notice how sometimes they could detect the craft, while other times they could not. We don't turn our tech on and off. It's on the skin of an aircraft, unless ECM.
This was part of what I was thinking back when I first read these articles. IIRC, the aircraft which were detecting these objects all had recent radar/systems upgrades. The old-tech aircraft never detected these things. New did. One of the pilot accounts mentioned that he had tried to make visual on the locked target, and could not. Perhaps I'm amiss here, but I recall something along those lines.
Perhaps these "sightings" are nothing more than radar/sensor tech glitch in the new systems?
With regard to "believing" and aliens and such... One way I think of the issue is down to money/time. How would I spend money/time related to aspects of this topic?
Would I spend money/time to process telescopic data, filtering for possible life-form signals? Yes. This is the likely means by which I think "contact" would be made. On the electromagnetic spectrum, via some binary codification of fundamental (and obvious) mathematical principles, and this done over vast, physically insurmountable distances. While this means does fall into the territory of a "belief" I suppose, it's the most viable pathway based upon what I know to exist.
Would I spend money/time to build a transmitter to send such signals to possible distant observers? Maybe. Hearing a signal can't be done, without a signal having been sent. In my own lifetime, the results of this effort would be total zero, due to the distances and time involved. Whether these signals could ever actually be replied to (and subsequently received by humanity) are IMO a vast doubt. The more likely outcome would be that if it were received by an alien observer, our presences would simply become known to someone who could never make any meaningful action, armed with this knowledge. This outcome could be called exactly the same as simply "believing" that someone had received the signal. Just imagination. Which in itself is a bit self defeating. Surely this is also a consideration an alien race has weighed. If I wouldn't spend money/time to send, would they spend? Which kind of casts doubt on even trying to detect signals in the first place...
Would I spend money/time building an alien landing pad to receive visitors? No.
Would I spend money/time hunting for proof of miracles or deities? No.
