Off Topic — HabitableZone

Off Topic » in reply to re: Great pictures!

It's certainly not a misidentification of a common object,
ER — (archived)

but it could still be a fraud. If it is a fraud, it doesn't matter how detailed the report is or how reasonable it sounds, or how many of them there are. A good fraud would definitely be credible. It really doesn't matter how many of these reports are around or how believable they are, they still can't be believed because we have no way of knowing they are not fabricated. And we know for a fact that many are just made up, so many that it is not unreasonable to assume they all are.

As long as UFO reports can be sold, or used to sell magazines and websites, or be part of a cruel hoax, etc., in other words, as long as there is a reason for people to lie about this, we just can't trust them without better evidence. It is sad, because we must be skeptical of them even if they ARE true, the business of UFOs makes it impossible for even a genuine sighting of a real alien spaceship to be taken seriously. It is the true believers and their need to believe that have created the market for lies that makes all evidence suspect.

Think of it like a criminal event. We cannot take one witness's word for it, it must be corroborated by other evidence. There may be a lot of witnesses to this event, but how do I know they are not in cahoots with each other. How do I even know if there WERE any witnesses? For all I know this was all put together by asome geek with Photoshop. These "reports" get passed around the UFO industry, reinforcing each other. I have no way of evaluating the legitimacy of something I read on the internet, or in a magazine.

Believe me, if I personally had an experience like these Polish gents claim they had I would be deliriously happy, I've been hoping my whole life to see something like that, and I've certainly put myself in a position to maximize my chances of doing so if it does indeed occur. You probably think it would destroy me psychologically by overturning my world view. Nothing could be further from the truth, I believe that there is intelligent life in the universe and I would be ecstatic if I had definite proof of it. But I can no more accept something I want so badly on the strength of that evidence than I could fall for a Nigerian bank scam. And I really need the money.

But if I did have an experience like this, even though I would die a happy man, I still would not expect anyone to believe me. And I wouldn't blame them.

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