Too High of a Standard UFO Faithful? Don't Cry.

Greetings UFO believers. 

"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." 

The Sagan standard is one of the most vilified razors in today's UFO subculture. First used by Carl Sagan during the PBS television program "Cosmos" back in 1980, and in his 1979 book "Broca's Brain," the aphorism is seen as being essential to the scientific method and highly descriptive of the demands of scientific skepticism. Historical figures from Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Flournoy, Marcello Truzzi, to Pierre-Simon Laplace made similar statements during their distinguished lifetimes, but Sagan is the individual most often associated with the formulation. 

As it pertains to the UFO problem, Sagan's statement is often (always) cast aside as being unreasonable, or too harshly skeptical, but is it? The possibilities of alien visitation, multidimensional visitors, or time travelers coming to the Earth are quite extraordinary to consider, so why is the necessity for extraordinary evidence so out of bounds? In three words, it is not. Scientific research and exploration has uncovered some extraordinary things, from new species of plesiosaurs, to diminutive satellites orbiting dwarf planets, to the confirmation of black holes at the center of most galaxies in the known universe. All extraordinary discoveries. All supported by extraordinary evidence. Why is the UFO problem any different? It should not be.

If the evidence required to explain the UFO problem was not extraordinary, but was in fact mundane and unremarkable, then that would logically suggest that the same can be said about the UFO problem itself. I have never met, or interacted with any author, witness, researcher, or broadcaster with a vested interest in the UFO topic that has ever made the declaration that the enigma of unidentified flying objects was anything other than something truly extraordinary (there's that word again.) So where is the extraordinary proof UFO people? 

Put up or shut the hell up.

If and when our species manages to arrive at some definitive answers to the UFO problem, the evidence supporting those discoveries will likely be extraordinary (there's that word again yet again.) That same extraordinary evidence may not lead to the answers that so many of the tinfoil-wrapped believers in the UFO arena always believe: aliens. Pushing back against the Sagan standard is an attempt to bypass, sidestep, or shrink from the investigative challenges presented by the UFO problem. Any endeavor undertaken to explain an unknown demands evidence, and in the case of unidentified flying objects, extraordinary evidence. Researchers should not shy away from the challenge, they should embrace the opportunity to solve one of the most fascinating unsolved mysteries known to the human race. 

Don't cry, don't be scared. Embrace the challenge, or go away. 

Thank you for your time and consideration.