Scientific skepticism, UFOs and the flying saucer myth

Extraordinary claims that are testable ought to be tested and that is the basis for scientific skepticism: extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence. A personal interest of mine is an attempt to understand the notion that some unidentified flying objects (UFOs) are actually alien space ships. It seems to me then that one ought to be able to find some physical evidence that aliens are visiting the Earth - and yet, apparently, there is none, nothing alien. Read my personal UFO FAQ file or my essay "Through the looking glass" for more details of my point of view on UFOlogy. I would also like to make a plea for scientific thinking.

If you hear or read that somebody has seen an alien space ship, be sure to enquire by what means it was determined that it was (1) a space ship and (2) alien.

UFO Skeptic's Toolkit

First a little background reading:

Flying Saucers 101 : A Reader's Guide To UFO Mythology (by J.B. Fleming)

The confusing world of UFOlogy (Jay Barrymore)

Some articles skeptical of alien visitations and related phenomena:

MJ-12: a proven hoax that started it all for me

Abduction by aliens: Article (by Benjamin Leblanc, in French); James Gleick on John Mack; TIME magazine on John Mack; Hypnosis - is it a "truth serum"?; NOVA programme - Kidnapped by UFOs?; Alien Implants (Patrick Huyghe)

The crash at Roswell: Air Force report on a supposed UFO crash; GAO report on the document trail; Skeptical Inquirer article (Dave Thomas); Analysis by Kjetil Kjernsmo

The Roswell Alien Autopsy film: Stuff I collected from USENET; CSICOP says it's a hoax (but can they prove it?); Truly Dangerous FX company explains how it could have been faked on the cheap; Time magazine article critical of the FOX TV specials; Skeptical Inquirer article (Joe Nickell); Santilli's Controversial Autopsy Movie - Kent Jeffrey driving nails into the coffin; A Surgeon's View (Joseph A. Bauer)

Ancient astronauts: The theories of Zecharia Sitchin; Why Ask Why the Pyramids Were Built? (Marcell GraeffΘ); The age of the Sphynx; Fingerprints of the Gods (Paul V. Heinrich)

Space probes supposedly shot down by aliens: Mars Observer; Phobos II

Claims of alien activies: The Mars face (Mike Malin); The Face on Mars (Sally Stephens); The Marfa "Mystery" - Headlights of the Damned? (Scott LaRoche); Crop circles; Cattle Mutilations

Unsortable and sundry: Robert Lazar timeline - a UFO reverse-engineer?; The Philadelphia Experiment - making a warship disappear; The Photon Belt and Pleiadian aliens - huh?; The law making contact with aliens illegal - passed in 1969, hint, hint; How to fake a UFO - please do not try this at home

Links to other pages

Real science

Searching for Extrasolar Planets

Searching for Extraterrestrial Intelligence

UFO pages

Robert Sheaffer's Resources on UFOs - Skeptical to the Max! Robert covers a number of topics in depth, such as the NASA shuttle "UFO video", Jimmy Carter's UFO sighting, the Travis Walton abduction story ("Fire in the Sky"), and Erich von Daniken's ancient astronaut theories.

The UFO entry in the Skeptic's Dictionary

Scott Munro 's "The Ufological Spectator". Scott has penned a number of essays skeptical of the ET hypothesis and has a must-see link to Saucer Smear magazine, which is to UFOlogy what Private Eye is to politics.

UFO-Sweden - over 2000 level-headed nordics

The Ultimate UFO Page

A list of UFO pages at the site of the "50 Greatest Conspiracies of All Time". Check out the entire site!

Camden Lock visits the BUFORA convention

UFO paper at the First International Virtual Conference on Mad Science

A UFOlogical Who's Who

SOS-OVNI QuΘbec

OVNIs INDEX - la vue de la France