

reply to post by CallMeMaury

I would need to see a craft or aliens first hand.

it would depend on the circumstances under which i saw it myself really. i'd have to be clean, sober and have a compelling view, not just catch glimpse of something weird from an obscure angle. and even then i'd probably try to exhaust mundane explanations before deciding i'd seen something extraordinary.

reply to post by Slothrop



How about all network and cable news channels coming on with LIVE DAYTIME video of an alleged UFO with close ups, etc.? No blurry, blobs of white or yellow tiny lights. There thousands of news crews out there at any given time. All we get are TINY blobs of light that could be anything.

Thousands of cameras and video cameras and still we have NOTHING worthy of being called proof IMHO.

Tells me a lot actually....

Yes, I think there is life out there somewhere but folks, there is NO proof they are here or have been here IMHO.