UFO Fact Or Fiction Essay Example For Students

UFO Fact Or Fiction Essay annonUnidentified flying objects, or UFOs, as theyre fondly called, areone of the centurys most intriguing and controversial mysteries. Sinceancient times, UFOs of all types have been accounted for. More today thanever, hundreds of thinkers, theologians, and scientists have tried toanswer why there are or whether there arent UFOs. According to some, thespeculation that UFOs are alien spacecrafts from another world is anabsurd and foolish proposal. Others vehemently disagree and assert thatextraterrestrial life is not only possible, but such life forms may besuperior, technologically advanced beings who visit our Earth regularly. Are these flying saucers a figment of our imagination? Or, are theya genuine reality we prefer to dismiss because we fear the scary truththat we are not the only master race? Are we hesitant because societydubs such immature psycho tantamount to subscribing to belief in ghosts?These are a few of the many pertinent UFO questions the mature individualmust address. One of the most popular theories that support and explains theexistence of alien beings is the ancient astronaut theory. This theorycontains three main schools of thought. The first states that aliens bredwith our primitive forebears thereby creating modern man. The second isquite similar. Aliens performed genetic engineering on apes therebycreating the Homo Sapiens and mans intelligence. The third, and leastaccepted, is that colonists from another galaxy came to Earth, mated withthe primitives and established a high level of culture, before beingdestroyed by some natural catastrophe. And upon this catastrophe anddestruction, we build and grow (Fitzgerald 1). Berossus, a Babylonianscholar, may have been the first astronaut historian. He said that animals endowed with reason bestowed the Sumerian culture before 3000BCE. The Sumerians, along with their cultural inheritors, theBabylonians, never referred to such beings as gods. Rather they weredepicted as disgusting abominations, a desc ription only deserved byuninvited alien visitors (2). One step further takes the astronaut theory and surmises that withit, we can understand the later religious cultures, such as the Hebrewswho are thought to have borrowed much of Sumerian practice. Suchreligions and secret societies, with their elaborate and complicatedrituals may actually be preserving from a previous epoch fragments of anesoteric and little understood knowledge, just as the Egyptian, Hebrew,and Mayan priests guarded in their temples the inspired word of theirself-possessed creators (3). Alien originators may have set down certainrites which became confused over the years, resulting in the variousancient religions; aliens being the source of our notion of God. Thisalso may explain how miles long designs, only viewable from the air, werecreated in ancient times. The only rationalization for the possibility ofsuch designs is that the ancients had assistance from the sky, namelyextraterrestrial assistance. Many UFO theorists, astronomer Morris Jessupbeing the forerunner , go even further: not only were pre-Biblical andBiblical times full of Alien intervention, but he contends that the UFOphenomenon is the missing link between Biblical supernatural accounts ofmiracles and established, contradicting science. Jessup explains thatnothing is supernatural and nothing is outside nature (12). Hecontinues that the Bible is full of UFO accounts, depicted by variousdescriptions: angels, the revelation on Mt. Sinai, the burning bush, andElijahs levitation to heaven. Jessup says the Bible is a physicalrecord, not a collection of divine revelation although the miracles ofthis and all religions invite rational and physical explanation, if wegrant the existence of spatial intelligence (13).' Another thinker,Brinsley Trent, follows the theme of extraterrestrial interpretations ofthe Bible and claims that the Garden of Eden was, as many ancient textspoint out, not the underground, but in the Underworld i.e. outside theorbit of earth, meaning Mars. When the Great Fl ood occurred, Noah built agreat boat, a spaceship, and landed on Earth (Life 16). However,Cornell astronomer Carl Sagan warns that this ancient astronaut theory andthe saucer myths represent a compromise between the need to believe ina traditional God and the contemporary pressures to accept thepronouncement of science (Fitzgerald 5); therefore, according to Sagan,the proposition that aliens exist and the astronaut theory should betossed. Many theorists assume the Bible is a totally separate entity anddont associate or contradict the UFO phenomenon with the well establishedtheological belief system in the supernatural. Wilhelm Reich, for one, anoted Austrian psychoanalyst, claimed to have witnessed various UFO craftsand believed that these aliens are hostile. Such aliens wish to rob Earthof orgone, a cosmic life energy allegedly present in air, water, and allorganic matter (Life 52).He proceeds to say that saucers run on this orgone energy, hence exhuminga bluish color due to orgone exhaust. Moreover, orgone exhaust isdeadly orgone (Life), causing sickness in people and creating parcheddesert where ever the crafts land. The Swiss psychologist, Carl Jung,totally differed. He theorized that all people can tap into(a )collective unconciousness-an area of the unconscious thatcontainsinformation derived from the experiences of the human race as a wholerather than the individualThis storehouse contains universal symbolscall ed archtypesthat present themselves spontaneously in dreams orvisionsevoking strong imaginative responseOne such