Comments on: Question: What Happens When A Skeptic Sees A Big Triangular UFO As Big As A Gas Station?

By: Berny

Berny — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 23:55:52 +0000

Let’s not forget that UFO stands for Unidentified Flying Object. All that it means is he saw something he couldn’t recognize. Nothing more. He didn’t assume aliens and didn’t prattle on about being abducted and having something shoved up his butt.
What is your point?

By: Brian

Brian — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 23:49:48 +0000

those triangular ufos have already been confirmed by the government, as stealth bombers, but you still never know. i dont trust the government! i think its a cover up!

By: msi_cord

msi_cord — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 23:17:59 +0000

The obvious first step for a skeptic if they saw anything like this would be to try to find an explanation. If no explanation is available, it is an unexplainable event. There is nothing wrong with an event which has no explanation and finding an unexplained flying object is not proof of alien activity.

What bothers me most about this is that no town was cited. Where did this occur? Also, something the size of a gas station should have been witnessed by other people. Where are the other witnesses? Sounds to me like a pretty weak eyewitness testimony.

By: Ramon G

Ramon G — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 22:46:05 +0000

To be honest, I think that the man who saw this UFO, and the story as a whole, are completely made up. This would have been heard about, and it has not. Also, the way this “man” worded his statements and the way you word your statements, Mobius, are extremely similar, to the point that they are indistinguishable. I believe that you concocted this whole thing, to be brutally honest.

To answer your question, though, the proper response would be to remain neutral on the topic, and research it, instead of jumping to conclusions about it, and automatically claiming that it was extraterrestrial, or automatically claiming that the witness was either seeing things, or it has a natural explanation. A true skeptic would remain neutral, and not make an opinion of it, until reasonable evidence has been revealed to back up one of the claims.

By: Dr. C.S.N.G

Dr. C.S.N.G — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 22:28:10 +0000

Maybe he jumps on board the UFO bandwagon sells his house liquidates his assets and donates them to MUFON.
Honestly, there’s not enough information to do anything but wonder. It’s a mistake to jump to a conclusion in any circumstance. This report is no exception.

By: wushuboy001

wushuboy001 — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 22:19:58 +0000

I dont think any skeptics out there are saying there is no such thing as a UFO. I mean, there are plenty of things in the sky we have trouble identifying from the ground. What skeptics more are likely to say (unless its an obvious hoax) is that
a) its very unlikely alien in nature
b) just because you can’t identify it, doesn’t mean it can’t be identified
c) just because its beyond your expience doesn’t make it paranormal

People see UFO’s all the time. Many of them may be hoaxes, but I am sure there are plenty of people who really believe they have seen something. Curious how the majority of sighting occur near airforce bases. Perhaps the connection is not that aliens are checking out our technology, but people are seeing real aircraft.

By: wilds_of_virginia

wilds_of_virginia — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 21:46:09 +0000

The Skeptic would be correct in characterizing the object as unidentified. Seems reasonable to me. It’s a huge leap to go from unidentified to ET origin though. The close-minded skeptic would use any alternative explanation no matter how implausable rather than entertain the possibility of extra-terrestrial origin:
-Weather balloon
-Cloud/smoke
-Hoax
-Experimental aircraft
-Flock of birds
-Light reflecting off clouds
and the ultimate catch all failsafe:
-Hallucination (You didn’t see anything. It’s all in your head. And my world view is safe for a little while longer.)

Unfortunately, in this instance, I’m must agree with the skeptical point of view. If there really was a ship as large as a gas station flying through the night sky, it seems impossible that only one person would see it. This ship was not detected by any other means? If an advanced civilization really was tooling around planet earth in a humongous ship, it seems they would have technology to cloak their presence from all means of detection, including plain old visual.

UFO does not automatically equate to ET.

By: Venus 1485AD

Venus 1485AD — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 21:39:08 +0000

Shakespeare wrote, “What’s in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” This man only claims he’s a skeptic and claims he saw something. It’s impossible to determine size and distance of objects in the sky with your unaided eyes. Saying something in the sky is as large as a gas station makes me suspicious. I am reasonably sure this man isn’t a skeptic but a believer. Lee Strobel claims he used to be an atheist, but he isn’t convincing, so he’s a “faux atheist” or a “stealth atheist”. You could say he’s a “stealth skeptic” or a “faux skeptic”. MUFON is hardly a reliable source. There are many organizations of UFO believers and hoaxers. Even a skeptic may see something he can’t explain, but scientists surely could. after all, over 95% of UFOs are identified in time. In 95% of such cases, the UFO is identified as a normal object. The other 5% lack sufficient dta or are hoaxes. My money is on HOAX in this case.

By: Monster Hesh!

Monster Hesh! — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 20:40:53 +0000

What happens to people like that?

The people who make a profit off of this subculture trumpet it for about 2 days (the amount of time it takes for the general public to stop caring about evidence-free UFO sightings),

and then the guy’s loved ones usually get together and have an intervention over the man’s chronic abuse of alcohol and stimulants.

By: inteleyes

inteleyes — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 20:19:51 +0000

If it was a believer I would believe this story…..but coming from a skeptic, it don’t sound right, you would think that at least he would of said he ate some bad meat or something in that effect, or he feels he was drugged.

By: Ron

Ron — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 19:42:24 +0000

There are as many sightings and photographs of UFOs as there are of the Loch Ness Monster.

http://www.skepdic.com/ufos_ets.html

A skeptic realises that the ‘Object’ which if ‘Flying’ is just ‘Unidentified’ at the time of the sighting, they think sensibly and logically and don’t jump to the neanderthal conclusion that it’s full of little green men from Mars.

By: Gary Y

Gary Y — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 19:06:13 +0000

The skeptic would remain skeptical. This sounds like a very biased report and no name has been mentioned. I doubt any skeptic worth his salt would refer to the UFO in this manner – anything unidentified flying in the sky is a UFO. They are probably using the term ‘skeptic’ as a bit of hyperbole. So I’m skeptical of the report.

I’ve heard nothing about this in the skeptical community, not even on MUFON Radio with Rick Wood.

By: bravozulu

bravozulu — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 18:59:06 +0000

“he’s chalking this one up to the unknown.”
That is the proper response unless he saw something else. My first thought is a balloon or experimental aircraft. My brother saw a UFO making impossible G maneuvers so I am inclined to think there is something to the idea that some of them are extraterrestrial.

I really despise the JREF forum if that is what you are talking about with JRIF. Most of them are what we call scoftics. They are like kids that took their first science class and think they understand the nature of the universe. There is nothing skeptical about them. They just ridicule anything that isn’t known by science as a possible answer. Most of them are quite mentally limited and not very scientific.