This blog is called “Suddenly Atheist”. But more than just being an atheist, I’m also an all-around skeptic. So I think it is only fair that I address the occasional issue that is not necessarily religious, but still touches on my skepticism.

Plus, it’s always fun to open up the door for a new group of people to hate me.

So strap in kiddies, ’cause here we go…

As far back as I can remember I always wanted to believe in UFOs.

That’s a pretty heavy statement, so let’s take a moment to dissect it a bit.

When I say “UFOs”, I use the word colloquially. In the literal sense it means Unidentified Flying Object, which everyone should believe in. There are things in the sky that people see that they can not identify. But this is not what I mean, nor what most people mean, when they use the term UFO. They mean “some sort of extraterrestrial spacecraft”.

And I say “wanted” to believe because I was never a true believer. I never saw a UFO. I was never abducted. And I never really thought the books I read were true. But I wanted it to be.

Simply being a human, I think, caused part of my desire to believe. Part of being a human is desiring to be with and connect with others. And I still have that desire today. I want there to be extraterrestrials (aliens) out there somewhere in the universe. I want them to come to Earth and visit us so we could learn from eachother. So the stories and reports one hears from UFO believers are incredibly compelling merely because I wanted to believe them so much.

I finally reached a point, around the time I became an atheist, when I had to look at the UFO question with my newly trained skeptical eyes.

The evidence just isn’t there.

The stories are great. Let’s not pretend any different. But stories, anecdotes, are probably the worst form of evidence. They’re wonderful for personal evidence, but you can’t use them rationally to convince others.

Anecdotes with good evidence, however, would be enough. But I’ve never come across it.

It has, however, been quite a long time since I’ve done any research on the subject. So, by all means, if you have definitive evidence of extraterrestrials or aliens or anything of that nature, please bring it forward. If it’s true, I want to know it.

But if all you have is grainy video of moving specks and anecdotes, it just won’t be enough.