From: Rebecca Keith <xiannekei@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2002 20:21:35 -0800 (PST)
Fwd Date: Thu, 14 Feb 2002 00:23:14 -0500
Subject: Re: Beyond A Doubt - Keith


 >From: John Velez <johnvelez.aic@verizon.net>
 >Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 16:19:12 -0500
 >Fwd Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2002 08:25:20 -0500
 >Subject: Re: Beyond A Doubt - Velez

 >>To: ufoupdates@virtuallystrange.net
 >>From: skywatcher22@space.com
 >>Subject: Re: Beyond A Doubt
 >>Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 07:34:04 -0800 (PST)

 >>>Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 07:48:38 -0500
 >>>To: - UFO UpDates Subscribers -
 >>>From: UFO UpDates - Toronto <ufoupdates@virtuallystrange.net>
 >>>Subject: UFO UpDate: Beyond A Doubt

 ><snip>

 >>Skeptics and debunkers are not going to go away anytime soon and
 >>it seems absolutely amazing how much devotion the skeptic and
 >>debunker have for their craft. These curmudgeons may feel
 >>threatened by new ideas and reports of phenomena.

 >>Over and over again the skeptical researcher makes the assertion
 >>that, if in view of current knowledge, a new theory or
 >>observation appears crazy or impossible, therefor it must be
 >>crazy or impossible, and therefore it can be dismissed out of
 >>hand. They tend to lump all these subjects together to stir them
 >>into one stew, then discard the stew.

 >>Reasoned skepticism is welcome, but fanatical devotion to
 >>bashing all people and ideas associated with a subject is just a
 >>plain nuisance.

Perhaps someone needs to define skeptic. There appears to be a
tendency to throw the baby out with the bathwater -- on all
sides.

Having said that, I would like to add that I am a skeptic. I am
not a member of any skeptical group, nor am a member of any UFO
organization -- not anymore -- but I do like to follow the views
of all concerned.

 >Hiya Bill, hi All,

 >The following is a quote from a note I wrote to a friend recently
 >that applies equally well in response to your comments above.

 >"With the extant government paper-trail alone I'm surprised
 >there are still any UFO skeptics. The sheer weight of credible,
 >documented evidence alone should have made the creature known as
 >a 'UFO skeptic' an extinct species long ago. :)"

Documented evidence of what? UFOs? Well, yes, there appears to
be quite a number of documents that say that people have seen
UFOs. But what the heck is a UFO?

I don't know what a UFO is and I since I feel the prevailing
opinion means that UFO=extraterrestrial spacecraft, I have to
place myself on the skeptical side of the fence. I certainly
know that UFOs, in the narrowest definition [i.e., literal] of
the acronym, exist. But I can't make the jump to
extraterrestrial spacecraft, space brothers, abductions, alien
autopsies and all the apparent crap that seems to be connected
to the term UFO.

I find it just as absurd to find that all skeptics are
narrow-minded debunkers or nonbelievers.

 >Jan Aldrich and John Stepkowski over at Project 1947 are
 >currently cataloging and adding the 500 + "unexplained" (genuine
 >unknowns) in the Bluebook files to the website's database. Along
 >the way they are finding _many_ cases that had previously been
 >labelled "solved" (IFOs) that have been poorly investigated or
 >properly explained. The true number of 'unsolved/unexplained'
 >UFO cases from those files alone is _much_higher_ than Bluebook
 >representatives first alluded to.

Jan and John (among many others) are to be commended to their
dedication and devotion to the facts, but just because something
is unexplained or genuinely unknown doesn't really mean
anything, does it?

 >A UFO skeptic now-a-days is an anachronism. A fossil of a
 >by-gone age. Blind men/women who refuse to see the overwhelming
 >evidence gathered and issued by their own government/military
 >that is set before them.

I'm getting old, but I'm far from being a fossil, thank you very
much! Blind, well, I guess I might qualify for that, however,
again, I don't think I'm blind to the evidence, just to things
like parked cars and such. <VBG>

Let's re-think this skeptic thing, please. I'd like to think
that I'm not a fossil, an anachronism or blind to the evidence.

These sorts of blanket beliefs (for lack of any other word I can
think of) that have made me a very quiet skeptic.


Rebecca