Category: Aliens

From different countries, for many centuries, there have been reports of strange celestial lights, aircraft landing on the planet, and some even claimed that strange creatures come out of them. Sometimes there was information about UFO crashes. Most of the appearances of UFOs have received a scientific explanation, but scientists cannot explain some of these events. In most cases, when the contact of visiting the Earth by other civilizations was made public, authorities claimed that this was a test of new aircraft or natural phenomena. However, in the case of Zimbabwe, it is believed that the appearance of UFOs was accurate, and the ruling bodies and opinion leaders should make it clear to the population that these alien arrivals were never fiction.

Most often, the appearance of a UFO, an unidentified flying object, is associated with a visit of other intelligent beings to Earth. This happened in Zimbabwe in a city called Ruwa in 1994, when children saw UFO land in the schools courtyard (Christie par. 2). Furthermore, they said that they saw aliens exiting the flying object, talking with them using telepathy, and leaving (Christie par. 12). The children were scared by that the experience and told everything to the teachers and parents right after the incident.

Despite the fact that each student described what they saw in their own way, giving their embellishments, all the stories were similar. The school where everything happened was called Ariel Primary School. It was a costly private learning organization (Han 2). Moreover, children of different social strata, including both black and white students, visited it. The incident occurred in the afternoon when the sun was high and the temperature was growing.

As already mentioned, almost all UFO encounters are not made public and are suppressed by the authorities. Despite being one of the most well-witnessed cases of aliens potentially trying to communicate with humanity, there is no official acknowledgment or support of the alien sightings from the Zimbabwe administration (Han 7). The popularly accepted explanation of the phenomenon is mass hysteria  a poorly-studied and rare phenomenon where individuals are affected by a shared delusion (Kokota 75). This explanation has been used to explain mass sightings of UFOs and other paranormal phenomena before.

The proof that UFO sightings cannot be identified with conventional technical means is the specific reaction of animals. When UFOs appear, they often run or hide in a panic, howl, and tremble, while they usually do not react to flights of planes or helicopters. In addition, the proof of the illegality of identifying UFOs with observations of space experiments and flights of airplanes or balloons is that UFOs have been observed throughout the history of humankind.

In ancient Egypt, and the Roman Empire, and the Middle Ages, unidentified flying objects were observed when there was no aircraft at all. Scientists discover drawings in caves and ancient temples that resemble UFOs and extraterrestrial beings. They suspect that ancient people saw and met with aliens. In the old chronicles, there are many descriptions of light disks visible in the sky during the day or lights visible at night, observed during the Roman Empire. In some cases, even creatures that are somehow related to objects are described.

Ideas about extraterrestrials and their species are constantly being updated due to new variants of their appearance. There are both classic humanoid types of aliens and more extravagant versions. So there were, for example, widespread versions representing aliens in the form of insect-like creatures coordinating their actions with the help of a collective telepathic mind (Gordon 11). In addition, there are ideas about aliens as creatures whose appearance, for one reason or another, is rugged for a person to perceive. Therefore, when contacting representatives of human civilization, these aliens disguise themselves, taking the form of human-like creatures.

Zimbabwe sightings of aliens were actual, and the government should pursue the policy of openness to make it easier for the general public to accept that we are not alone in this universe. The reasons for that are that in light of the accumulating evidence about aliens, trying to explain and hide the events of contacts from the world would only bring about a more significant political crisis in the future while preventing the international community work together to ensure the safety of Earth.

Another surge of interest in the topic of UFOs arose after it became known about the Pentagon program, in which the agency collected certificates of military pilots about meetings with UFOs. Numerous rumors about the Pentagon report on unidentified air objects began to circulate long before the publication of its unclassified part. The first piece of supportive evidence that Zimbabwe sightings were actual is that evidence of UFOs existing has been publicly released by the Pentagon (Office of the Director of National Intelligence 3). The footage of UFOs as collected by fighter pilots demonstrates the existence of flying vehicles of unknown configurations that can move with speed and agility not reachable by any human-built plane (Navy Pilots Describe Encounters with UFOs 00:05:00-00:05:14). The logical conclusion is that UFOs exist and could have been seen in Zimbabwe.

Moreover, there is an opinion that NASA is hiding information from the public. This fact has led many to believe that they know about the existence of aliens. One of the most discussed cases of a NASA cover-up comes from Dr. Edgar Mitchell, who was part of the Apollo 14 space mission in 1971 (Pasulka 199). During the two-moon expedition, he spent thirty-three hours on the moon. Dr. Mitchell said that he was aware of several UFO sightings during his career, but each of them was hidden. The doctor said that the space agency staff described the aliens as little people who seem strange to us. Mitchell also said that the technologies of extraterrestrials are much more complex than those of Earth.

There is much evidence about the movement of people in time and space, which is a crucial aspect of the UFO problem. Ufologists have created an interactive map that regularly marks the places of an alien invasion on Earth. The marks are accompanied by photos and explanations too. Observers tell under what circumstances the pictures were taken and share their impressions of what they saw. Nevertheless, the complexity of the study of ufology for its scientific character lies in the absence of a formulated single representation in ufological groups and organizations. Some groups use scientific methods of research, while pseudoscientific theories and guesses guide others.

Often UFO witnesses become objects of ridicule and risk their careers but still agree to contribute to the investigation of the case. Sometimes eyewitnesses agree to take a lie detector test, and reports of UFOs come from scientists. However, the eyewitness of the accounts of the event cannot be dismissed. Though particularities vary due to different perceptions and cultural backgrounds, the stories of the children are remarkably similar and tell a cohesive tale. It is faulty logic to dismiss the eyewitness testimonies of more than 60 students based on the assumption that what they have seen cannot be confirmed (Christie, par. 13). Moreover, in many countries, especially the United States, there are many specialists, researchers of unidentified flying objects, and even so-called contactees with alien civilizations.

Events similar to the ones witnessed in Zimbabwe have occurred before, both in Africa and other continents. A similar incident occurred in Broad Haven, Wales, in 1979 (The Schoolkids Who Said They Saw Aliens? par. 1). During that event, 62 students witnessed alien spaceships, their inhabitants and attempted communication as well. Petrescu et al. point out that the issue of past observations is difficult to explain otherwise than through the existence of other civilizations more advanced than ours (80). Despite the evidence, the event remained stonewalled in the same way the Zimbabwe incident was.

A person is an independent person in judgments and assessments and responds adequately to external stimuli. However, as people immerse themselves in a group that is numerically increasing, their critical thinking decreases significantly. The primary counterargument/explanation to what happened was the likelihood of mass hysteria occurring among the students. Simultaneously experienced critical moments, relationships and assessments turn into identical forms of verbal and non-verbal activity. This contributes to the strengthening of hysteria, increasing it to an absolute peak. In this state, a person becomes part of a human-like mass. There is an opinion that humanity should carefully consider the factors and risks before contacting alien creatures. It is believed that they can be much more advanced than humans. In addition, the contacts of more developed civilizations with less developed ones do not end well for the latter.

Mass hysteria has a wide range of symptoms and characteristics. Researches emphasize that mass hysteria typically begins when an individual becomes ill or hysterical during a period of stress. After this initial individual shows symptoms, others begin to manifest similar symptoms (Kokota 74). This disease can be highly contagious because a single person might experience signs of distress. It is also noted that symptoms recorded during outbreaks of mass hysteria include abdominal pains, chest tightness, dizziness, fainting, headaches, hyperventilation, nausea, vomiting, palpitations; anxiety, conversion disorder and screaming (Kokota 74). There is a possibility that the assumed hallucinations of UFOs were started by one student and transferred to others, which caused a high degree of standard features during interviews and assessments.

