Why Skepticism Matters.

Greetings. Skepticism is not seen as a popular course of action by the majority of the UFO subculture, in fact, it is often vilified or erroneously labeled as debunking. The effort to ask questions and inquire about the validity of claims, evidence, and information is an essential one, absolutely necessary if credible and legitimate investigations are to be conducted. 

Despite what many in the UFO world seem to believe, people do misidentify phenomena they have the opportunity to observe. Happens all the time, and not just to alleged UFO witnesses. Ask any law enforcement officer, or district attorney. They will often lament the exact same situation; people are often not capable of making accurate accounts and observations. That is a primary reason why crime scene investigators take great pains to determine the validity, or lack thereof, of any and all anecdotal information at their disposal. The blind acceptance of such information is unwise, sloppy, unprofessional, and often leads to dead-ends or falsehoods. 

Having said that, in the vast majority of cases, people are being as candid and honest as humanly possible in their efforts to convey what they witnessed. Liars and hoaxers are not common, at least not to a large degree, but they are out there. The effort to explore all aspects of anecdotal information and the individuals providing the content weeds out the misleading claims, and reveals such people for who they are, dishonest liars. Without such an effort, misleading and/or inaccurate information can become part of the cache, part of the narrative, and that has the effect of tainting the entire subject in a cloud of suspicion. If we cannot discern the valid from the untrue, we are in a heap of trouble. 

Maintaining a healthy skepticism is a logical approach to any unknown or unanswered question. Questions are reasonable, inquiries are important, quality research is essential, all meant to uncover further information and to establish the validity of information already available to the masses. A healthy skepticism is not meant to be a tool to discredit individuals, or to debunk cases and/or claims. It is simply a part of the investigative process, a tool to be used to find quality information, and to cast aside the invalid. That is all. 

As it pertains to the UFO problem, the lack of a skeptical approach leads to nowhere, with anecdotal testimonials blindly assumed to be true, without any sort of an investigation having been undertaken. People are labeled as experiencers despite a complete lack of an investigation which would determine the validity, or lack thereof of their stories. Local MUFON chapters often offer the opportunity for experiencers to talk about their stories, but no investigative efforts are ever attempted, and if such exercises are actually performed, the results of said investigations never come to light. Anecdotal information is not enough, certainly if such information is not verified or confirmed as true after objective scrutiny. 

Healthy skepticism is not the enemy, willful ignorance is and we all need to avoid its pitfalls.

Thank you for your time and consideration.