Bright orange, the meteor streaked across the sky and was visible from a few states. Many residents of the Southwest looked up and wondered what the heck it was. But some didn’t; they knew exactly what it was.

What was it? A UFO, of course. The latest in a whole slew of intergalactic visitors to Earth. Depending on who you listen to, they come in saucer-shaped ships, giant orbs or glowing balls of light—perhaps all three. And that’s the problem with "believers": they really can’t make up their minds.

First of all, the most recent claim is pretty much obligatory. There’s a large bright object in the sky? Must be a UFO. But it’s sort of disappointing that the other intelligent life forms in the Universe have expeditions to Earth that end in flaming crashes.

These people come out of the woodwork every time any sort of celestial phenomenon occurs. That’s one thing that damages their credibility: the fact that, with little study, they are immediately convinced that it is an alien craft. Things get a little more ridiculous when people claim to have been abducted by aliens.

If aliens came to Earth and wanted a human sample, why would they choose some housewife from Idaho? The argument for it goes that aliens want somebody no other human will believe. Point taken, but a more foolproof way for the aliens to do this would be to just kill or keep their test subjects.

Also, these must be different aliens than the aliens who want everyone to know what they have to say. These aliens will come to earth with a message like, "Save your planet; it’s the only one you’ve got," but they apparently choose some confused rancher who has been drinking as their herald. Gee, aliens, maybe you should learn something about credibility.

What’s more, these messages don’t seem worth the interplanetary travel. "Save the planet?" Not "your galaxy is imploding, get the heck out of here?" The old UFO poster says it best: "I want to believe." People may want to believe, but that doesn’t make them any less deluded.