Reply #91: You realize this is the EXACT argument used by religions? [View All]

[Xithras]

This is the fundamental dividing line between science and religion. Science asks you to believe in things because there is evidence or duplicable facts and experiments supporting an idea. Religion asks you to believe in things because there is no evidence that they DON'T exist. It offers no hard fact of its own, but instead bases it's reality on the lack of countermanding evidence.

My backyard is inhabited by a 14 foot tall purple gnome with a glandular disorder. That is a fact simply because I say so. Unless you speak to my neighbors or inspect my property directly yourself, according to your logic, you MUST believe me because you have no proof that I'm making it up. Or that I didn't just have a drunken hallucination when I tripped in the flower garden last weekend, nearly cracking my head open on my wifes little gnome thing.

I've seen UFOs. I've seen odd things in the sky that appeared to defy logic. I've also seen many explained, and see NO reason to assume the rest are from another planet.

Here's a scientific fact for you. Not one abductee or contact situation has ever been studied by actual scientists or medical professionals with degrees related to the fields they're purportedly researching, and had the results of that research or study published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal for analysis by others in the field. If you look closely at the studies, you'll usually find that the "doctors" and "scientists" who call themselves UFOlogists barely qualify for those titles, or were not permitted to examine the evidence in situ. I recall one case that was publicized on the Art Bell show where believers were talking about alien implants and how some bigwig doctor had confirmed that it was of alien origin. It turned out that he had been provided a small vial with a tiny bit of metal an it, along with the story that it had been extracted from a human body. The doctor was asked to confirm whether it was alien or natural. The doctor, not realizing the intent, simply confirmed that it was alien...to the human body. It didn't even occur to the guy that they were asking about little green men. Then there was another guy, a scientist who proudly carried the title "doctor" and was a regular researcher who was cited in those circles. It turned out that the guy was a retired assistant superintendent from a school system, and had his Ed.D.

The problem is that THESE are the kinds of people driving the UFO movement. There are lots of true believers (again, a religious term) who have faith (again) that alien life is visiting us, but the "evidence" to support it is rare and tends to come from unreliable people, or becomes public only with tremendous distortion. UFO believers simply want us to take them at their words. There are too many mentally unstable people in the world with cravings for fame for me to do that. I need evidence. Objective, scientific evidence that can be analyzed by third parties. So-called UFOlogists consistently fail to provide that.