Indeed, I did cite science as a probable reason for a visit, but then why the secrecy?

When we observe animals, we're not hiding the fact we are observing them. We're not interrupting them, and more importantly, we do not act upon our observations (we don't scare the rabbit so it wouldn't get fetched by the wolf, we don't throw meat at the lions so they can survive another year) -- we don't really hide, either.

I'm quite a keen photographer. I try not to be obvious when capturing wildlife, because they are scared of me. They can see me, and few minutes later return to their normal activity, I just don't go jumping all around in their face. This would be quite close to the behaviour most UFOlogists are describing. There is one major difference however: if my subject comes up to me, asking for contact, I won't run away like a little schoolgirl -- quite the contrary, I'll use the opportunity for close-ups.

This is really for me the bit where UFOlogism doesn't add up in my book. Why would it be a big old secret, and why no tangible proof? Anywhere you go in Africa, you'll find physical evidence of the Whites' arrival. An old car, a blown out tyre, a coca cola bottle. How come we don't have a crashed UFO somewhere? How came radio amateurs never picked up anything? How come amateur astronomers (and we know how good they are) never spotted anything?

It's not difficult to see a planet in quite a bit of detail for a hobbyist. Surely we'd have seen a bigass ship refuelling on Saturn.

But no, the only things we get are hoaxes, shaky videos, and people telling you they saw what they saw. No offence Texrat, I'm sure you did see something, but as you admit yourself, you don't know what it was. I'm pretty sure the people who saw a virgin where intimately convinced they saw something (and they probably did), but there is also a good chance it wasn't what they thought it was.

I too, saw a UFO. From my (old) room, you could see a big field, next to a river. One day, I saw a flickering light pattern, hovering at around 50 meters above the ground. It was moving from left to right and back at varying speed (think the knight rider led bouncing back and forth), and was seriously bright, the light also became brighter as it approached the end of a specification direction. The thing was maybe 200 meters away, but I could see is as I see my computer now. And then, suddenly, it was gone (sound familiar, yet?).

I spent days thinking about it, questioning my own sanity, and prepared a video camera. Sure enough, exactly one week later, around the same time, it happened again. One thing that got me thinking, was the fact it had respected the daylight saving time. Now, I'm not a UFO expert, but I doubt they'd care about our timezones moving around a bit. So I took my bike, and went out to see, the next week, what was going on.

So, what was it, I hear you ask? A plane. Just not any old plane. The farmer had installed a net, because that year there was some insect invasion, and he needed to protect his oldest (and most expensive) olive trees. The net was so fine you could see it from maybe 30 feet away, but hardly after that. The angle it had from my house meant it had the ability to reflect strong lights towards me, however I could still see right through. Between 4 and 6 in the afternoon, the farmer had his automated water system spraying the whole lot, and a few minutes after 5, the plane would land. The water would increase the reflectiveness of the net, and water pressure would cause it to move, making the reflection go back and forth from left to right as I had noticed.

The human mind has an uncanny ability to see patterns, even when there are none. There is an old scientific experiment where you put a pigeon in a box, and when he pushes a button he gets food. Take another pigeon, but make the button press randomly give some food (say a 50% chance). Most animals will repeat exactly what they did before pressing the button because they saw a relation (move twice counter clock wise, than tap the beak against the ceiling and hit the button 4 times, tap ceiling again and hit button, there's food!). And the more they do it, the more they notice patterns (ah, I can't use the same pattern twice, I have to invent 3 new patterns before it rewards me; followed by "it didn't reward me, I must've screwed up one of the patterns").

We are pattern animals, that's how we survive. We know how to recognise someone from our clan, because upon that trust, our life and death could be depending. How many of us have felt a chill down our spine when we saw the face on Mars?



How many of us went "Meh, figures" when we saw the actual hill that made that face? It was just pure luck.



How many of us have looked at the moon and seen the guy whistling?



Imagine yourself, 20000 years ago (for those who can believe that), and as you're walking in the mid-African plain, you hear some rustling to your right. You have two options. Draw your weapon and crouch because it may have been a predator, or just assume it was the wind. Well, Darwin award to those who thought it was the wind -- you've just been eaten by a lion. What does this mean? That we are genetically wired to be weary of things. It also means that are instinct to recognise patterns has grown tremendously (because our ancestor who could see the pattern of rustling grass followed by a deadly attack gave us that ability).

Here's a good one I like to quote every now and then during these discussions: Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem; Occam's razor, "the simplest explanation is usually the correct one".

Simplest, is quite relative, but widely accepted in the following point:

You are walking down a path, and about to tell your best friend his wife cheated on him. As you are opening your mouth to say it, a branch falls and hits you on the head. Two explanations: "the Gods just told you to shut up", and "the wind eroded the branch's strength over the years (birds probably helped too), and it has succumbed on the very unfortunate moment you passed under it".

So, which of these is the "simplest" explanation:
- Life not only managed to happen on another planet than ours (and most probably another galaxy), not only that, but managed to become intelligent, not only that, but managed to not kill their own planet in the process of their development, not only that, but managed to disprove Einstein by inventing intergalactic space travel that could be achieved in one's lifetime, not only that, but have been flying around long enough to finally find us, not only that, but managed to do so, not in the millions of years before this very century, but right at this very moment, just when science and society had achieved a point that we finally could imagine aliens, flying saucers and science fiction, not only that, but have been analysing us, and upon being discovered multiple times, they've never stuck around to say hi, not only that, they happen to be exactly as science fiction described them 70 years ago.

Or:
- People have seen weird ****, due to refraction, secret government weapons, weather balloons, yada yada yada, and had to feel special.

You may have seen a UFO, that doesn't mean it's extraterrestrial.

Edit: typos, forgotten words.