“I Knew That Aliens Existed!”
Examine the faces and body Language of people in the photo. Do you think they believe that this “alien” corpse is real? Do you think it might be real? Do you believe that alien life has visited earth? Why or why not?
Let’s examine the process of critical evaluation by thinking through a sample belief: “I believe that aliens have visited the earth in some form.” A Gallup Poll found that 42 percent of American college graduates believe that flying saucers have visited the earth in some form.
Reasons/Evidence
Authorities
Many reputable people have seen UFOs and had personal encounters with aliens. The government has documented these in secret files, which include the UFO crash at Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947. Government attempts at concealment and cover-up have been transparent.
Thinking Critically About Authorities
Although many individuals have testified about alien encounters over the years, almost all scientific authorities have been extremely skeptical. They emphasize that all of the “evidence” is unsubstantiated, controversial, indirect, and murky—the markings of pseudoscientific fantasies. If aliens and UFOs exist, why haven’t they announced their presence in an incontrovertible fashion? Some of the most intriguing evidence comes in the form of the government’s belated and somewhat bizarre explanations for UFO sightings and the alleged Roswell incident. On June 25, 1997, the Air Force announced that the mysterious happenings in the New Mexico desert in the late 1940s and 1950s were in fact experiments involving crash dummies and weather balloons. Six weeks later, on August 3, 1997, the CIA “admitted” that the U.S. government had lied about alleged UFO sightings in the 1950s and 1960s to protect classified information regarding top-secret spy planes, the U-2 and SR-71. Why did the government suddenly attempt to explain these mysteries after all these years? And why does there appear to be contradictory testimony from different parts of the government? Why do the government explanations seem almost as fanciful and farfetched as the UFO stories?