hell yeah...I too have extremely religious family members..on my mother side, I have an aunt is is obsessed with the supernatural..after all they are Italian in Sicily. hahaha.. anyway...all I hear from them and all i've been groing up with is this fear of Jesus. I woke up... but yeah...can't wait to hear her music

She is currently dating a guy who is even moreso into UFO belief than she is. Amanda feels she has some scientific evidence to back UFO belief, and it's an issue we've chosen to not discuss with her very often. I think all members of the Rational Response Squad think there is a much higher chance that alien life exists than not existing, and yet all of us feel there is not enough evidence to claim that aliens have visited us here on Earth. We are finding that many people who see eye to eye with us on many levels, still have one or two beliefs, that we don't readily accept. The most important thing to us is that she is wise enough to see the dangers of religion, we can work up from there.

Good lord. I have never once claimed anywhere that aliens have been "visiting us". I have no solid evidence for that so why would I make such a claim? A mind too open is equally as dangerous as a mind too closed. However it is always best not to dismiss an idea until all facts are appropriately researched.
The greatest breakthroughs in human endeavour have often flown in the face of what was deemed 'impossible' at the time. Witness: the first airplane, electricity, radio transmissions, sailing to the ends of the earth and not falling off. (lol) Add space travel, television etc etc.
Knowledge is fluid, it adapts and evolves as more of the truth is revealed by those clever and, yes, brave enough to seek it.

Thank you Brian for your kind and rational response to an individual who's depth of interpretation is clearly limited. I would challenge him to email me personally with the "outlandish" quote wherein I claim this planet has been visited by life other than our own.

Other life forms in the Universe are simply probable. That is all I know.
It is interesting that most people, when faced with a topic they know nothing about, would prefer to pigeon-hole and judge another before doing their own personal research into the topic. Mental apathy is a great human weakness. Something that I do not think should be tolerated in society as a whole, let alone a conversation as fleeting as this.

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I got ONE and only ONE movie for you guys CONTACT.... one of my absolute all time favorite movies, combining.. atheism, religion AND aliens. carl sagan is the man..

I will say this, I am open minded to the idea of foreign life. whether it be single celled life or advanced, "intelligent" life. As of right now there is no way for us to know. The evidence just isn't there. But due to what we know about the universe it is very clearly possible that another "earth" like planet in another solar system similar to ours would have the right chemistry for life to have evolved. Amanda, clearly is keeping an open mind.

But I can see it now...THE RRS SUPPORTS UFO CLAIMS...... uh... no...
we're straight people, but not narrow....so to speak. If you play a statistical game, there could very well be life on other planets. I mean, one of the theories of how life began on earth is that it came on an asteroide or a meteorite that collided with the earth.... so.... I wouldn't be surprised...but I'm not a believer until the evidence shows up...after all there IS also a chance that we are a unique....planet in the whole universe...a cosmic accident..that has created such "wonderful beings" as humans------>scared little insignificant carbon based life forms which encase the largest egos of the universe.

Great point. I totally agree. Once again, a healthy and rational mind is one continually inquiring, researching and challenging the ever-changing knowledge base that is both readily, and less readily available to us. The greatest thinkers in recent and ancient history have been rational enough to truly grasp the implications of a possible infinite universe. If an idea does not gain truth as it gains followers it is possible the greatest Truth is yet unknown and without any dedicated followers to ambitiously "blog" about.
I leave you with my definition of an open-mind. A mind that does not dismiss anything until all the available facts are known.
Amanda Bloom

:smt020 <------Larry listening to Amanda Bloom's song Magdaleine!!!
But seriously, no need to lie to people about me!! I'm just a regular dude....that woke up. nothing special. The level of ignorance of the masses due to religion is making me look good..but it's a poor comparison.

Well, the red rain was actually caused by local algal spores of the genus Trentepholia. People love to twist things around in order to sensationalize.

When all else fails: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_rain_in_Kerala

I agree with your first sentence, but I have yet to see any evidence of alien visitation.

Thank you, floating egg, for admitting that in fact it was your own loose assumptions that lead you to think that I "believe" aliens are visiting this planet.
A certain assumption based on my profile is somewhat understandable. However assumptions are dangerous as they are limited by the mind of the assumer and are therefore often incongruent with reality.
Alas this is the case.
You will notice that all I have done is present for your consideration
phenomena that exist regarless of whether or not you or I find convenient to assign mental energy to.
Crop formations have appeared all over the world for over 20 years on record and occur within the hundreds each crop season. Some are clearly man-made which offers the lazy mind justification to dismiss the entire phenomenon. However a rational approach would be not to question whether ALL crop circles are of unexplainable origin, rather;

ARE ANY?

The answer is a resounding 'yes'.

There are formations that have appeared that are of such startling complexity and such non-duplicable features (radiation levels, non-damaged crops, no trail leading in or out, done under cover of darkness on private property undetected, magnetic properties that render compasses within them useless etc..) that to assume they are man made one naturally would demand a team of humans duplicate them under said conditions to said specifications.

No such duplication is possible and if you do the research you will find that anytime humans agree to be filmed making a formation they do it under completely different conditions AND fail to include the features and /or complexity that render claims of human origin ABSOLUTELY IMPROBABLE.