Mass hysteria has been increasingly common in African countries. Mainly it occurs in South Africa, Tanzania, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Uganda (Kokota 75). The condition could explain why children have seen and heard similar events, which might have been triggered by an ordinary object, the heat, a hallucination, or something similar (Kokota 76). In addition, the researchers say that traditional scientific knowledge claims that nothing in the universe can move faster than light. Therefore, if there is extraterrestrial intelligence somewhere, it will not reach the Earth. All manifestations of UFOs on Earth are optical illusions or a game of nature. Furthermore, during the entire existence of radio communication, no one has received signals from an extraterrestrial civilization.

While there is some evidence of mass hysteria being a likely explanation for the event, not all children have expressed symptoms associated with the disease. In addition, the explanation of mass hysteria or mass hallucinations has been used to ignore evidence and live witness testimonies before to maintain secrecy and public order (Han, The Possibility of Alien Life 1). Furthermore, Han emphasizes that cases exist in which young children and groups of adults have witnessed strange entities emerge from UFOs, rendering it difficult to attribute such an anomaly to human psychology (Aliens and UFOs 3). This acts as evidence that it is worth trusting the Zimbabwe case that the aliens exist.

In addition to the arguments mentioned above for the absence of aliens, there is an opinion that if alien beings existed and had more advanced technologies, they could fly to Earth and conquer it. In addition, many witnesses of UFO flights later admitted that they deceived the public with their statements and falsified evidence. After all, stories about aliens are very profitable from a commercial point of view. They bring huge revenues to the creators of films, books, and consumer goods.

It is important to note that the topic of alien life and unidentified flying objects is of great importance in relation to science, history, technology, consciousness. The Zimbabwe incident has been one of many sightings in Africa that have been largely ignored by the media and society (Looking Forward: Extraterrestrials and U.F.O.s.). Because of it, valuable evidence has been lost, and retroactive investigations many years later have not given as much evidence as before (OKeefe 71). Zimbabwe government should investigate these reports better.

Nowadays, knowledge of information and facts on this topic will lead to changes in people, the way they communicate, perceive the phenomena around them, and may give rise to a reassessment of historical data and biases that form the awareness of the world. Knowledge about UFOs has been one of the most exciting and repetitive elements in the modern world. They inspired public fears, wild theories, and popular culture, with stories of alien visitors flying over our heads.

A reverent and attentive attitude to the conclusions of witnesses plays a severe role in the knowledge of other life in the universe. Eyewitnesses of alien sightings are primarily ignored and ostracized by Society (OKeefe 30). The same happened in Zimbabwe, where over 60 students were declared victims of mass hysteria rather than given proper attention. Treating individuals and evidence of UFOs more seriously would improve the general awareness and acceptance of the events.

Ufologists around the world have repeatedly accused the governments and special services of the great powers in an effort to hide from the public the truth about the contacts with extraterrestrial intelligence that took place. In all cases of unidentified flying objects encounters, the authorities stated that there were no aliens. The whole system of modern education is built on the suggestion of the idea of the infallibility of science. Therefore, everything new, especially information about life other than earth, has to overcome the most substantial resistance from an officially recognized point of view. Moreover, enthusiasts who tried to conduct their investigation had severe trouble with security organizations.

Currently, there are a considerable number of documents about contacts with extraterrestrials of representatives of advanced foreign states, revelations of former political leaders of states, former professional astronauts, and NASA officials. The acceptance of the fact that we are not alone in this universe will have to happen, eventually. If the general public is not prepared for the revelation, there will be consequences across the world, followed by societal shifts (Wilson 167). Treating witnesses and evidence with more respect and scrutiny will allow the transition to becoming less troublesome.

Recently, the Central Intelligence Agency declassified several million pages of files, previously completely secret, related to extraterrestrials and unidentified flying objects. Despite this, some of the published documents have places crossed out in black ink where only the date and file number can be seen. It is also worth noting that the disclosure of information was made on the instructions of the president. The disclosure of data on programs, materials, and evidence of UFO activity on Earth was made in order to prepare humanity for a reality that already seems indisputable. However, humanity is still afraid to admit that people are alone in the universe. It can also be concluded that soon all previously classified documents about unidentified flying objects will become available to the masses, and people will learn the whole truth about intelligent life in the universe.

Moreover, there is a possibility of considering the existence of extraterrestrials from the religious side. For most religions, the existence of aliens is not a problem. Many faiths, such as Buddhism or Hinduism, fully admit this possibility. Religions such as Christianity, which supports the view that it is built around the only incarnation of God on Earth and has a developed concept regarding alien life, may have problems accepting the fact of alien life.

In addition to all of the above, at the moment, the world elite can no longer completely conceal the presence of aliens on Earth. This is due to the fact that thanks to the Internet, information about the appearance of unidentified flying objects in various parts of the planet, stories about contacts with representatives of alien civilizations, and much more are rapidly spreading. All this can be proof that aliens have been visiting the planet for a long time and maybe watching humanity. Most often, people watching a UFO disappear in the sky because the speed of movement of alien ships is simply fantastic by our standards. Conspiracy theorists claim that if humanity accepts the fact of the existence of alien life, this alien mind will have the right to contact them. Then there will be a global awakening of all humankind, which will lead to a revision of values on Earth.

In the scientific community, there is a so-called Drake equation. This is a formula that serves to determine the number of extraterrestrial civilizations in the galaxy with which we have a chance to come into contact. In 1961, astronomer Frank Drake developed a formula for determining the number of civilizations in the universe other than humans, with which it would be possible to establish communication (Platt 49). Since the chances of establishing contact with alien life are determined by the number of advanced extraterrestrial civilizations in the galaxy, Drake deduced several factors on which this number depends and included them in his equation.

At the moment, it is difficult to deny the existence of UFOs, but there are still not so many actual confirmations unless people count the photo and video archive, which is full of the Internet. There are secret government and scientific programs related to alien life in the universe. Reliable sources conceal from people the accurate picture of what is happening; such giants as NASA have long been tracking the presence of alien ships and flying saucers in space, but they carefully hide it from human eyes.

Aliens are a topic for thought not only by science fiction writers but also scientists and even the national secret services. People attribute the construction of pyramids, various cataclysms, meteorological accidents, and other phenomena to extraterrestrial beings, to which scientists cannot give intelligible explanations. The question of the existence of alien life is still an unsolved mystery.

Works Cited

Navy Pilots Describe Encounters with UFOs.YouTube, uploaded by 60 Minutes, 2021.

Awareness. Altered Consciousness in the Twentieth Century. Routledge, 2019, pp. 167-182.

The Schoolkids Who Said They Saw Aliens?BBC.

Christie, Sean. Remembering Zimbabwes Great Alien Invasion?Mail & Guardian.

Gordon, Joan. Alien Invaders or Aliens Invaded. Aliens in Popular Culture, 2019.

Han, Go. Aliens and UFOs. Hanyang University, 2020.

The Possibility of Alien Life Forms and Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. ResearchGate, 2020. Web.

Kokota, Demobly. Episodes of Mass Hysteria in African Schools: A Study of Literature. Malawi Medical Journal, vol. 23, no. 3, 2011, pp. 74-77.

OKeefe, Emily. Investigating UFOs. Weigl Publishers, 2019.

