UFOlogy

In our discussions about UFOs and in browsing the web, IUFOS encounters, again and again, the same fallacious lines of reasoning being used to justify a belief that aliens are visiting the Earth. In this column I will discuss the errors in these arguments. "Aliens are too smart to leave evidence lying around" Mainstream UFOlogy in North America holds to the ET hypothesis - that the small residual of UFO sightings that cannot be explained …

…of the ET hypothesis is true, no evidence can be found to support it. Furthermore, it cannot be shown to be false either, because the prediction it makes, that no evidence will be found, is indistinguishable from that of the null hypothesis, "aliens are not visiting the Earth". Secondly, in order for the first part of this version of the ET hypothesis to be shown to be true, the second part has to be false.