Lesson: Keep your UFO opinions to yourself on YouTube.

This week I watched a YouTube video in which a scientist explained his skepticism about UFOs. I commented with my own lack of belief, and got bombarded with conspiracy theorists who tried to discredit me, and insist that we've been visited.

Their BEST argument was that there should at least be an investigation. I can't argue with that, but I can't help but feel that they'll only accept the results of an investigation that proves their preconceptions, and would not be the least bit swayed by any conclusion other than that we have been visited by aliens from another planet.

Most of their "evidence" was in the form of listing all the unexplained sightings they'd heard of. They loved to quote government officials and scientists who stated that something was of "no known origin". They seemed to believe that if there was no known explanation for something, we can only conclude that the sightings were actually extra-terrestrial space ships. In other words: the lack of proof was proof enough for them. They had a religious fervor about it.

In my opinion (based on statements I've heard from scientists) the sheer vastness of the universe makes it likely that the nearest life is hundreds of light years away -- and that life is unlikely to be intelligent. With so many stars and planets, intelligent life surely exists out there, but is sure to be so rare that it may not even exist in our own galaxy, but assuming it does, they'll never make it here. And the likelihood that they WOULD make it here at -- of all times -- the same point in history in which popular fiction has planted the UFO idea in our heads... well, I can't do math anywhere near that complex.

I argued my points until YouTube returned an error message telling me that I had reached my posting limit. I didn't know there was a posting limit.

With the billions and billions of stars and even galaxies, the possibility of what we consider "intelligent" life has to be not only a distinct possibility, but a certainty. Whether we ever get to meet them is another matter.

"With so many stars and planets, intelligent life surely exists out there"

I just think it's amusing that they didn't show up until after the creation of the Science Fiction genre. W. G. Wells is to blame.

I dont understand why people have to shit all over that.

I was pretty clear that there's ample reason to believe in intelligent life out there. Believing that they're HERE with no evidence, and making a huge deal out of it is where I have to draw the line.

The video was by Neil DeGrasse Tyson, stating that he didn't believe in UFOs. My initial post was in AGREEMENT and SUPPORT of the video. The wingnuts had to jump all over it. It's not like I went trolling in a pro-UFO discussion.

Why are they so compelled to cling to fairy tales like this?

Decades of investigation have failed to turn up anything concrete. As much as I would like to meet our space brothers, I don't see what other investigating there is to be done.