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- From: Brian Zeiler <bdzeiler@students.wisc.edu>
- Newsgroups: alt.alien.visitors,alt.paranet.ufo,alt.alien.research,alt.ufo.reports,alt.paranet.abduct,sci.skeptic,alt.paranet.science
- Subject: Re: Are all UFO debunkers rabid crackpots?
- Date: Tue, 18 Jun 1996 23:11:31 -0700
- Organization: University of Wisconsin
- Lines: 45
- Message-ID: <31C79A13.3389@students.wisc.edu>
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-
- Michael Bonnes wrote:
-
- > After 50 years of sightings with no--I repeat NO-- proof of ufos, you
- > might think people would grow up.
-
- Brilliant insight. I'm somewhat curious, though, regarding what you
- consider proof and how it may be obtained. You seem to mean physical
- proof, correct? The only problem is that you're insinuating that a lack
- of physical proof implies that extraterrestrial vehicles do not exist
- around here -- that's the contrapositive of the syllogism that
- extraterrestrial visitation implies physical proof.
-
- However, I'm not convinced that this syllogism is well-substantiated.
- How can you expect physical proof as a direct, established consequence of
- alien visitation? Do you think aliens would say "Gee, those humans need
- physical proof. Maybe we should drop a few of our lighters, cocktail
- napkins, dead colleagues, and saucer propulsion drives onto the White
- House Lawn so they have physical proof of our visits." Get real.
-
- A more rational approach, if you cannot substantiate your rather
- silly claim that alien visitation automatically implies physical proof,
- is to seek evidence of physical interaction. Such evidence would be
- radar-visual cases, ground-trace cases, photos and films that pass tests
- and that have various photometric measures that argue against
- fabrication, and declassified documents that show government behavior
- anomalous to the misidentification hypothesis (like the CIA document on
- UFO propulsion from 1976).
-
- In other words, every conceivable type of evidence for physical
- interaction BUT physical specimens of the vehicles and/or occupants has
- been obtained. To cavalierly dismiss this evidence because aliens aren't
- dumping alien corpses in your backyard is a bit idiotic and specious.
-
- > But no...it's like a persistent
- > infection. Some spend their whole lives pursuing myth. Some believers
- > just need something to belong to.
-
- Typical skeptic post with a total lack of substance and logic. Mike
- thinks that alien visitation implies physical proof, and then he
- considers the lack of physical proof as a disproof of visitation. That
- way, he can fallaciously ignore the other evidence for physical objects
- under intelligent control with propulsions that humans cannot duplicate.
-
- --
- Brian Zeiler
-