Originally posted by slim
This is a Thread about UFO's..I live in Texas Asshole....YOU take YOUR Garbage Elsewhere.. ya wanna get shitty?
What does your geographic location have to do with the validity of your claims.
If you found the comment I made about your 9/11 remark offensive, so be it. My intent wasn't to attack you personally, but rather to attack the idea that it is okay for people to make unfounded, unconfirmed claims that center around an already tragic event. For an extraordinary claim such as "UFOs were tailing the planes" that impacted buildings full of people, some of whom died painful deaths, there should follow some extraordinary evidence. Otherwise, the dead and survivors of the dead deserve to be honored and not potentially taken advantage of by someone who may be inventing evidence or claims (I'm not referring to you, so no need to threaten me with your geographic proximity).
What I'm saying is that, even you, must agree that there is a fair possibility that photos and videos can be doctored by anyone wanting to create a sensation on the internet. It's done all the time. The motive would be similar to the idiots who create the viruses and worms that are emailed to Microsoft mail users the world over. Photoshop editing is simple compared to the coding that these guys do.
Having said that, wouldn't it be
prudent to leave the issue alone unless some
compelling evidence is presented?
All I can say is that its about time people with credentuals stood up to denounce the coverup
What evidence is there that there is a coverup? This is a common belief among the UFO enthusiasts, but the plain truth of the matter is that there
are secrets within the government... that is the nature of government. But there is no evidence that they include UFOs. There's a propensity of anecdotal evidence, and people who will cite the "radar analogs," etc. But this is nothing more than a rumor mill-turned-belief-system. The civilized world was convinced that witches were common among us in the dark ages, hence the Inquisition and witch trials of Wurzeburg and Salem. We have since shed ourselves of this silly, albeit deadly, belief system.
All the hidng facts and debunking the existance of UFO's has done a great deal of Damage to many people over the years.
That's assuming that there are "facts" to be hidden regarding UFOs... more likely, the things that are being hidden from us that create the paranoia are related to on-going national security secrets, such as Aurora. As to "damage" that has occurred to people, what are you referring to? Reputations?
How can it be feasable that we ARE the only intellegent beings in the universe?
It's quite improbable. It's also improbable that we are being visited by them. Not impossible, but improbable.
how can we welcome them now after so much has been done to deny them?
It would be simple if they (assuming we're talking about aliens) would merely say, "hello." If aliens are visiting our little bubble of existance, why haven't they let us know? Why do they, according to those who believe, only speak to those among us that the rest of us are least likely to listen to? Why not abduct the UN Secretary General and convince Mr. Annan that they have a message that humanity needs to hear. Why not simply hijack the airwaves and
tell their message to the world?
we [in]habit a wonderful planet that they have been visiting since before Christ. Maybe they are the ones who destroyed the Dinosaurs so we could exist without being T-Rex food. Maybe they MOVED them to another planet and we only find some skeletal remains.
Maybe. All possible. All improbable as well. These are merely examples of wild conjecture, but they demonstrate your ability for abstract thought. If you would only apply reasoning and critical thinking to your brainstorming, you might be of value to the field of UFO investigation.
Don't take that as an insult. It wasn't. The problem with UFO research is what you already mentioned:
its about time people with credentals stood up. There is little serious research occurring in this field. It is FULL of people who make wild conjecture, fabricate evidence, sensationalize what little real evidence exists, and cite the fabrications of others as fact. The latter is done unwittingly, of course. People tend to believe what they read and the internet is given FAR more credibility than it deserves.
The preponderance of fabricated evidence and evidence taken out of context and sensationalized has tainted the little actual evidence that exists to the point where it is next to impossible to find. The fact of the matter is that there are many, many faked visual records of UFOS (faked outright or misrepresented anomalies with alternative explanation).
Until now, you and a couple others in this thread probably thought of me as a "non-believer" in UFOs, which is essentially correct. I don't see it as a concept to have a "faith" in, which is what "belief" implies. Rather, I see it as an idea to explore. To look at with a skeptical eye in order to find the truth. If the truth is that alien beings have visited us and are still doing so, then I'll be happy. This is what I hope is happening!
But the people who perpetuate the pseudoscientific lines of thought are the ones who "Damage" the process of discovery. Not the skeptics. The word "skeptic" isn't synonomous with "non-believer." It refers to one who looks at all sides of an argument; one who asks more questions than the ones to which answers are desired; one who tries to falsify a hypothesis, because if the skeptic fails to refute it, then the hypothesis is probably true.
Sleep Paralysis: Narcolepsy is a disorder of impaired expression of wakefulness and rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep. This manifests as excessive daytime sleepiness and expression of individual physiological correlates of REM sleep that include cataplexy and sleep paralysis (REM sleep atonia intruding into wakefulness), impaired maintenance of REM sleep atonia (e.g. REM sleep behaviour disorder [RBD]), and dream imagery intruding into wakefulness (e.g. hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations). (Chakravorty, 2003)
I'm not suggesting that this is what's occuring with either of you, but only that there are medical reasons for the occurance of sleep paralysis.
Chakravorty, Sangeeta S., et al,(2003). Narcolepsy in the Older Adult: Epidemiology, Diagnosis and Management. Drugs & Aging, Vol. 20 Issue 5, p361, 16p.
Knowledge is Power, not the ability to kick sand in the face of it.
When the knowledge is actually pseudoknowledge, a little sand is warranted. This is the SciForums and many of the people who post/read here are actually involved in the sciences as students or researchers. It is part of the scientific process of peer review to scrutinize the claims of others, sometimes brutally. But again, my intent wasn't to attack you personally, but the idea that it is okay to take advantage of 9/11 or other tragic situations of humanity with pseudoscientific claims. And I certainly wouldn't have implied any threats (loose though it was) or called you a prick. But as to growing up.... perhaps we could both do a little.
