I’ll go ahead and warn you up front: this post is going to deal with UFOs. By reading it–and for that matter, by my own act of writing it–we’re both likely to be labeled as individuals with extreme political viewpoints, fantasy proneness, or psychological disorders like schizophrenia.
No, seriously. This, according to Washington Post writer Caitlin Dewey, who in her recent article, “The Fear That Drives Our Alien Belief” cites studies performed by researchers at the Universities of Westminster and Vienna, is in large part the perceived explanation behind our belief in UFOs. Dewey states in her piece that UFO enthusiasts “believe [UFOs] exist despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, citing a 1994 letter to abduction researcher John Mack which said the idea of alien visitation contradicts “virtually all of the basic laws of physics, chemistry and biology on which modern science depends.”
And yet, just like many of the admittedly zany ET zealots out there, Dewey has fallen into the very same ideological trap that, in my opinion, completely skews and polarizes the field of UFO studies into the “believer” vs “skeptic” camp in the first place; the latter of which she seems to place herself within. Hence, while I don’t wish to come across like I’m “attacking” her, I’ve chosen explain where she, and others, so often have gone wrong, and why belief in this fundamentally flawed logic–either by those among the believers or the skeptics–can be faulty, and even damaging to maintaining an objective outlook on scientific phenomena.
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