By Mike Cronin

Do I “believe” in UFOs?  I absolutely believe people have seen objects or phenomena in the sky that they couldn’t identify, so yes, I believe that unidentified flying objects exist in the most literal sense. I enjoy science fiction and space opera fantasy, and I believe earth can’t be the only planet in the universe with sentient life.  Do I believe any of the UFOs people have seen here on earth are alien spacecraft?  No. As Carl Sagan once remarked: “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”

My belief that other sentient creatures must exist is not evidence of anything. For spacecraft to come here from another solar system would mean either the alien operators found a way around the speed of light, or they spent centuries, or even millenia, to travel here. Either would fit the very definition of extraordinary.

So far, the body of evidence indicating UFOs are extraterrestrial spacecraft is not only not extraordinary, it is completely underwhelming. Fuzzy pictures, suspect “eye witness” accounts, and dramatized “documentaries” do comprise strong evidence – of our own credulity.