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Austin's Atheism Blog

By Austin Cline, About.com Guide to Atheism since 1998

Crop Circles vs. Property Rights

Sunday July 13, 2003
Crop Circles are very popular among believers in the paranormal. Are they created by aliens? By beings from another dimension? No, they are fakes created by humans - but too few people seem to care about mundane explanations when exciting paranormal possibilities can be created. Unfortunately, it seems that the same people also don't much care about the property rights of those who own the land on and around where crop circles appear.

Some large circles appeared recently in Fairfield, California, and farmers there are being swarmed by visitors who park wherever they want, walk wherever they want, trample crops, and even steal wheat from the fields where the circles appear. According to a report in the Daily Republic:

[H]ordes of people trying to see the formation have transformed the field into a jigsaw of pathways and trails. [Larry] Balestra has lost hundreds of dollars in wheat and loses more every day as people take handfuls of his wheat home. ...Also neighboring property owners complained to deputies that people were cutting through their fields to get to the formation.

These people are already acting foolishly by assuming that there is anything strange about the formations, giving the pranksters a good laugh. Then, they go and destroy the property of innocent people, all in a rush to be taken in by a hoax. When will people ever learn?

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