The Science of Conspiracy Theories

UFO conspiracy theories

UFO conspiracy theories

This is a subject that's right up my alley, so to speak. Ever since the Roswell incident, UFO sightings by the millions have inundated the popular media. People began to see UFO's and aliens everywhere, and it wasn't long until the media began to find UFO's and aliens in the Bible, classic art, Hindu mythology, Mayan culture, and just about everything that has taken place in history, including building the pyramids, Roman engineering wonders, and Nazi technololgy. Many authorities have debunked the idea that UFO's exist and that aliens have visited us. They claim that the governments of the world are deliberately suppressing any knowledge about them because of the advance science and technology that they have provided.

First of all, UFO's are real. A UFO is by definition an Unidentified Flying Object. Many reputable individuals, both professional and not, have seen UFO's in the sky. I have too. The question is: what the heck are they?
On the other hand, I have not as yet seen an alien, and by alien I mean an extraterrestrial intelligent being. I'm still waiting for that. Many people have not only claimed to have seen extraterrestrials, they also have related that they were abducted and experimented on. I don't think that I would like that. Just sayin'.

Just how extensive is this UFO theory? Let me count the ways . . .
The first exploitations of extraterrestrials coming here to Earth goes back to H. G. Wells novel 'War of the Worlds'. Orson Welles propagated this idea in a sensational manner during a radio broadcast that sounded more like an actual news story with on-the-site reporting. It caused a panic. The story, of course, was fiction.
It wasn't long after the Roswell incident that lots of sightings were reported, especially in the 1950's when science fiction stories about aliens began appearing in print and in movies. This is a period when commercial pilots and Air Force pilots began to see UFO's from their planes, in many cases reported having near encounters with them. The problem here is that pilots who reported seeing things like this were labeled as unreliable or delusional, and in many cases lost their jobs because of it. This led to a notable silence in UFO reports by professional pilots.

What's really upsetting is that strange lights in the sky have been shown on TV broadcasts not only over nearly every major city both in the U.S. and the UK but also over Washington D.C. All of these incidents have spawned 'Cover Up' books and TV shows and series that persist to this day. This is where we get the idea of 'Disclosure' that is so popular among the UFO enthusiasts. This is where past officials, including Air Force personnel, Federal Aviation Administration and Intelligence officers of the U.S. government reveal suppressed knowledge of UFO and aliens. We also have the Citizens Against UFO Secrecy in 1977, Steven M. Greer's Disclosure Project in 1993, and The Paradigm Research Group in 2007.

According to Weird Stuff, the ten most unbelievable Insane UFO conspiracy theories are in reverse order: There is an alien satellite hovering over Earth; MacArthur foresaw an alien war; The US government secretly sent astronauts to another planet; Jesus was an alien; The US battled Nazi UFO's in Antarctica and lost; The US has a secrete space fleet; There was supposed to be an alien invasion during the 2012 Olympics; A UFO abducted Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370; There was a plan to deceive the world with a hologram; The CIA killed JFK to prevent him from knowing the 'Truth'. The latter will be the subject of a conspiracy theory post. Some of these would make great science fiction, and some have.

According to io9, the six most widely-believed alien conspiracy theories are in order: Roswell; Area 51; Project Blue Book and the Majestic 12; The Reptilians; Ancient Astronauts; Esoteric Hitlerism.

Of these, only the project blue book and the majestic 12 deserve comment.

Project Blue Book was a systematic study of UFO reports by the United States Air Force form 1952 to 1970. The idea here was to determine if any of these reports were valid observations of alien spacecraft. In many cases, the observations were attributed to weather balloons (where did we hear that before?); weather phenomenon; experimental test flights; visual error or fatigue; and finally unexplained. The reason why the project was cancelled is because no threat to the US could be found and the fast that 69% of the cases were known or identifiable, and of the known cases, 86% were aircraft. This comes under the category of: What did you expect?

According to Wiki, "Majestic 12" is the code-name for an alleged secrete committee of scientists, military leaders and government officials formed on 1947 by an executive order of President Truman to facilitate recovery of alien spacecraft. This has been promoted and adopted as the manifesto for government cover up of UFO sightings. It was used in the TV series 'Dark Skies' and 'The X-files'. I laugh at this idea. It's pure science fiction.

The question remains: did the government cover up recovery of alien spacecraft? That's a great question that impossible to answer because of the flurry of theories that have been distorted by the media into something that reads more like science fiction. This is another case where I would love to believe that these things happened, but I can't find reliable evidence that they do exist. Again, I'm frustrated.

New Announcement: The Pentagon is going to release evidence of UFO's! Navy pilots reveal that they see them almost every day. Suddenly, the government is willing to show the evidence for UFO existence! Stay tuned!

Thanks for reading.