Petrescu, Relly Victoria, et al. What is a UFO? Journal of Aircraft and Spacecraft Technology, vol. 1, no. 2, 2017.

Platt, Karl-Florian. Drake-like Calculations for the Frequency of Life in the Universe. Philosophies, vol. 6, no. 2, 2021.

Looking Forward: Extraterrestrials and U.F.O.s. The New York Times Editorial Staff, 2020.

Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. Office of the Director of National Intelligence, 2021.

Wilson, Andrew Fergus. Prism of Lyra: UFO Consciousness and Portals to Cosmic Awareness. Altered Consciousness in the Twentieth Century, 2019, 167-182.

The Criteria for determining whether people on earth are religious or not involve certain acts, behaviors, and beliefs observable amongst the subjects. People on earth who subscribe to a specific religion or belong to a certain faith representing a religious group would have to act in certain similar ways repeatedly.

The first criterion I would use to determine whether people are religious is to determine whether they meet at various places of worship on a regular basis. The second criterion would involve observing peoples behavior at certain public events. This second criterion would involve analyzing whether the people perform any religious acts before, during, and/or after these public gatherings.

Based on the first criterion of religious persons meeting at certain places on regular basis, people on earth can be said to be religious. One particular religious group, whose religion is called Christianity, meets every Sunday at a place of worship called a Church. A second religious group, Islam, meets every Friday at a house of worship known as a Mosque.

Similarly, there are many other religious groups with similar practices of frequenting houses of worship; for instance, a religious group known as Judaism has a place of worship known as a Synagogue.

Such a pattern is repeated the world over and people have diverse names for their religions but the meeting in venerated places from which they give reverence to their various gods and seek guidance from these gods underscores the commonality in the different religious groups.

People on earth also fit the second criterion for being religious because all public functions of importance in the different societies across the world contain elaborate rituals that seek divine providence from a supposed higher being.

Many public functions, from simple social functions like weddings, birthday celebrations, and initiation ceremonies, to more critical functions like swearing in of leaders from different communities, nations, and regions involve elaborate religious rituals. During these functions, people appeal to their different higher beings for guidance and divine providence.

Religion, whose characteristics and behavioral manifestations in people on earth are as earlier stated, performs various functions. Firstly, religion acts as a source of communal unity (Culbertson, 2011, p.40). People belonging to the various stated religious groups identify one another as spiritual brothers and sisters.

For instance, a person professing the Christian faith (Christian) regards members of Christianity as spiritual brethrens and constructs his or her sense of existence through this religion and a similar construct applies to members of other religious groups. A specific religious group acts as larger family that the members can identify with and from which they draw a sense of togetherness.

Secondly, religion acts as a source of social guidance and offers a moral guideline that members can reflect on at times of difficulties and uncertainties, or simply for reflective purposes (Becker, 1991, p.147). Most, if not all of the religions own specific religious books from which lessons on living, spiritual guidance, and other such matters are discussed.

These books act as the sole points of reference for social and moral guidance for members of these different religions. Since many religious groups meet regularly on weekly basis, reinforcement and re-dedication to the religious edicts is ensured.

In conclusion, from observation, people on earth can be called religious. They meet regularly in places of worship and perform religious rituals in nearly all their socio-communal activities, fitting the criteria for religiosity earlier developed. Religion also functions as a major guide to the daily lives of most of the people on earth.

References

Becker, C. B. (1991). From pain to philosophy: on functions of art and religion. Journal of Religion & Psychical Research, 14(3), 144-150.

Culbertson, K. (2011). How places of worship help build community. Planning, 77(2), 40.

Introduction

The presence of aliens in different forms can be traced in numerous works of art, such as paintings, fiction literature, documentaries, and action movies. I, Robot portrays the picture of the future, where the robots became an inherent part of society. It shows the world in which the use of robotics became standard for everyone, and the machines perform different kinds of activities, including housework, taking care after sick people, walking the dogs, shopping, and others. It is crucial to mention that robots became so mundane for humans that no one is paying attention to them as something unique. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the concept of aliens and its implications in the movie I, Robot.

Main body

First, it is critical to understand that although everyone does not view the active utilization of robotics as something extraordinary, the androids are still not considered to be equal members of society. In other words, the machines become assistants to humans, ensuring their safety and comfortable existence. The plot of the movie revolves around the agent Spooner who does not have trust in robots and believes that they can become a threat to humanity. Spooner investigates suspicious cases is not convinced that the laws of robotics work. It is found out later that Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence (VIKI) designed by the U.S. Robotics stands behind all the discrepancies and troubles (I, Robot). One can say that artificial intelligence created by humans decided to outperform the creator.

The movies director is raising an essential issue of human co-existence with technological development. As Cohen mentions in Monsters Theory, monsters are our children (20). It is possible to state that modern advancements are the reflection of something different from humans, which, as a result, can inculcate fear and the feeling of the unknown. The beliefs that people can subjugate robots represent the attempts to overcome potential dangers that the developments hinder. It can also be compared to the presence of aliens among humans, where robotic creations differ from humans in numerous aspects.

In the movie, people found a way to co-exist with something new, whereas it is vital to remember that the machines were designed by humans who were assured that they could control them. However, rationale without emotions, as VIKI possessed, can lead to dramatic events and unregulated dominance, and destructions. In contrast, it is worth mentioning Sonny, who turned out to be a robot with the ability to have feelings and sentiments. The same situation can be with aliens because it might be challenging to see whether one can perceive and sensate such emotions as compassion, friendship, or care. Thus, I, Robot delivers an essential thought to society, which implies that judging something or someone only by their appearance can be misleading.

The paragraph above mentions Sonny, who became one of the main characters. Sonny is a clear representation of humaneness, which can be viewed as ambiguous because he is a machine. Nevertheless, every individual can learn a lot from him, due to the traits that he has, such as honesty, logic, and kindness. Throughout the movie, Sonny was self-searching, trying to understand the dreams and death, trying to understand the concepts that are an inalienable part of humans lives. Therefore, although Sonny was a representative of an alien among people, he proved not to differ from them besides his creation and appearance, which, after all, is not the most significant part.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I, Robot raises various questions about artificial intelligence, its presence among communities, its influence, and hidden threats. Besides, the question of humanity within the machines is also an essential consideration in this picture. The view on the relationship between people and robots is at the core of I, Robot. It shows that robotic developments are more than one might think they are, and they can surprise, like Sonny, who had his personality, his fears, feelings, and questions. The life among those who are unfamiliar in terms of how they look like can bring many aspects and show that one should not judge a book by its cover.

References

Jeffrey Jerome, Cohen. Monster Culture (Seven Thesis). Monster Theory: Reading Culture, edited by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, University of Minnesota Press, 1996, pp. 3-25.

I, Robot. Directed by Alex Proyas, Twentieth Century Fox, 2004.

Have you ever felt that winter has become longer and summer has become hotter? If so, you are experiencing global warming firsthand. As the threat from global warming continues to increase, mankind is desperate to find other inhabitable planets. We must also not forget about the scarce resources in our overpopulated earth. To many people, the only foreseeable solution we face is for us to invest in space exploration to inhabit a new planet. Although space exploration seems to be the logical solution, is it worth taking a gamble and spending billions on exploration that may not end in a desirable solution to our problem? Throughout this paper, we will be examining the benefits and downfalls of Japan investing in space exploration. We will explore past and present ways of space exploration as evidence to see whether it is worth cutting costs in other areas for space exploration.

