UFOs are real; that is, there are sightings of things that have not been identified. The whole thing is  based on a sighting by Kenneth Arnold in 1947 that was probably a flight of pelicans and 50s science fiction movies. Arnold described a flight of wedge-shaped objects that flew like saucers skimmed over water. The newspapers got it wrong and called them “flying saucers”, and everyone started seeing saucers and discs. Tropes like missing time, buried memories and alien implants all appeared in 50s films like INVADERS FROM MARS and KILLERS FROM SPACE before anybody reported them in real life; and abductees reported boarding the ship by a ramp, like in the movies, but once STAR TREK came on, they reported being beamed aboard. The people who made the first crop circles admitted it was a hoax. Dr Simon, who brought out abductees Betty and Barney Hills’ abduction story under hypnosis, diagnosed that those were not real memories but a delusion brought on by Betty’s lifelong obsession with UFOs and Barney’s submissiveness to her will. UFOlogists who have brought out other abduction memories don’t tell us that hypnosis does not bring out truth, but only what the hypnotized person thinks the hypnotist wants to hear.  

UFO doesn’t mean alien spaceship; it only means unidentified. Every UFO sighting that has been properly investigated has proved to atmospheric phenomena like lenticular clouds (below), misidentified aircraft, drones, birds, stars, planets, reflections of ground lights, mirages or outright hoaxes. In several cases where clear photos of flying saucers were produced, the miniature models the photographer used were found. There is a known condition called sleep paralysis that causes people to wake unable to move with a strong feeling of being watched; in the middle ages this was blamed on witches - now it’s aliens.

UFOlogists - who have never studied a UFO, only witnesses' stories - have come up with a clever excuse for not having any proof (NOTE: stories, reports, anecdotes, testimony and hearsay are not proof): the government is hiding the truth. Of course they have no proof that the government is hiding anything either.

Think about it. If UFOlogists actually believe in aliens, why haven’t they ever tried to prove it? Have repeat abductees wear a wire. Set up a broadcast signal in their homes such that if the alarm stops, they’d know that aliens were interfering with electronics. Have response teams ready to catch the aliens in the act. They don’t, because they know nothing would happen and they’d be proven wrong.

There is no reason to fear aliens once you understand that they are not real.

WILLA SNAP AND THE CLOCKWERK BOY

 I buy a lot of books on Amazon. This one is the best purchase I've made! I am a slow reader. It can take me  4-5 weeks to finish a book (mainly because I get distracted by reading other things). Willa Snap and the Clockwerk Boy is 348 pages long but I  couldn't put it down. It has everything: endearing characters, mysteries that lead to more mysteries, a wonderful and imaginative world to explore … or rather to settle, not entirely comfortably, into.

 It would be easy to say that Willa is a steampunk Harry Potter or Enola Holmes, but that's not true. Where Rowling works with traditional magic and Springer with Victorian literature, Mr Due has created his own world that is not steampunk, or magic, or superscience, though it has elements of all of those. Plus dragons and talking cats.

 I was carrying the book with me and was at the hospital when I got to the hideous surprise at the beginning of Chapter Eighteen, and was so stunned that I had to tell half the people there about it.

 Due (through Willa) doesn't tell a story ~ he takes you to Grandeur and its different burgs, winds you through his world of  clockwerks, Idiots, Idiot Geniuses, elefantkin, BrainBoxes, WatchitMapCallits, minidirigies, BrainRents and bippies When the time machine starts up, all its whirling, spinning, careening parts got so confusing that I forgot I was reading about it and just experienced it. I felt full after dining at The Jolly Rajah's Man-o'-War o' Pancakes.

 And then the final chapter, where we learn that all this has been a setup for the real story. I'm saving up my dolleurs for book 2. Can't wait to return to Grandeur!

  I had a discussuin on Quora/ about atheism and I'm posting part of it here because I fiink that it explains what I believe.  

 The original qost said that  atheists “really hate being put under a microscope and being observed by an outsider” or that we think that atheism is beyond analysis, and that theists are "nasty trolls".

I do hate being told what I thin k or believe by non-registered telepaths.

In a way he's right" atheism is beyond  analysis because it is not a belief system or a philosophy, it's just not accepting the beliefs of religion. But I think that II and probably most others would want atheism to be examined so that outsiders can understand that it makes more sense than religion.

The reply was that atheism is too clean,, high-minded and perfect;  reality is "dirty, messy and embarassing". Here's where I summed up my belief. 

 " ... Yes ~ reality is dirty and messy, but in a way we can do something about it. Atheism does not r

equire any high in the clouds thinking, it’s about accepting reality as it is, dirt and warts and all. 

Religion tells us that the universe is a grand and glorious creation ~ look at the stars and the trees and 

the rainbows; ignore cancer and predators and floods and famine and war. Religion tells us that we are

filthy sinners who need to bend to a savior to be saved, from ourselves Atheism, or maybe 

more properly humanism, tells us that we are rational, evolved beings with nobility in us. We can face r

eality as it is and decide to improve it. Religion has told us to ignore realities like evolution, the Big Bang, 

disease, heliocentric round Earth. climate change... Humanism says we can accept and DO something 

about it. Vaccines not prayers, cure disease,; psychiatry cures mental illness, not exorcisms. We have 

overcome a lot of the ills that the gods tell us are just fine: slavery, racism, rape, child trafficking, 

homophobia, misogyny, mental illness, war. We haven’t eliminated all those evils but we’re getting there. 

We have decided in spite of the gods that such things are wrong. We invented science to understand the 

universe by exploring, observing and testing instead of making up stories

You are also wrong if you think that atheists see believers as “nasty trolls”. Your motives are pure. You believe what you believe and you want us to see your truth. Some of you honestly believe that you are saving our souls from Hell.

As they say on TALK HEATHEN … We don’t hate you. We just think you’re wrong."