KK: Unfortunately as painful as this may sound to the UFO community, the
answer is no, and here's why.
  All UFO cases can be broken down into four fundamental categories, the
first of which is a sighting, when a person sees a UFO. UFO photos and films
are also included in this category since they, too, are supposed to depict
what the witness or witnesses allegedly saw.
  The second category includes the radar-visual cases, instances where a UFO
is seen and tracked on radar.
  The third category covers the landing-trace cases, incidents where a UFO
allegedly hovers above or near the ground or lands and produces some sort of
physical evidence to show that it has been there. Examples of such physical
evidence are landing-gear impressions, radioactivity, so-called burnt rings,
flattened grass, and so on.
  The fourth and final category of UFO cases is the alien-being or abduction
cases: instances in which the actual alien pilots are supposedly seen in or
about their craft, or have forcibly taken onboard their ship one or more
human beings. Usually, these people claim they are subjected to some sort of
physical examination or interrogation (sometimes with a sexual component) and
are then released.
  Surely the existence of millions of reports worldwide proves something,
doesn't it? Of course it does, but unlike a good deal of my colleagues, I
don't profess to have the answer as to what it might prove. The reason for my
cautious stand rests with the very nature of this so-called evidence. To be
blunt, most of it is scientifically worthless.
  Consider if you will the first category of UFO data: sightings. In truth, a
sighting is nothing more than a story. You can't prove it actually happened.
Unless glaring evidence of a hoax is detected, all you can do is accept the
person's word that what he or she is telling you is the truth. After you've
gotten this far and made this leap of faith (not science), you have another
problem: How can you prove that the incident actually occurred precisely the
way the witness describes? Practically and scientifically speaking, you
cannot.
  What about the second category of UFO reports: radar-visual cases? Once
again we're left with the same problem in that you cannot prove that the
object in question is an extraterrestrial spacecraft. It could be a secret
military vehicle for all we know.
  The landing-trace or landing-track cases offer theoretically the largest
potential for scientific pay dirt. But while there are more than 4,500 such
reports on record, a truly unexplainable physical trace or irrefutably
extraterrestrial artifact has yet to be uncovered, even in the Roswell case.
  The "creature" reports and abduction reports bring us full circle to the
same fundamental problem once again: they are nothing more than stories,
perhaps genuine, perhaps not.
  This is why I say that there is no hard scientific evidence for UFOs' being
extraterrestrial spacecraft. However, keep in mind that there doesn't
necessarily have to be such proof in order for a "phenomenon" to exist. I
believe that whatever each UFO report ultimately turns out to be, we can only
learn from these answers. As long as we strive to be scientific, objective,
and apply these lessons, the subject is worth studying and we are better off
for it.
 -> Alice4Mac 2.4.4 E QWK Hiya:05Nov94 
Origin: --->     True Believers Truly Foolish
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