Benefits and reasons

To put it into perspective, some of the reasons why we would be interested and have been interested in space exploration are the following; Research and Technology development and colonization. In terms of Research and Technology development, we currently use GPS in the form of, navigation devices such as Google Maps. For us to accurately predict weather, we also need to have satellites in space. Most importantly, we currently have medical research going on in space that if it is successfully done, could cure disease and prolong human life. By investing in space research, we also could study the threat of asteroids. Asteroids have crashed into Earth several times in the past, most of them causing a mass extinction. This is less of a matter of if and a matter of when. As mentioned in the introduction, the scarce resources of Earth would be less of a concern because many materials in outer space are becoming more and more rare on Earth.

The reason to colonize, if we can accomplish this, is that humans have a backup plan in case of any major disaster such as climate change or the case of an asteroid colliding with Earth.

Downfalls of Space Exploration

Some of the downfalls of space exploration are the following; Cost, bad for the environment, no guarantee of success, and logistics. Space exploration doesn’t come cheap. On average, each mission will cost an astonishing amount of $450 million according to Nasa. Specifically in terms of Japan, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has an annual budget of 183 billion yen ($1.6 billion ). This is money that could be used towards projects such as finding ways to reduce global warming. An example of reducing global warming is creating renewable resources. Taking this idea full circle as stated in the beginning, fossil fuels are no longer an option as our earth becomes more and more damaged. We need to find ways to preserve our resources rather than ignoring them and being forced to find alternatives. While on the topic of global warming, the amount of litter every space mission creates is devastating, there are more than half a million items of debris that are currently being tracked as they orbit our planet. The next con is that even after investing all this time and resources there is no guarantee of success in finding our next habitable planet. This means that no matter how much money research and time we invest into space travel we are not guaranteed to find the next Earth. This makes space exploration a very risky matter making it questionable if we should keep exploring. Finally, the last problem we face with space exploration is the logistics of it. As written in the first paragraph our ultimate goal for space exploration is us to find a habitable planet, surprisingly we have found multiple inhabitable planets and every single one of them has two things in common. The first common point of all of these plants is that although we believe they could be inhabitable, we do not know for sure if they are. This is because we classify them inhabitable because they have similarities to earth such as the temperature, period of days, and radiant flux, although these are very important factors we are not sure if there are resources that human life requires such as water. The other common factor there is is even if we were to find a habitable planet it would be too difficult if not impossible to send the whole human race there. This is because planets we believe are inhabitable such as the Kepler 22b and the Tau Ceti and too far away. Back in 2009 NASA used a satellite telescope and found Kepler 22b, and they estimated that it would take an astonishing 23.4 Million years to reach. Not only is it too far to reach the tile that space travel has on the human body but it is nearly impossible to get to anywhere outside of the earth without extensive years and years of training.

Past and Present

Past methods of space research were heavily influenced by religion, philosophers such as Aristotle Ptolemy and Claudius Ptolemaeus who were widely respected astronomers used religion to study space. Specifically, they believed in the Geocentric theory. The Geocentric theory, as Aristotle describes in his writing, is the belief that the Earth is at the center of the universe, and all of the other planets are orbiting around the Earth. This means that from anywhere on Earth, the Sun appears to revolve around Earth once per day. While the Moon and the planets have their motions, they also appear to revolve around Earth about once per day. This was widely believed due to a literal interpretation of the Bible “He set the earth on its foundations so that it should never be moved.”

Currently, we have a more objective way of researching the universe. Some of the ways we study our plants are; JMARS, Analyst Notebook, and LROC. Firstly, JMARS formerly known as “Java Mission-planning and Analysis for Remote Sensing”, the JMARS is a geospatial data analysis tool meaning that it is the gathering and projecting imagery, in other words, it is information that has a geographical aspect to it. This program allows us to take high-resolution photographs of certain spots on planets such as Mars. This gives us the chance to research the materials and conditions of plants to see whether it would benefit us to explore them. The next commonly used method for space exploration is the Analyst Notebook. The Analyst Notebook is a NASA database that allows the user to pull up detailed data such as photographs from the missions, mission objective documentation, mission planner goals, and other various data points from previous missions. This allows NASA to create hypotheses, and estimations and to find improvement points for the next missions. Finally, the third approach we have for studying space is the LROC or Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera. The LROC is a high-resolution camera system that is equipped on the lunar reconnaissance orbiter which is a NASA robotic spacecraft that is currently orbiting the Moon. This robotic spacecraft was developed to help render the data captured by the satellite.

Conclusion

After researching the Benefits and downfalls of space exploration, I believe that although space exploration seems very intriguing, I think rather than ignoring the major problems such as global warming and lack of materials in an overpopulated earth we should use space funding and try to find ways to fix our earth. Saying this I do understand why people would support space exploration but I think that the risks and logistics outweigh the benefits.

Have you ever felt that winter has become longer and summer has become hotter? If so, you are experiencing global warming firsthand. As the threat from global warming continues to increase, mankind is desperate to find other inhabitable planets. We must also not forget about the scarce resources in our overpopulated earth. To many people, the only foreseeable solution we face is for us to invest in space exploration to inhabit a new planet. Although space exploration seems to be the logical solution, is it worth taking a gamble and spending billions on exploration that may not end in a desirable solution to our problem? Throughout this paper, we will be examining the benefits and downfalls of Japan investing in space exploration. We will explore past and present ways of space exploration as evidence to see whether it is worth cutting costs in other areas for space exploration.

Benefits and reasons

To put it into perspective, some of the reasons why we would be interested and have been interested in space exploration are the following; Research and Technology development and colonization. In terms of Research and Technology development, we currently use GPS in the form of, navigation devices such as Google Maps. For us to accurately predict weather, we also need to have satellites in space. Most importantly, we currently have medical research going on in space that if it is successfully done, could cure disease and prolong human life. By investing in space research, we also could study the threat of asteroids. Asteroids have crashed into Earth several times in the past, most of them causing a mass extinction. This is less of a matter of if and a matter of when. As mentioned in the introduction, the scarce resources of Earth would be less of a concern because many materials in outer space are becoming more and more rare on Earth.

The reason to colonize, if we can accomplish this, is that humans have a backup plan in case of any major disaster such as climate change or the case of an asteroid colliding with Earth.

Downfalls of Space Exploration

Some of the downfalls of space exploration are the following; Cost, bad for the environment, no guarantee of success, and logistics. Space exploration doesn’t come cheap. On average, each mission will cost an astonishing amount of $450 million according to Nasa. Specifically in terms of Japan, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has an annual budget of 183 billion yen ($1.6 billion ). This is money that could be used towards projects such as finding ways to reduce global warming. An example of reducing global warming is creating renewable resources. Taking this idea full circle as stated in the beginning, fossil fuels are no longer an option as our earth becomes more and more damaged. We need to find ways to preserve our resources rather than ignoring them and being forced to find alternatives. While on the topic of global warming, the amount of litter every space mission creates is devastating, there are more than half a million items of debris that are currently being tracked as they orbit our planet. The next con is that even after investing all this time and resources there is no guarantee of success in finding our next habitable planet. This means that no matter how much money research and time we invest into space travel we are not guaranteed to find the next Earth. This makes space exploration a very risky matter making it questionable if we should keep exploring. Finally, the last problem we face with space exploration is the logistics of it. As written in the first paragraph our ultimate goal for space exploration is us to find a habitable planet, surprisingly we have found multiple inhabitable planets and every single one of them has two things in common. The first common point of all of these plants is that although we believe they could be inhabitable, we do not know for sure if they are. This is because we classify them inhabitable because they have similarities to earth such as the temperature, period of days, and radiant flux, although these are very important factors we are not sure if there are resources that human life requires such as water. The other common factor there is is even if we were to find a habitable planet it would be too difficult if not impossible to send the whole human race there. This is because planets we believe are inhabitable such as the Kepler 22b and the Tau Ceti and too far away. Back in 2009 NASA used a satellite telescope and found Kepler 22b, and they estimated that it would take an astonishing 23.4 Million years to reach. Not only is it too far to reach the tile that space travel has on the human body but it is nearly impossible to get to anywhere outside of the earth without extensive years and years of training.

