Lindy,

I am bringing this topic forward in hope of a broader discussion here.

The basic premise of people who believe crop circles are made by aliens is that they don't believe its possible human beings can make them. That's essentially it. So the entire effort of crop circle "research" is intended to somehow show that people can't make them. That's a tall order given we already know that they can.

What amazes and amuses me is that believers somehow think these things are too complex for people to make. They say that only because they themselves don't know how to make them. That's sort like me saying that because I don't know how to take apart and reassemble the engine in my Volvo, my mechanic is an alien from outerspace. My wife might argue that he is...his labor charges are certainly astronomical.

Just because something looks complicated, doesn't mean that it really is. And just because something is complicated doesn't mean that aliens have to be involved.

Case in point. This bulletin board is supported by computer programming that is incredibly complex - far more so than the most intricate crop circle ever made. But we all know the code that was written to make this sentence happen was written by a human being. And just because I personally couldn't write a computer program that can do this doesn't mean I need to invoke the presence of E.T. in order to post this comment here.

And more to the point...the creation of a snowflake matching the complexity of the best crop circle ever made doesn't require any sentience at all. In otherwords, complex things can exist without any intelligence whatsoever. None of us here needs to explain the symmetrical beauty of a snowflake by asserting alien intervention. So why do we need aliens to explain the complexity of crop circles?

The geometry of crop circles is really very simple. Once you learn how to make a simple circle, semi-circles, complex curves, arcs and spirals are simply a hop, skip and a jump beyond. Learn how to make a triangle and you can promote yourself to rectangles, pentagons, hexagons and octogons. Put 'em all together and you have a pretty nifty looking doily. It really isn't very hard.

People who want to believe that crop circles are the creations of extraterrestrial entities are engaged in an understandable form of wishful thinking. I think almost all of us would like to find real evidence of E.T. But if we suspend our desires for but a moment and ask ourselves if we really think geometric designs made overnight in flattened wheat fields have to be alien concoctions, what's our answer? If we already know for certain that people are perfectly capable of making these things, why do we need to invoke extraterrestrials at all? It would be just as valid to suggest that they're made by small colonies of super-intelligent wombats hiding in the Wiltshire countriside. It would also be just a silly.

Regards,
Donald