You simply dont 'listen'...as I said: Dismissing something without investigation and assuming there is a 'satisfying explanation' is illogical in extremis.
I thought I had already responded to that and that you were simply restating what had already been said.
Very well, I'll reply (again?).
1. I am not dismissing it. I am merely not buying the explanation that these are alien spacecraft visiting us.
2. For many of these cases we have adequate explanations and I am perfectly comfortable stating "I don't know" in the cases where we do not.
3. Injecting an "explanation" that has no basis in evidence and then suggesting that people "buy" it is illogical in the extreme.
4. There is a saying in medicinal science that goes: "When you hear hoof-beats, think horses, not zebras". This is taken to mean that when a symptom arises you should first rule out the more common and plausible reasons for that symptom rather than postulate something rare and implausible. As for aliens we have exactly no evidence that they ever visited us which means that we should postulate every other explanation that we know has and can happen BEFORE we even consider the "alien" explanation. This goes for every other unknown phenomenon as well.
When scientific evidence that we have been/are being visited by aliens is presented I'll have no problems accepting that fact. Until then, not so much.
Good enough?
(Talking to you btw is like talking to very closed minded person who knows that they are closed minded and astonishingly is proud of it...that is highly annoying...sorry.)
Well, I do consider myself to be an Empiricist, which means that unless a concept/idea/theory has empirical scientific evidence to back it up I do not consider it a part of reality. That means that souls, alien visitations, ghosts, unicorns, gods, angels, demons, magic, and many many other things are not even under consideration. I can entertain the concept as a thought-experiment, but I do not consider them to be a part of reality. Period.
PS I guess I was right that you are a young person...enjoy your bubble kiddo.
My age is of no relevance.
PPS I really meant no offence JOT it annoys me that someone who posts with such clarity and obvious wit yet has such an irrational approach to dealing with the unknowns..as if we knew everything already...a mistake often made by the naive and the young...quite normal I guess...but still irritating as hell.
I've never claimed we know everything. That would, indeed, be highly irrational and illogical as well as demonstrably wrong. I just get a bit annoyed when people want to inject their pet-notions into anything we do not know. That doesn't mean that we should not investigate the unknown, and that is indeed what science is all about, but when random people post their "theories" based on a misconception of M-Theory on pages that advocate crystal healing, I am unlikely to take them seriously.
Peace![/QUOTE]
