are crop circles a manifestation of extra terrestrial visitors, or are
they just a hoax?

The answer is probably 'neither'. There's no evidence to suggest that
crop circles are a manifestation of extra terrestrial visitors, but
people continue to argue that many aspects of the circles cannot be
explained.

Meanwhile, crop circle 'hoaxers' have demonstrated the production of
elaborate circles, and it's clear that a great many crop circles are
faked. One of the better pieces of evidence for the skeptical view is
that many crop circle researchers have identified as 'genuine' circles
with clearly documented human origins.

Some simple crop circles may be due to natural phenomena. It's
possible, though not particularly likely, that the action of wind
could produce single circles, or small formations of circles. Of
course, it could alternatively be the action of aliens, but Occam's
Razor argues against that interpretation.

Occasional incidences of crop circles have been reported for many
years; despite claims that the hobby was invented in the seventies, my
father remembers there being crop circles in the Hampshire countryside
when he was growing up in the fifties. All known crop circles were
simple circles or ovals until about a decade ago, however.

Finally, it's probably not a good idea to think of these circles as
hoaxes. They're genuinely interesting examples of ephemeral art.
Although some farmers complain about the value of their crop, it's
clear that the best crop circles will generate far more income from
tourism than the crop would have fetched.


A thorough explanation of the sides of the dispute
"Crop Circles: Best Evidence": 
http://paranormal.about.com/library/weekly/aa021802a.htm

In this article the author describes helping to make an elaborate
circle:
"Ever increasing circles", John Vidal, 21 August 2001, The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,539938,00.html

An article from the skeptical perspective:
http://www.theness.com/encyc/cropcircles-encyc.html

Additional links


Extracts from the sci.skeptic FAQ:
http://home.xnet.com/~blatura/skep_3.html

General articles on the history of crop circles:

"Crop Circles"
http://www.cropcircles.co.uk/articles/history.htm

"The History of Crop Circles" - with many pictures
http://www.lovely.clara.net/history.html

Gallery of crop circles:
http://www.cropcircles.org/gallery.htm

How to make circles:

The Circle Makers
http://www.circlemakers.org

Much more information:

The Crop Circle Web Ring
http://paranormal.about.com/library/weekly/aa021802a.htm

Search terms:

crop circles history
crop circles skeptic/sceptic
crop circles gallery

Thank you for using Google Answers; I hope this information helps you
make up your own mind.

alisonscott-ga

The scientific community recognizes no serious evidence to date, that
any extraterrestrial has ever visited the earth. However the
scientific community is engaged in listening for radio signals from
possible civilizations very distant from us in space. That leaves crop
circles as the work of human intelligence. Humans are very capable,
and ingenious creatures, who live on this planet, (and thus are very
close, ) and it's not too hard for a bored college student, to have
some fun with his friends at 3:00 in the morning, and very simply
create a pattern in a corn field. The next day, it seems a bit
mysterious, and often a writer of the paranormal will attempt to
capitalize on the event.
Of course the burden is on those who claim such a circle is from a
alien to offer proof. To date there is no such proof.

Carl Sagan, noted astronomer and scientist, in an interview with NOVA
said that the crop circles in England that appeared in the 70's and
80's were in fact a hoax cariied out by two mean from Southern
England. Although they did not confess untill they were in their
sixties, they did provide a demonsrtation of how they accomplished the
alien-like feat. They used a peice of rope and a board, to create what
was described as being too highly mathematical to be a hoax. Check it
out for yourself... http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/aliens/carlsagan.html