Arguing with skeptics, page 1

Originally posted by Schaden
Take a look at this. Why can't a discussion go 3 pages without the name calling and insinuations of UFO belief = ignorance ?

Two things. First, you could replace the word "skeptic" in your post with the word "believer" and switch a few words around and you'd have as substantial a case. Why will believers believe anything without any critical thinking at all? Some people are quite sure Elvis just came out of that seven/eleven, and they will follow. But that's not my major point.

The thing is, Schaden, we keep getting intentionally duped. The fraud, as a percentage of the stories, is way too high. We had a guy last week come on here and start telling us how he was on a prison work gang and came across this hollow tube while digging. He was put in solitary and weird things started happening to him, etc.

And you know what people like me, a so-called skeptic, did? We encouraged him to continue with his story. There were all sorts of positive comments as we continued to ask questions. A couple of people expressed skepticism (not me this time), and then you know what happened?

The guy came out and said, "Yup. It's fake." He just enjoyed stringing us along. And when you look back at the history of the UFO thing, back 60 years, you are faced with one fake after another, one person after another trying to put one over on people trying to understand the problem. Go here, for example, read it and weep. I know. I know. Some of those people are hotly supported by people here. Just go past those people you believe in and look at Sean David Morgan. You believe him? "Dr." Reed, who kept an alien in his freezer. Do you believe him? How about the planet Clarion? It's in the same orbit as earth, but opposite the sun. It's inhabitants are all Christians and speak perfect English, in rhyme. Do you believe that? How about Adamski's trip to Venus, where he met his reincarnated wife. There are humans living in vast cities on the surface of Venus, Mars, Jupiter, our moon, and Saturn. Do you believe that? You know the moon has a breathable atmosphere and half the gravity of earth, don't you? How about "Dr." Richard Boylan? Serpo? Billy Meier? Yet we have people who are staunch believers and will defend people like Billy to the death, throwing scorn and derision on skeptics as bad as any skeptic has done on a believer. Look, I'm sorry the wedding cake is made from a garbage can lid, but we found-the-lid. "Oh, no, you didn't really. The lid maker got his idea of the design from seeing a picture of the craft!" Huh?!? You're not serious, right? You are kidding, right? (No, they're not.)

And as a result, the better cases, ones that have NEVER been debunked or explained, get buried: Cash Landrum, for example, Roswell, any number of Black Triangle reports. Good stuff, but we wind up spending our time on the bogus stuff. It's almost as if someone keeps planting....well, we won't go there.

Now, name calling is for kids, and there is a fair amount of that, and I share your pain on those sorts of people, including the case you cited. But don't think of skeptics as your enemy. They are trying to keep you from making a fool of yourself. A skeptic's job is to poke holes in a story and see if it stands up. If it's so weak that it can't, it deserves to be derided. Most of them don't hold up frankly, but there are a fair number that do, and that's what is exciting about the field and where we ought to find common ground.

[edit on 6/6/2007 by schuyler]