Quote Originally Posted by Adrian II
I think you just provided the answer to your own question. Because of the huge amount of speculation on the part of 'believers' (some of it outright stupid or paranoid) it becomes very tempting to dismiss both the entire UFO crowd and all of the registered observations as mass hysteria.

A UFO is just that: an unidentified flying object. If UFO-watchers were to respect this basic disctinction, stick to it and discard the stories about greens, grays and related (proven) hoaxes, they might be taken more seriously.
I asked that from the stand point of our oldest religious texts and stories coming out of Summer.

The UFO thing was taken fairly seriously in the 1940s and early 1950s until governments began to sponsor debunking efforts. Making fun of something that you can't explain is a frequent small minded tactic.

Why should UFOs be discredited by fraud more than say archaeology which has had many hoaxes and frauds perpetrated, usually by scholars rather then a couple of easily detected photo frauds.

As to UFO watcher, they may be their own worst enemies, but there are radicals and extremists in practically every field of human endeavour.

I just wonder why most people believe in them but most are afraid to be tarred by the few who would explain everything as swamp gas and weather balloons. It isn't to hard to see that someone has a stake in people keeping their mouths shut.

There were mass sighting in the US in the 1950s to include the ones over the Whitehouse…and aircraft were scrambled…that is when the government decided that they didn't exist. I could care less what they are…I just get a little galled by them denying what they know to be true, and a bit by those so ready to except obvious lies.