At the beginning of this article, I included a letter from a 6th-grade student, Lauren M., asking about Roswell and about information to help her prove that there are UFOs and aliens. My response to Lauren with respect to Roswell has already been made patently clear throughout this article. With respect to aliens, I would tell Lauren that probably only the most narrow-minded of people consider the earth as being the only place where there is intelligent life in the universe. The earth is but a small speck in a vast universe that is, according to current scientific thinking, most likely teaming with life -- some of it probably far more intelligent we are.
Incredibly, New York Sun editorial writer and former civil war correspondent Francis Pharcellus Church seemed to have a grasp on all of this a hundred years ago. In his timeless editorial to Virginia O'Hanlon he wrote "In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge."
UFOs or alien spacecraft, however, are another matter. While we don't yet have tangible evidence that alien spacecraft exist, there have been many intriguing sightings by credible people that seem to defy conventional explanation. Like the few brief tantalizing signals that have been picked up by the SETI program, the evidence for UFOs has not yet qualified as solid proof in the eyes of the scientific community. Perhaps that might come in Lauren's lifetime.
If such confirmation does come, it would represent one of the most remarkable events in human history. The long-contemplated philosophical and scientific question of whether we are alone in the universe would be answered once and for all with absolute finality. Perhaps most important of all, the knowledge that it is possible for a civilization to survive the growing pains of becoming technologically advanced, without completely destroying itself and its environment in the process, would provide a renewed hope for the future of life here on earth.