Interesting.
Back in 1975 I came across a crop circle when harvesting our wheat. Got soil and crop samples from the area, and sent them away for testing with no reply. I don't know what caused the circle of 1.5 metre diameter that layed the crop in the outer 200mm in a perfect anti clockwise direction and in the centre it was strewn around like a mad hair day. In the previous years there had been a number of crop circles found within 80kms of our farm.
I have not seen anymore such circles, or heard of any in this area since.
OK....explain, why are they crackpots?? Because they've seen a UFO??. Hardly a good enough reason to call anyone a crackpot. If anything, the noisy debunkers that rant and rave about how these things don't exist and that there's an explanation for everything are the ones who are crackpots. They say where's the evidence....there's plenty of evidence around but you can't get anyone who is so intransigent on their world view to look at it in an objective manner because for the most part they'd rather want to deny it themselves. It's a waste of time arguing with them. As for most scientists....which scientist is going to come out publicly and possibly risk their reputation and career and make a statement publicly supporting the veracity of UFO's. They're not stupid. The ridicule would be enormous and the more stridently arrogant in the scientific community would have a field day being complete mongrels towards the others. Especially those that have well known public reputations and have commented on this. I could go on for ages about this, but I'm not going to bore anyone with the details. Suffice to say that before you go accusing anyone of being a crackpot, you actually take the time to go and find out about whatever they're talking about and have a look at who they are. No evidence....open your eyes. That's not to say there aren't crackpots and fringe dwellers who have all sorts of wacky beliefs about UFO's, but if you sort out the wheat from the chaff you'll see there's plenty to work with. All you have to do is get past your prejudices and preconceived notions and look at the whole subject objectively. Treat it scientifically, not like a religion.
Well yeah, but I'm making allowances in case Musab was perhaps being sarcastic. If not, then I fully agree with you, Carl.
I think he was too....my post may have sounded like it was aimed at him but that wasn't my intention. It was meant for a more general audience and no one in particular.
The only part that could be meant for him was the challenge to explain why they might be crackpots. If he is serious about that, then why.
Astronaut believing UFOs ? Who says these guys ever understood science in the first place?
Who cares anyway, especially if things like UFOs, aliens and exo-life don't reveal themselves, or influence us, in ways we can all consistently recognise them ?
They are all figments of a human obsession for belief .. and the more disturbing trend, is to see science becoming one such belief system, itself.
Do you understand science?? Are you are scientist???
I think I know the answer to both those questions but I'd like to hear it coming from you.
The scientific method maybe rigorous in its approach (or at least we expect it to be) but science itself has never been the black and white beast you try to make it out to be. Never has and never will be. Not whilst it's being done by people, quite a few of which have rather large egos, reputations and careers to protect.
Astronaut believing UFOs ? Who says these guys ever understood science in the first place?
Who cares anyway, especially if things like UFOs, aliens and exo-life don't reveal themselves, or influence us, in ways we can all consistently recognise them ?
They are all figments of a human obsession for belief .. and the more disturbing trend, is to see science becoming one such belief system, itself.
Whoever said that anything has to be so obvious that Blind Freddy could even figure what was going on. Reality is not consistent, nor does it have to conform with anyone's idea of how it's supposed to function. That sentence I've highlighted is nothing more than a throw away line used to cover what is basically an ad hominem argument.
and the more disturbing trend, is to see science becoming one such belief system, itself.
I've read some of Erhardt's stuff and, frankly, don't find it particularly persuasive. The kind of faux wisdom he presents is exemplified by the proposition in quotes above - which is pure Erhadt - a parodox within a paradox. It's just a word game dressed up as cleverness.
Peter
I know nothing about anything that relates to UFOs - since anyone who does is immediately either forcefully debunked or forcefully told to shut their mouths.
I've seen some unexplained things which as an engineer seem unlikely.
I've seen microelectronics go from transistors in the 50s to the incredible array we have today as our ability to reverse engineer UFO remnants gets better. (or did they really INVENT this stuff?).
I've seen NASA try to get us to believe that all the pictures coming from Mars (at the beginning of the lander series) with a red sky haven't been touched up with a PS curve tool.
I'm not a conspiracy theory believer either - I just believe what I have observed, that governments take liberties with the truth - and we shouldn't believe just because we're told.
I'm more likely to believe that this is one of the signs posted outside the Oort Cloud
There are questions that need to be answered when skilled observers of aircraft see something they cannot explain. People in the Apollo program often had science or mathematics backgrounds, All the Apollo astronauts had imput into the designs and systems of the vehicles and methods. Maybe some of them are mad, and that should not be discounted. Maybe just maybe what they say is true. I don't know I was not there.
Having been in astronomy for a long time I cannot ever say that I have seen something that I could not explain, so I find it hard to understand those that claim they have seen UFO's. However, that does not mean they do not exist. It is though more likely that the tyranny of distance is prohibitive of visitations. One day no doubt perhaps thousands of years from now we may find out for sure.
Personally I am ready to be told one way or the other if we are bing visited right now.