See www.cropcircleconnector.com and follow the links for more info.

I accept that the world is not as simple as we are both led to believe by the media, and choose to believe as a human egotistical survival mechanism. I do not know how these formations came to be. And I DO NOT CLAIM TO KNOW. I do know, however, that SOME formations are simply anomolous. A great mystery. And if you have an inquiring and healthy mind, these formations should interest you also.

You seem to have an aversion to 3 comments in my "pics" section. The first being "Do not dismiss what you have not personally researched". I think this is a valid idea, and am forced to customise it to "Do not dismiss what you have not sufficiently researched" to address your previous comment:

"My mind is open to evidence, and based on my research as well as the research of others, there is little to be found outside personal anecdotes."

If all you have encountered is personal anecdotes then you simply have not done the research. Even cursory research would show you that some of the most compelling evidence for the existance of UFO's being real objects moving intelligently in the skies comes from verifiable radar reports, by the military, commercial aircraft, and even NASA themselves. The Mexican and Brazilian governments have released official video footage of 12 UFO's in the sky captured on radar and infra-red radar. Links available on request. It would only take a quick google search to discover this. And I would argue that this surely goes beyond "personal anecdote".

"The greatest secrets are kept by public incredulity"
This comment was not specific to Aliens (!) Once again your own loose and lazy assumptions.
This is a valid idea and one has only to wander into recent history to find human behaviour that supports this idea.

"Ufo's in ancient art are plentiful & undeniable." Once again all I have stated is fact. Ufo's in not only ancient but also modern art ARE plentiful and undeniable and a man who fights to disclose information on this would be an idiot NOT to use this to support his research. Therefore you saying that "These paintings are often used by believers as evidence of alien visitation" carries no weight whatsoever. OF COURSE these paintings are going to be considered by those intelligent enough to truly understand its implications.

I have to wonder why it is that you have such an aversion to these noted ideas and phenomena. I imagine you consider yourself a "skeptic". However the true skeptic would have a hard time blindly believing in the benevolence and honesty of those who control the flow of information to the populace at large that inevitably comprises concensus reality.

I would also like to add that in fact Brian was NOT hesitant to question and discuss these ideas with me at all. He was quite keen to do so. You can hear for yourself in the outtakes section. It was infact my own decision not to go into the subject as I knew if I did I would waste countless hours on the internet debating with people like yourself which at this point in my life I don't have the patience for.

I feel that you need me to "believe" in aliens so that you have reason to attack me with the basest offence available: infantile ridicule.

I leave you with your own quote;

"It occurred to me that since you share the goals of the Rational Response Squad, that he may be biting his tongue"

Considering your false assumptions, perhaps my friend it is you who should bite your tongue.

Amanda Bloom

Just trying to go one specific formation at a time. The specific formation I like that Amanda has a picture of is this one:

I found it interesting that the site you referenced (cool site) takes credit for a bunch of crop circles, and happens to be astounded by this one. On this page they say:

"Here's something to ponder, if this formation was man made allowing for time to get into and out of the field under cover of darkness the construction time left should be around four hours. Given that there are over 400 circles some of which span approx 70ft in diameter that would mean that one of those circles would need to be created every 30 seconds and that's not even allowing any time for the surveying, purely flattening, this formation pushes the envelope and that's a MASSIVE understatement... my brain hurts!"

Just found that interesting.

I'm rather fond of the Crabwood Farm House formation in the UK.

AddisAbaba,

It may behoove you to note that I have not made the claim that you?ve accused me of. Sapient and I had a similar discussion through private messages, and I?m going to tell you the same thing that I told him. Since I didn?t receive permission to post what he wrote to me in private, I?ll omit his part of the conversation.

The following is an excerpt from Skeptic magazine's definition of skepticism:

...I am satisfied that crop circles are man made, but to quote skeptic magazine once again, "all facts in science are provisional and subject to challenge, and therefore skepticism is a method leading to provisional conclusions."

Guess that makes me a skeptic!

I find it hard to believe you are a practicioner of this 'method' you claim skepticism is by nature as you are 'satisfied ALL crop formations are man made' WITHOUT the requisite EXTRAORDINARY evidence to back it up!

Burden of proof can be a bitch, no?

I didn't accuse her of making a claim. In my first post, I observed that she seemed to believe in alien visitation and artificial structures on Mars. You addressed this in your reply which I've quoted below. I've placed the relevant sentences in bold for clarification.

The post Amanda Bloom seems (there?s that word again) to take issue with is my reply to your post where I wrote "I do not believe that outlandish claims should be tolerated in conversation." This was specifically targeted at your approach to Rational Response Squad supporters that make claims that are unsupported by evidence.

It's also worth noting that my continued argument with Amanda Bloom-- and you for that matter--is not based on my outlandish claims comment. I clarified my reply to your post early in the thread by explicitly stating that "to my knowledge she hasn't made any specific claims." Let?s pretend that I had intentionally accused her making an outlandish claim. It?s a reasonable response, which is why I clarified my point in a later post. Amanda could easily have replied with ?I made no outlandish claim.? I would have conceded the point and this thread would have probably gone in a different direction.

Hi,

Is the Amanda Bloom song still available?  I don't seem to find a downloads section?

Thanks.