Past and Present

Past methods of space research were heavily influenced by religion, philosophers such as Aristotle Ptolemy and Claudius Ptolemaeus who were widely respected astronomers used religion to study space. Specifically, they believed in the Geocentric theory. The Geocentric theory, as Aristotle describes in his writing, is the belief that the Earth is at the center of the universe, and all of the other planets are orbiting around the Earth. This means that from anywhere on Earth, the Sun appears to revolve around Earth once per day. While the Moon and the planets have their motions, they also appear to revolve around Earth about once per day. This was widely believed due to a literal interpretation of the Bible “He set the earth on its foundations so that it should never be moved.”

Currently, we have a more objective way of researching the universe. Some of the ways we study our plants are; JMARS, Analyst Notebook, and LROC. Firstly, JMARS formerly known as “Java Mission-planning and Analysis for Remote Sensing”, the JMARS is a geospatial data analysis tool meaning that it is the gathering and projecting imagery, in other words, it is information that has a geographical aspect to it. This program allows us to take high-resolution photographs of certain spots on planets such as Mars. This gives us the chance to research the materials and conditions of plants to see whether it would benefit us to explore them. The next commonly used method for space exploration is the Analyst Notebook. The Analyst Notebook is a NASA database that allows the user to pull up detailed data such as photographs from the missions, mission objective documentation, mission planner goals, and other various data points from previous missions. This allows NASA to create hypotheses, and estimations and to find improvement points for the next missions. Finally, the third approach we have for studying space is the LROC or Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera. The LROC is a high-resolution camera system that is equipped on the lunar reconnaissance orbiter which is a NASA robotic spacecraft that is currently orbiting the Moon. This robotic spacecraft was developed to help render the data captured by the satellite.

Conclusion

After researching the Benefits and downfalls of space exploration, I believe that although space exploration seems very intriguing, I think rather than ignoring the major problems such as global warming and lack of materials in an overpopulated earth we should use space funding and try to find ways to fix our earth. Saying this I do understand why people would support space exploration but I think that the risks and logistics outweigh the benefits.

Introduction

The argument as to whether illegal immigrants in the United States of America should continue receiving social services such as food, welfare medical care and even financial aid for schools has been ongoing for such a long period and no one seems to agree with the other.

Most of the Americans argue that the illegal immigrants are lazy and form gangs while those who are active are taking jobs that in the past belonged to the Americans. On my side, I would propose that the support of the illegal immigrants continue based on the following simple facts.

Advantages of Illegal Aliens to the United States of America

Illegal immigrants as long as they are living within the United States of America contribute to the Gross Domestic Product of the country since they purchase goods and services produced within.

When the factories and other firms in the US produce goods and services, these commonly hated illegal immigrants do not import the goods and services from their mother countries rather they buy the goods and services produced in the United States of America. On the other hand, even if they imported the goods and services to the United States of America, it would still lead to the country gaining more from foreign direct investments (Hanson 19).

A common belief among the critics who argue against the provision of the said goods and services to the illegal immigrants is that they do not pay taxes and that they therefore put strains on the American social services. These all are lies as it is a well known fact that most of the illegal immigrants do not qualify for government aid and they do pay taxes (Anon 5). The truth of the matter is that the illegal aliens do contribute to the taxation system though they may not be directly registered under the tax programs existing in the country.

For example illegal aliens contribute taxes through the Individual Tax Identification Number (ITIN) which is usually a special number provided to those who are not in possession of the social security numbers but wants to file for taxes since it is a basic requirement. These illegal aliens also pay taxes whenever they buy goods and services on offer in the United States of America just like other normal citizens does whenever they purchase goods (Tristam 5).

Most of the Americans cannot perform any sort of jobs on offer, especially if the wages are low. While most Americans are in desperate need of better paying jobs they cannot offer their services cheaply thus it is only through illegal aliens that most of the US companies are able to access cheap and less costly labor.

When US companies are able to access cheap labor from the aliens, the costs of production are reduced and as a result most of the US companies are able to gain huge profits compared to what they would have made if they had employed the legal American citizens. As a result, illegal aliens contribute to the taxes indirectly or even through reversal linkages where the company pays for corporate taxes on profits (Garibaldi 13).

Conclusion

Most Americans argue that children of illegal immigrants enjoy free public schools and to many this is considered as a cost of illegal immigration. However, instead of seeing the costs what many critics fail to observe is that it would be dangerous and even unproductive to have the large population of youth out of school as fate would force them seek ways of survival with criminal activities being the only left choice.

These critics would be the first to be attacked by the formed gangs and start complaining to the authorities that the illiterate children of the illegal migrants should be taken to school instead and thus my continued support stands as to why the government should carry on providing these services to illegal aliens.

Works Cited

Anonymous. “Biased and Hysterical Media Reporting.” Illegal immigration statistics, 2010. Web.

Garibaldi, Mario. “Illegal Immigration: Pros & Cons.” Searchwarp, 2006. Web.

Hanson, Gordon. “The Economic Logic of Illegal Immigration.” Cfr, 2007. Web.

Tristam, Pierre. “Illegal Immigrants And Benefits: Undocumented Aliens Do Not Overburden Government Programs.” Suite101, 2008. Web.

The idea of contacting extraterrestrial civilizations has been fascinating and inspiring numerous people since its conception for understandable reasons. The notion of being alone in the universe is a very unsettling thought that creates a sense of despair and loneliness. However, the existing accounts of contact with sentient alien life forms do not appear to hold any criticism. Therefore, I quite agree with the statement that UFOs as one of the main types of claims associated with alien encounters are quite difficult to take seriously (Espírito Santo & Vergara, 2020). In addition, the very notion of a UFO appears to be blurred since it does not specifically imply an extraterrestrial object. Instead, it suggests that the object in question has not been identified, which means that it can be virtually anything with flying capacity.

UFOs as the phenomena that have been strongly associated with fabricated stories, currently seem to be viewed mostly as a joke, which has largely informed the discourse around them in social media. As a result, the vast majority of sources reporting on UFOs and the related instances typically use the specified material not as newsworthy information but as a narrative that can support the said newspapers’ agendas (Edis, 2020). Consequently, any story about a UFO is likely to be perceived as manipulative and doubtful. Furthermore, the subject matter appears to be lumped with other controversial issues under the umbrella of pseudoscience, which has marked it as the idea that only gullible people lacking intelligence would believe (Edis, 2020). As a result, the interest toward UFOs and the idea of an alien encounter appears to have subsided significantly, leaving only a handful of enthusiasts being invested and heavily interested in this idea.

References

Edis, T. (2020). A revolt against expertise: Pseudoscience, right-wing populism, and post-truth politics. Disputatio, 9(13), 1-29.

