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July 08
Another astronaut has come out as a believer in extraterrestrials. It’s Edgar Mitchell, the sixth man to walk on the moon, which ranks him fame-wise somewhere between the “Where’s the Beef?” lady and the guy who played Boner on Growing Pains. But Mitchell’s claims that he was “privileged enough to be in on the fact that we’ve been visited on this planet and [that] the U.F.O. phenomena is real” have garnered quite a bit of press. Here’s him talking about Roswell:
Now, John Glenn alluded to his belief in alien life, but Mitchell is a lot more overt. I’ve already given you my thoughts on the matter, but to me, it comes back to one central concept, the Fermi Paradox: if there is extraterrestrial life visiting Earth, if we are truly part of a galactic community, where the hell is everybody else? All we’re given is grainy footage, like the stuff heralded in May, cultish evangelism and dubious books by people who feel the need to include their credentials on the cover (good rule of thumb: books by Dr. So-And-So, Ph. D. are full of shit. Sagan never needed to list his credentials. Nor did Stephen Jay Gould, Stephen Hawking, Niels Bohr or, you know, Einstein). Unless there is some sort of Star Trek Prime Directive at work, why is this rampant, active alien culture so shy? Why does the touted “conclusive proof” invariably evade conclusiveness?
I, like you, want to believe. But I think I’m a dumbass for doing so.
Posted by: Aaron Retka in Science | Permalink
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2 Responses to “Keep the faith.”
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With any luck Coast to Coast will bring him on…
“Star Trek Prime Directive”. Maybe a little too spot-on?