UFO Skepticism

UFO skeptics and believers alike are waiting for the undeniable, physical evidence of the existence of aliens and alien spacecraft.  In particular, alien abduction has not provided real scientific proof of humans coming into contact with extraterrestrials.  Even those who believe in alien visitation wonder where they come from and when they will contact us.  What might be needed is an open-minded, objective study of the UFO phenomenon.

Bernard Haisch, an open-minded skeptic, writes that theoretically extraterrestrials should be visiting us and yet the scientific community scoffs at the very idea.  He believes that something very real and important is going on regarding UFO sightings.  Haisch thinks that we should be skeptical of both scoffers and believers, and that the claims of skeptics should be subject to critical inquiry. 

Most skeptics believe that neither common sense nor science has positively identified anything as an alien spacecraft.  Some argue that the UFO phenomenon is nothing but mythology.  Now, instead of angels we have extraterrestrials, making flying saucers the product of the creative imagination.  Skeptics criticize the UFOlogist’s typical evidence as consisting of (1) testimony of people who claim to have seen a UFO; (2) facts about the kind of people who make the sightings; (3) the lack of physical evidence; (4) alleged weaknesses in the arguments of skeptics.  Finally, they claim that UFO believers will attack a scoffer’s motives rather than present positive proof.

An example of the controversy between UFO skeptics and believers is the Majestic-12 documents.  These documents purport to describe a special panel established to advise the President on issues of alien corpses and crashed flying saucers.  However, skeptic Paul Kurtz claims that evidence shows that the documents are hoaxes.  Kurtz says that there are inconsistencies such as the lack of a correct register number assigned by the National Archives.  There is also no watermark which was in use at the time and a security classification is used that did not exist until the Nixon Administration.

As for myself, I use the “a million flies cannot be wrong approach” when it comes to UFOs and the paranormal. In essence, if millions of people are seeing weird things in the sky, then there are weird things in the sky.  Skeptics say that there is no physical evidence of the existence of aliens and alien spacecraft.  There is only witness testimony and circumstantial proof.  Well, both witness testimony and circumstantial evidence are allowed in courts of law.