Espírito Santo, D., & Vergara, A. (2020). The possible and the impossible: Reflections on evidence in Chilean ufology.Antípoda. Revista de Antropología y Arqueología, 41, 125-146.

Our popular movies are full of references to UFOs and human-like representatives of extraterrestrial civilizations. However, we seem to treat the possibility of UFOs and aliens actually existing in space as something unimportant. Meanwhile, multiple trustworthy and credible sources claim otherwise, and we have no reason to dismiss their words. Based on what we can learn from astrophysics professionals, NASA scientists, the U.S. intelligence authorities, and foreign space security specialists, the idea of aliens and UFOs being out there should be taken seriously.

To start with, contrary to what many skeptics may believe, true scientists have never denied aliens’ existence because there are simply no findings to argue that extraterrestrial life is impossible. Instead, knowledgeable professionals involved in space research make it clear that new studies uncover even more opportunities for intelligent life outside of our planet to emerge. For instance, Lindsay Hays, a NASA astrobiologist, acknowledges that “the more exoplanets we find around other stars, the more we learn about how many different environments could exist for life” (“Do Aliens Exist” 1:11-1:15). As a program officer responsible for various projects dealing with astrobiological research, she knows it for sure that excessive skepticism with regard to aliens simply has no grounds.

Military forces in the U.S. have gone a bit further than that in implying that alien civilizations are not just someone’s fantasy. In its 2021 report, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence recognized the UFO issue in the U.S. and requested “an intelligence assessment of the threat posed by unidentified aerial phenomena” (2). The agency has some undisputable authority in security-related matters; it also has more access to innovative intelligence technology than anyone else. By the quoted statement, this credible strategic decision-maker basically acknowledges that the previously registered UFOs remain unexplained in our country, which is among the world’s leaders in military power. Even the authorities have to admit that UFOs are a real threat, so there is not much room left for saying that they are nothing more than a science fiction topic.

If it is not convincing enough, there are trustworthy researchers that state aliens’ existence explicitly, without attempts to avoid this specific term. Renowned astrophysicists are convinced that some objects observed in space have been created by alien civilizations that we are yet to discover. In 2017, Robert Weryk, an astronomer from Canada, observed a weirdly behaving dot that moved four times faster than any asteroid and called it Oumuamua (Kolbert). Later, Avi Loeb, who is a professor at Harvard University and an astrophysicist, argued that Oumuamua was “the handiwork of an alien civilization” because of its “non-gravitational acceleration” (qtd in Kolbert). Haim Eshed is a former space security decision-maker in Israel; he currently works as an aeronautics professor and gives lectures at several reputable universities in Israel (Suliman and Goldman). In an interview in 2021, Eshed said that “the Unidentified Flying Objects are here; humanity is not ready yet” (qtd in Suliman and Goldman). Both Loeb and Eshed have the necessary credentials to be considered experts, unlike many skeptics who have never observed or researched space at a professional level.

Finally, these pieces of evidence make it clear that rejecting extraterrestrial civilizations’ existence is not a well-informed viewpoint. Trustworthy agencies and individuals that have access to the most current data from space research either do not deny the idea of extraterrestrial life or claim that aliens are real in a non-ambiguous manner. Under these circumstances, multiple non-professionals’ assertions that life in space is not there look even less convincing.

Works Cited

“Do Aliens Exist? We Asked a NASA Scientist: Episode 5.”YouTube, uploaded by NASA, Web.

Kolbert, Elizabeth. “Have We Already Been Visited by Aliens?”The New Yorker, Web.

Office of the Director of National Intelligence. “Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena.” Web.

Suliman, Adela, and Goldman, Paul. “Former Israeli Space Security Chief Says Extraterrestrials Exist, and Trump Knows About It.”NBC News, Web.

From different countries, for many centuries, there have been reports of strange celestial lights, aircraft landing on the planet, and some even claimed that strange creatures come out of them. Sometimes there was information about UFO crashes. Most of the appearances of UFOs have received a scientific explanation, but scientists cannot explain some of these events. In most cases, when the contact of visiting the Earth by other civilizations was made public, authorities claimed that this was a test of new aircraft or natural phenomena. However, in the case of Zimbabwe, it is believed that the appearance of UFOs was accurate, and the ruling bodies and opinion leaders should make it clear to the population that these alien arrivals were never fiction.

Most often, the appearance of a UFO, an unidentified flying object, is associated with a visit of other intelligent beings to Earth. This happened in Zimbabwe in a city called Ruwa in 1994, when children saw UFO land in the school’s courtyard (Christie par. 2). Furthermore, they said that they saw aliens exiting the flying object, talking with them using telepathy, and leaving (Christie par. 12). The children were scared by that the experience and told everything to the teachers and parents right after the incident.

Despite the fact that each student described what they saw in their own way, giving their embellishments, all the stories were similar. The school where everything happened was called Ariel Primary School. It was a costly private learning organization (Han 2). Moreover, children of different social strata, including both black and white students, visited it. The incident occurred in the afternoon when the sun was high and the temperature was growing.

As already mentioned, almost all UFO encounters are not made public and are suppressed by the authorities. Despite being one of the most well-witnessed cases of aliens potentially trying to communicate with humanity, there is no official acknowledgment or support of the alien sightings from the Zimbabwe administration (Han 7). The popularly accepted explanation of the phenomenon is mass hysteria – a poorly-studied and rare phenomenon where individuals are affected by a shared delusion (Kokota 75). This explanation has been used to explain mass sightings of UFOs and other paranormal phenomena before.

The proof that UFO sightings cannot be identified with conventional technical means is the specific reaction of animals. When UFOs appear, they often run or hide in a panic, howl, and tremble, while they usually do not react to flights of planes or helicopters. In addition, the proof of the illegality of identifying UFOs with observations of space experiments and flights of airplanes or balloons is that UFOs have been observed throughout the history of humankind.

In ancient Egypt, and the Roman Empire, and the Middle Ages, unidentified flying objects were observed when there was no aircraft at all. Scientists discover drawings in caves and ancient temples that resemble UFOs and extraterrestrial beings. They suspect that ancient people saw and met with aliens. In the old chronicles, there are many descriptions of light disks visible in the sky during the day or lights visible at night, observed during the Roman Empire. In some cases, even creatures that are somehow related to objects are described.

Ideas about extraterrestrials and their species are constantly being updated due to new variants of their appearance. There are both classic humanoid types of aliens and more extravagant versions. So there were, for example, widespread versions representing aliens in the form of insect-like creatures coordinating their actions with the help of a collective telepathic mind (Gordon 11). In addition, there are ideas about aliens as creatures whose appearance, for one reason or another, is rugged for a person to perceive. Therefore, when contacting representatives of human civilization, these aliens disguise themselves, taking the form of human-like creatures.

Zimbabwe sightings of aliens were actual, and the government should pursue the policy of openness to make it easier for the general public to accept that we are not alone in this universe. The reasons for that are that in light of the accumulating evidence about aliens, trying to explain and hide the events of contacts from the world would only bring about a more significant political crisis in the future while preventing the international community work together to ensure the safety of Earth.

