The Situation- Part C

Keywords: UFO, unidentified flying objects, Bible, flying saucers, prophecy, Paleo-SETI, ancient astronauts, Erich von Däniken, Josef F. Blumrich, Zecharia Sitchin, Ezekiel, biblical prophecy, spacecraft, spaceship, NASA, Roswell, aircraft, propellant, extraterrestrial hypothesis, Jacques Vallee, interdimensional hypothesis, Project Blue Book, Condon Report, ancient history, Jesus, Judaism, Christianity, Middle East, end times, engines, rockets, helicopters, space travel, aliens, abductions, alien abductions, crop circles, extraterrestrials, astronomy, economics, biology, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Space Shuttle, Apollo, stars, planets, solar system, scriptures, design, fuel tank, aerodynamics, fuels, hydrogen, oxygen, wheels

Chapter 1

    In the field of literature the Book of Ezekiel is definite evidence—though of unusual nature—of the likelihood of further findings. But here again the task of evaluation falls within the competence of engineers.  [p.5] 

    In the previous paragraphs I have made repeated reference to the need for participation by engineers. This need becomes absolute for the assessment of structures or structural forms. Investigations and studies of this kind lie, so to speak, within the field of science. Science deals with questions of limits of knowledge. Matters lying within these limits become tasks of engineering. The engineer, and especially the design engineer, is the one who develops even the most advanced structures and who faces the task of thinking through and implementing the conditions and reasons that determine their shape. This is why he is the most competent person to deduce the purpose and the use of a structure from its outward appearance.

    Another aspect of these studies concerns the idea that such visitors and their equipment—for fundamental reasons—would have to be and look different from us and from whatever we use. The tendency to attribute a priori to an extraterrestrial civilization fanciful, mysterious, or unfamiliar shapes and capabilities often overlooks the proposition that a resemblance is in fact much more probable than a substantial difference. We shall come back to this theme later.

    Today any mention of extraterrestrial visits immediately brings up the question, "Where from and how?" This is only natural since, in the final analysis, the answer to this dual question is of literally worldwide importance. But we have no answer. For the time being the problems it entails are too numerous and too large for us to resolve. This often leads to a conclusion which in its simplest form would be approximately tantamount to saying: "We do not know where they came from, so they can not have been here."

    It is obviously impossible to overcome and to resolve this mountain of problems all at once. Therefore it appears to me that it would be far more appropriate to follow in this area a course regarded as self-evident in all other fields: to divide the total complex problem into smaller problems and questions.  [p.6]