Although this thread is mainly about the quacks, cranks etc that claim many unsupported alternative scientific nonsense and speudoscientific beliefs, it seems that MR has turned it into a blog on his very own favourite pastime.
Obviously that pastime and those taken in by it also fit that crank, quack label, so we'll continue to humour him for now.......
http://www.endevil.com/stupidbeliefs.html
People believe in all kinds of ridiculous things which have little or no evidence to support them. Some of them are relatively harmless like Santa Claus others cause all kinds of problems particularly when a large number of people adhere to them.
If a belief becomes popular enough despite the lack of evidence it will be treated as fact by many, leant legitimacy by virtue of having loads of supporters and they´ll bring their kids up to share their beliefs. Of course the fact that a lot of people believe something does not make it so. There have been a number of widely held daft beliefs throughout history which were later proven wrong so let´s ridicule them. Of course just because you can´t prove a stupid belief wrong doesn´t mean it´s right as Bertrand Russell pointed out when he suggested there might be a small teapot orbiting the sun, it is tough to prove a negative.
This section will grow because people believe in so many silly things, so check back for updates. If you are a believer and want to argue the case for your stupid belief feel free to use the contact link to send an email.
Aliens and U.F.O.´s
There have been thousands of reported UFO sightings, alien sightings and alien abductions over the years and many people not only believe that extra terrestrials exist but that they have visited earth, in fact according to a Gallup poll one third of Americans believe aliens have visited earth. There is a huge community of enthusiasts on the internet reporting on sightings and offering their own usually ridiculous explanations about the aliens, some of them claim to have identified a number of species and to know things about their social structure and what they want here on earth but it reads like cheap unimaginative sci-fi.
When faced with obviously faked or even just unclear footage believers choose to interpret it as genuine because they want to believe. The level of belief among some enthusiasts is akin to religious faith in it´s stubborn refusal to logically examine the evidence. Applying the idea of Occam´s razor that the simplest explanation is probably correct it should be obvious that a hoax or unknown man made craft, or perhaps even a weather effect is far more likely as an explanation of a UFO sighting than an alien craft.
While it is certainly possible and perhaps even likely that we are not the only life in the universe it is distinctly unlikely that we are being visited by aliens. The case for aliens visiting earth is leant weight by the fact that many respected people have reported sightings and I don´t doubt that many of them believe what they are saying, although there are plenty of attention seeking liars out there too, but I do think in all probability they are mistaken about what they have seen.
The vast majority of UFO sightings if investigated can be explained. The UFO community seem to be fixed on the idea that there is a government conspiracy to cover UFO´s up. There has been much talk about Roswell and the plausible government report that they were testing crash dummies airdropping from high altitude has been rejected. In fact every time the government release a report on their UFO or alien investigations people refuse to believe it. None of the governments of the world have ever found any evidence of aliens visiting earth and if they did why would they cover something like that up? I´ve yet to hear a good reason for this. I also think the enthusiasts are giving the government an awful lot of credit if they really believe that they are capable of covering something like this up, if we really have been visited by aliens and the government knows about it then the information will undoubtedly come to light, the government are rubbish at cover ups and conspiracies. It also seems likely that if aliens visited and wanted us to know about them there wouldn´t be anything the government could do to stop it, they can´t even stop humans from exposing things and committing all sorts of crazy acts so how the hell are they going to effectively stop aliens with advanced knowledge?
While some believers have quite plausible stories the volume of reports is staggering and inevitably there are many deeply silly ideas about aliens. My personal favourites are cattle mutilations, abduction stories and the retarded idea that aliens built the pyramids. Why would an advanced race of beings (they would have to be advanced to even travel to earth) arrive here and then carve up cattle? Why would they abduct people and probe them and then put them back again? If they have been doing these things how have they managed to leave absolutely no evidence behind?
Cattle mutilations have been reported several times along with mutilations of sheep and horses. These can all more easily be explained by predator attack or in cases where the animals have been surgically carved by psychotic human attack. People commit atrocious acts all the time I find it far more plausible that a disturbed human cut up an animal than the idea that an alien travelled light years across the void in order to do it.
continued:
I make no contradiction. You as you have shown many times are so fanatically involved in pushing and defending the right of every delusional, impressionable, gullible person, that claims anything that smells of paranormal, supernatural, or Aliens, that your mind appears rather clouded to the real facts.let me list them again for you.