Another surge of interest in the topic of UFOs arose after it became known about the Pentagon program, in which the agency collected certificates of military pilots about meetings with UFOs. Numerous rumors about the Pentagon report on unidentified air objects began to circulate long before the publication of its unclassified part. The first piece of supportive evidence that Zimbabwe sightings were actual is that evidence of UFOs existing has been publicly released by the Pentagon (Office of the Director of National Intelligence 3). The footage of UFOs as collected by fighter pilots demonstrates the existence of flying vehicles of unknown configurations that can move with speed and agility not reachable by any human-built plane (“Navy Pilots Describe Encounters with UFOs” 00:05:00-00:05:14). The logical conclusion is that UFOs exist and could have been seen in Zimbabwe.

Moreover, there is an opinion that NASA is hiding information from the public. This fact has led many to believe that they know about the existence of aliens. One of the most discussed cases of a NASA cover-up comes from Dr. Edgar Mitchell, who was part of the Apollo 14 space mission in 1971 (Pasulka 199). During the two-moon expedition, he spent thirty-three hours on the moon. Dr. Mitchell said that he was aware of several UFO sightings during his career, but each of them was hidden. The doctor said that the space agency staff described the aliens as little people who seem strange to us. Mitchell also said that the technologies of extraterrestrials are much more complex than those of Earth.

There is much evidence about the movement of people in time and space, which is a crucial aspect of the UFO problem. Ufologists have created an interactive map that regularly marks the places of an alien invasion on Earth. The marks are accompanied by photos and explanations too. Observers tell under what circumstances the pictures were taken and share their impressions of what they saw. Nevertheless, the complexity of the study of ufology for its scientific character lies in the absence of a formulated single representation in ufological groups and organizations. Some groups use scientific methods of research, while pseudoscientific theories and guesses guide others.

Often UFO witnesses become objects of ridicule and risk their careers but still agree to contribute to the investigation of the case. Sometimes eyewitnesses agree to take a lie detector test, and reports of UFOs come from scientists. However, the eyewitness of the accounts of the event cannot be dismissed. Though particularities vary due to different perceptions and cultural backgrounds, the stories of the children are remarkably similar and tell a cohesive tale. It is faulty logic to dismiss the eyewitness testimonies of more than 60 students based on the assumption that what they have seen cannot be confirmed (Christie, par. 13). Moreover, in many countries, especially the United States, there are many specialists, researchers of unidentified flying objects, and even so-called contactees with alien civilizations.

Events similar to the ones witnessed in Zimbabwe have occurred before, both in Africa and other continents. A similar incident occurred in Broad Haven, Wales, in 1979 (The Schoolkids Who Said They Saw ‘Aliens’? par. 1). During that event, 62 students witnessed alien spaceships, their inhabitants and attempted communication as well. Petrescu et al. point out that “the issue of past observations is difficult to explain otherwise than through the existence of other civilizations more advanced than ours” (80). Despite the evidence, the event remained stonewalled in the same way the Zimbabwe incident was.

A person is an independent person in judgments and assessments and responds adequately to external stimuli. However, as people immerse themselves in a group that is numerically increasing, their critical thinking decreases significantly. The primary counterargument/explanation to what happened was the likelihood of mass hysteria occurring among the students. Simultaneously experienced critical moments, relationships and assessments turn into identical forms of verbal and non-verbal activity. This contributes to the strengthening of hysteria, increasing it to an absolute peak. In this state, a person becomes part of a human-like mass. There is an opinion that humanity should carefully consider the factors and risks before contacting alien creatures. It is believed that they can be much more advanced than humans. In addition, the contacts of more developed civilizations with less developed ones do not end well for the latter.

Mass hysteria has a wide range of symptoms and characteristics. Researches emphasize that “mass hysteria typically begins when an individual becomes ill or hysterical during a period of stress. After this initial individual shows symptoms, others begin to manifest similar symptoms” (Kokota 74). This disease can be highly contagious because a single person might experience signs of distress. It is also noted that “symptoms recorded during outbreaks of mass hysteria include abdominal pains, chest tightness, dizziness, fainting, headaches, hyperventilation, nausea, vomiting, palpitations; anxiety, conversion disorder and screaming” (Kokota 74). There is a possibility that the assumed hallucinations of UFOs were started by one student and transferred to others, which caused a high degree of standard features during interviews and assessments.

Mass hysteria has been increasingly common in African countries. Mainly it occurs in South Africa, Tanzania, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Uganda (Kokota 75). The condition could explain why children have seen and heard similar events, which might have been triggered by an ordinary object, the heat, a hallucination, or something similar (Kokota 76). In addition, the researchers say that traditional scientific knowledge claims that nothing in the universe can move faster than light. Therefore, if there is extraterrestrial intelligence somewhere, it will not reach the Earth. All manifestations of UFOs on Earth are optical illusions or a game of nature. Furthermore, during the entire existence of radio communication, no one has received signals from an extraterrestrial civilization.

While there is some evidence of mass hysteria being a likely explanation for the event, not all children have expressed symptoms associated with the disease. In addition, the explanation of mass hysteria or mass hallucinations has been used to ignore evidence and live witness testimonies before to maintain secrecy and public order (Han, “The Possibility of Alien Life” 1). Furthermore, Han emphasizes that “cases exist in which young children and groups of adults have witnessed strange entities emerge from UFOs, rendering it difficult to attribute such an anomaly to human psychology” (“Aliens” and UFOs” 3). This acts as evidence that it is worth trusting the Zimbabwe case that the aliens exist.

In addition to the arguments mentioned above for the absence of aliens, there is an opinion that if alien beings existed and had more advanced technologies, they could fly to Earth and conquer it. In addition, many witnesses of UFO flights later admitted that they deceived the public with their statements and falsified evidence. After all, stories about aliens are very profitable from a commercial point of view. They bring huge revenues to the creators of films, books, and consumer goods.

It is important to note that the topic of alien life and unidentified flying objects is of great importance in relation to science, history, technology, consciousness. The Zimbabwe incident has been one of many sightings in Africa that have been largely ignored by the media and society (Looking Forward: Extraterrestrials and U.F.O.s.). Because of it, valuable evidence has been lost, and retroactive investigations many years later have not given as much evidence as before (O’Keefe 71). Zimbabwe government should investigate these reports better.

Nowadays, knowledge of information and facts on this topic will lead to changes in people, the way they communicate, perceive the phenomena around them, and may give rise to a reassessment of historical data and biases that form the awareness of the world. Knowledge about UFOs has been one of the most exciting and repetitive elements in the modern world. They inspired public fears, wild theories, and popular culture, with stories of alien visitors flying over our heads.

A reverent and attentive attitude to the conclusions of witnesses plays a severe role in the knowledge of other life in the universe. Eyewitnesses of alien sightings are primarily ignored and ostracized by Society (O’Keefe 30). The same happened in Zimbabwe, where over 60 students were declared victims of mass hysteria rather than given proper attention. Treating individuals and evidence of UFOs more seriously would improve the general awareness and acceptance of the events.

Ufologists around the world have repeatedly accused the governments and special services of the great powers in an effort to hide from the public the truth about the contacts with extraterrestrial intelligence that took place. In all cases of unidentified flying objects encounters, the authorities stated that there were no aliens. The whole system of modern education is built on the suggestion of the idea of the infallibility of science. Therefore, everything new, especially information about life other than earth, has to overcome the most substantial resistance from an officially recognized point of view. Moreover, enthusiasts who tried to conduct their investigation had severe trouble with security organizations.

Currently, there are a considerable number of documents about contacts with extraterrestrials of representatives of advanced foreign states, revelations of former political leaders of states, former professional astronauts, and NASA officials. The acceptance of the fact that we are not alone in this universe will have to happen, eventually. If the general public is not prepared for the revelation, there will be consequences across the world, followed by societal shifts (Wilson 167). Treating witnesses and evidence with more respect and scrutiny will allow the transition to becoming less troublesome.