image was themandala, a disk shaped symbol that represents completion real objects, but rather mandalasvisioned by people lookingforequilibrium (53).Jungs approach is quite debatable. However, as shaky an argument itmay sound, its as viable as those who welcome the notion that aliens doexist. Abortion Clinics Should Not Be Closed In The U.S. EssayIn World War Two, Allied and Axis air pilots witnessed these eerieluminous balls that would either chase planes or zip in and out of theplanes courses. Such oddities were to be eventually called foofighters. World War Two was a time of secrecy and great inventions. Instinctively, the allies thought they were some kind of high tech Germaninnovation. Naturally, too, the Germans thought vice versa. Therefore,nothing of an extraterrestrial nature was ever reported (Life 26), atleast officially. There are countless reports where U.S. air force personnelwitnessed a flying saucer and reported it; only to be told that it wasprobably a jet or weather balloon. Despite the fact that Project BlueBook (a government UFO investigation) yielded a 1,465 page scientificreport containing charts, photographs and analyses, worth about a halfmillion dollars in research, the government stated in a 1969 news releasethat due to lack of any significant conclusions, UFO research would beterminated. Most fans of the research only read the introduction andconclusion sections of the report. Unfortunately those sections werewritten by an enthusiast of the U.S. Air Force: and hence embraced theirpolicy of denial and falsehood (Life 118). Consequently, the governmentsdecision to halt research was accepted with little protest or suspicion. Yet, the question whether the government is holding back vital UFOinformation is still very strong. Many contend that the U.S. governmentis doing so in an effort to ensure national safety and prevent potentialmass hysteria by publicizing the existence of alien beings. In 1947, in New Mexico, one of the most famous and potent pieces ofevidence literally befell the United States. Barney Barnett, and somelocal archeological students found shriveled and broken up pieces of shinymetal and scattered dead bodies all over. A few days later, the army hadquarantined the area, shipped everything away, and told the witnesses thatit was their patriotic duty to keep the incident a secret. Nonetheless,Barnett and the students went public about it (Life 74). To this day,hundreds of reports and books detail this famous Roswell incident andclaim that the government, again, is hiding undeniable proof of alienlife. The Viking mission to Mars in 1976 is another prime example of thegovernments policy of non cooperation and denial. The Voyager had takentwo pictures of a rock form of a human face on Mars surface. Before a1992 Observer voyage to Mars, many requested NASA to take high resolutionphotos of this Face to determine whether it is really a threedimensional rock formation. NASA responded in the negative, although thegovernment gave NASA an extra $90 million for the exact purpose of seekingout Martian life forms. NASA gave a stupid explanation, claiming that the1992 Observer was only photographing meter long objects, which the Facecould be a candidate target. However, there are no plans to tailor themission to assure that the Face is imaged (Boyce).In a letter, Bob Bletchman cynically responded: How can NASA not tiltthe camera to possibly answer the most profound question ever asked, Arewe alone? (Bletchman)Nevertheless, many scientists maintain that the many UFO sightingsmay simply be meteor ites, some type of atmospheric phenomena, or hightech, saucer-like airplanes used by the military. One factor that greatlycontributes to UFO skepticism is created by the thousands of UFO hoaxesmade each year. A prime and famous example of such hoaxes occurred in NewMexico, 1963. Paul Villa claimed that UFO aliens had become so friendlywith him that they agreed to pose their ship for a camera shot. Using thesame high-tech computers as was used for the Trent photos, scientistsrevealed a tiny wire that was used to suspend the UFO in the air (Life140). Although its very easy to scoff at the thought of Martians andflying saucers due to the subjects emotional sensationalistic attributesand attractabilty to the fantasizer, one can not simply dismiss thepossibility. There is too much evidence and too many good and honestpeople out there who can give testimony. Too often, we hear of the manygovernment cover-ups and attempts to keep things concealed. Although thegovernment tries hard, they cant keep it a secret forever. Little bylittle, as more incidents occur and as more is leaked out, the world willknow that we are not alone. It should be noted that this report by no means begins to evenscratch the surface of the UFO mystery. Not only are thousands of bookswritten on each issue, but each individual case is worthy of whole bookson its own. It therefore follows that this paper was a simple over of anoverview of the massive topics and subtopics that follow. Works CitedBletchman, Bob. National Board, International Mutual UFO Network. Bletchman, Bob. National Board, International Mutual UFO Network. Letters. Connecticut: 1988Boyce, Jacobs. Discipline Scientist, Planetary Geoscience, Solar SystemExploration Division, NASA. Letter. Washington, D.C.: 1988Editors of Time-Life Books, eds. The UFO Phenomenon. Virginia: Time-Life Books, 1987Fitzgerald, Randall. The Complete Book of Extraterrestrial Encounters. NewYork: Collier Books, 1979Jacobs, David M. Secret life. New York: Simon ; Schuster. 1992Works ConsultedFact or Fiction: The Roswell Autopsy. TV Program. N.p.: n.p., 1997.