Ufologists

Hello,

this is a short biography of Stanton T. Friedman from wikipedia

"Stanton T. Friedman (born July 29, 1934, Elizabeth, New Jersey) is a physicist and ufologist, currently residing in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. He is arguably the best-known UFO lecturer in North America, and has made a living writing books and giving paid lectures about his views regarding the UFO phenomenon at hundreds of colleges and universities in the USA, Canada, and Europe for the past 29 years."

Can one take a ufologist seriously if his motivations , appear to be money making by selling books?

[edit on 1-1-2007 by DarkSide]

Originally posted by DarkSide
Hello,

this is a short biography of Stanton T. Friedman from wikipedia

"Stanton T. Friedman (born July 29, 1934, Elizabeth, New Jersey) is a physicist and ufologist, currently residing in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. He is arguably the best-known UFO lecturer in North America, and has made a living writing books and giving paid lectures about his views regarding the UFO phenomenon at hundreds of colleges and universities in the USA, Canada, and Europe for the past 29 years."

Can one take a ufologist seriously if his motivations , appear to be money making by selling books?

[edit on 1-1-2007 by DarkSide]

Interesting topic!

Mm...i can´t really see anything in your external source indicating that economic profit is his motivating factor...

Can you trust a journalist who make a living from writing? Of course you can. The "make money to pay rent" issue is not what makes credibility, content is! Actually i think it is a good thing that ufologists are able to make a living out of this because it means they can study the phenomena full time and so forth spend more resources/time which hopefully might get the cat out of the bag sooner.

That said, no doubt there are plenty of those who try to make money based on hoaxes and fiction, easy prey because none yet has come forward with proof and so forth my opinion is just as good as the next guys opinion.

In my opinion, Mr. Friedman is a highly respected UFOlogist, as it were. He was a presence here on ATS, for a short time, as I recall. I wasn't interested enough, at the time, to get into his material too much. Now, however, I am sorry I can't talk to him.

His books are not ax grinding material, but they do put forth a "scientific" approach to what he is into.

I don't believe there is a real problem with someone making a living off of what they are doing as an avocation. I teach martial arts for a bit of a living, and also sell dvds and manuals. Why should he not be allowed to do the same? Education of the public isn't free.

Can one take a ufologist seriously if his motivations , appear to be money making by selling books?

I'm no accountant, but I'm sure he'd make more as a physicist than a UFOlogist. He simply has more passion for the latter. His work stands on it's own really. It takes time and money to do that kind of UFOlogy (i.e. travel around the country, talk to the witnesses, have the time to do it, etc.), so no, being a published author on the subject and lecturer doesn't discredit him. Now, if he was inventing or embellishing details (such as some formerly respected UFOlogists have done), then that would be a reason, but otherwise, no...Mr. Friedman has shown nothing but professionalism and healthy skepticism in his work, imho....

I believe Mr Friedman had the credentials to question the saucer stuff..perhap's the first to stick a highly educated nose out.
He's obviously done a lot to put saucer stuff on the map of media and people who were and are interested. Friedman can so easily fry-up debunker theories based on Junk or lack of research work.

What I'd like to know is, who is it that he feels his torch should be passed on to? The man's getting older now and there must be someone he feels is on all the right tracks to continue his style of research and highly intelligible theory.

Dallas

Can you trust a journalist who make a living from writing? Of course you can.

You never heard the expression dont believe everything you read in the papers.

Well now, you've wandered into the mixed fruit bowl.
Apples and oranges anyone?
Friedman was no journalist and the likelihood of reading his work
in the Dailey Fishwrap is nil.
I'm thankfull for people such as Friedman who have stuck to it for the
long run.

Originally posted by DarkSide
Can one take a ufologist seriously if his motivations , appear to be money making by selling books?

Lots of People love to "rail" on Friedman ,and for good reason because many consider him their "sworn" enemy.

The reality is that in the late 1960's he was the only non-PHD Scientist invited to speak before Congress with a group of PHD's who also were invited to speak about UFOs.

Of course that was well before Friedman made much money with lectures and selling Books.