Recently, the Central Intelligence Agency declassified several million pages of files, previously completely secret, related to extraterrestrials and unidentified flying objects. Despite this, some of the published documents have places crossed out in black ink where only the date and file number can be seen. It is also worth noting that the disclosure of information was made on the instructions of the president. The disclosure of data on programs, materials, and evidence of UFO activity on Earth was made in order to prepare humanity for a reality that already seems indisputable. However, humanity is still afraid to admit that people are alone in the universe. It can also be concluded that soon all previously classified documents about unidentified flying objects will become available to the masses, and people will learn the whole truth about intelligent life in the universe.

Moreover, there is a possibility of considering the existence of extraterrestrials from the religious side. For most religions, the existence of aliens is not a problem. Many faiths, such as Buddhism or Hinduism, fully admit this possibility. Religions such as Christianity, which supports the view that it is built around the only incarnation of God on Earth and has a developed concept regarding alien life, may have problems accepting the fact of alien life.

In addition to all of the above, at the moment, the world elite can no longer completely conceal the presence of aliens on Earth. This is due to the fact that thanks to the Internet, information about the appearance of unidentified flying objects in various parts of the planet, stories about contacts with representatives of alien civilizations, and much more are rapidly spreading. All this can be proof that aliens have been visiting the planet for a long time and maybe watching humanity. Most often, people watching a UFO disappear in the sky because the speed of movement of alien ships is simply fantastic by our standards. Conspiracy theorists claim that if humanity accepts the fact of the existence of alien life, this alien mind will have the right to contact them. Then there will be a global awakening of all humankind, which will lead to a revision of values on Earth.

In the scientific community, there is a so-called Drake equation. This is a formula that serves to determine the number of extraterrestrial civilizations in the galaxy with which we have a chance to come into contact. In 1961, astronomer Frank Drake developed a formula for determining the number of civilizations in the universe other than humans, with which it would be possible to establish communication (Platt 49). Since the chances of establishing contact with alien life are determined by the number of advanced extraterrestrial civilizations in the galaxy, Drake deduced several factors on which this number depends and included them in his equation.

At the moment, it is difficult to deny the existence of UFOs, but there are still not so many actual confirmations unless people count the photo and video archive, which is full of the Internet. There are secret government and scientific programs related to alien life in the universe. Reliable sources conceal from people the accurate picture of what is happening; such giants as NASA have long been tracking the presence of alien ships and flying saucers in space, but they carefully hide it from human eyes.

Aliens are a topic for thought not only by science fiction writers but also scientists and even the national secret services. People attribute the construction of pyramids, various cataclysms, meteorological accidents, and other phenomena to extraterrestrial beings, to which scientists cannot give intelligible explanations. The question of the existence of alien life is still an unsolved mystery.

Works Cited

“Navy Pilots Describe Encounters with UFOs.”YouTube, uploaded by 60 Minutes, 2021.

Awareness.” Altered Consciousness in the Twentieth Century. Routledge, 2019, pp. 167-182.

“The Schoolkids Who Said They Saw ‘Aliens’?”BBC.

Christie, Sean. “Remembering Zimbabwe’s Great Alien Invasion?”Mail & Guardian.

Gordon, Joan. Alien Invaders or Aliens Invaded. Aliens in Popular Culture, 2019.

Han, Go. ““Aliens” and UFOs.” Hanyang University, 2020.

“The Possibility of Alien Life Forms and Unidentified Aerial Phenomena.” ResearchGate, 2020. Web.

Kokota, Demobly. “Episodes of Mass Hysteria in African Schools: A Study of Literature.” Malawi Medical Journal, vol. 23, no. 3, 2011, pp. 74-77.

O’Keefe, Emily. Investigating UFOs. Weigl Publishers, 2019.

Petrescu, Relly Victoria, et al. “What is a UFO?” Journal of Aircraft and Spacecraft Technology, vol. 1, no. 2, 2017.

Platt, Karl-Florian. “Drake-like Calculations for the Frequency of Life in the Universe.” Philosophies, vol. 6, no. 2, 2021.

Looking Forward: Extraterrestrials and U.F.O.s. The New York Times Editorial Staff, 2020.

Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. Office of the Director of National Intelligence, 2021.

Wilson, Andrew Fergus. “Prism of Lyra: UFO Consciousness and Portals to Cosmic Awareness.” Altered Consciousness in the Twentieth Century, 2019, 167-182.

The Criteria for determining whether people on earth are religious or not involve certain acts, behaviors, and beliefs observable amongst the subjects. People on earth who subscribe to a specific religion or belong to a certain faith representing a religious group would have to act in certain similar ways repeatedly.

The first criterion I would use to determine whether people are religious is to determine whether they meet at various places of worship on a regular basis. The second criterion would involve observing people’s behavior at certain public events. This second criterion would involve analyzing whether the people perform any religious acts before, during, and/or after these public gatherings.

Based on the first criterion of religious persons meeting at certain places on regular basis, people on earth can be said to be religious. One particular religious group, whose religion is called Christianity, meets every Sunday at a place of worship called a Church. A second religious group, Islam, meets every Friday at a house of worship known as a Mosque.

Similarly, there are many other religious groups with similar practices of frequenting houses of worship; for instance, a religious group known as Judaism has a place of worship known as a Synagogue.

Such a pattern is repeated the world over and people have diverse names for their religions but the meeting in venerated places from which they give reverence to their various gods and seek guidance from these gods underscores the commonality in the different religious groups.

People on earth also fit the second criterion for being religious because all public functions of importance in the different societies across the world contain elaborate rituals that seek divine providence from a supposed ‘higher’ being.

Many public functions, from simple social functions like weddings, birthday celebrations, and initiation ceremonies, to more critical functions like swearing in of leaders from different communities, nations, and regions involve elaborate religious rituals. During these functions, people appeal to their different ‘higher beings’ for guidance and divine providence.

Religion, whose characteristics and behavioral manifestations in people on earth are as earlier stated, performs various functions. Firstly, religion acts as a source of communal unity (Culbertson, 2011, p.40). People belonging to the various stated religious groups identify one another as spiritual brothers and sisters.

For instance, a person professing the Christian faith (Christian) regards members of Christianity as spiritual brethrens and constructs his or her sense of existence through this religion and a similar construct applies to members of other religious groups. A specific religious group acts as larger family that the members can identify with and from which they draw a sense of togetherness.

Secondly, religion acts as a source of social guidance and offers a moral guideline that members can reflect on at times of difficulties and uncertainties, or simply for reflective purposes (Becker, 1991, p.147). Most, if not all of the religions own specific religious books from which lessons on living, spiritual guidance, and other such matters are discussed.

These books act as the sole points of reference for social and moral guidance for members of these different religions. Since many religious groups meet regularly on weekly basis, reinforcement and re-dedication to the religious edicts is ensured.

In conclusion, from observation, people on earth can be called religious. They meet regularly in places of worship and perform religious rituals in nearly all their socio-communal activities, fitting the criteria for religiosity earlier developed. Religion also functions as a major guide to the daily lives of most of the people on earth.

References

Becker, C. B. (1991). From pain to philosophy: on functions of art and religion. Journal of Religion & Psychical Research, 14(3), 144-150.

Culbertson, K. (2011). How places of worship help build community. Planning, 77(2), 40.