A Grumble from Me
It is no unusual thing to see scientists grumble at Forteans, to which they zealously grumble back; but you would expect scientists to at least use logic in their deliberations. Don't misunderstand me...I am not one of those anti-scientists who goes around grumbling about the short-sightedness of the Establishment, though I don't deny it can be short-sighted at times.
However, the other night I was doing what I do best, videlicet as little as possible, when a prominent scientist appeared on television. He proceeded to speak on the subject of alien abductions.
Now, I don't have any opinion on the cause of alien abductions, be they real or imaginary. (Elegant use of Subjunctive there - readers please note). I feel we need a good deal more data on the phenomenon before we pronounce upon it; but this savant claimed to have the Answer.
"They don't happen," he informed us, "because if there were UFOs out there, our scientific devices would have picked them up."
Now, this astronomer (for such he was) didn't seem to consider that any civilization that was so advanced that it could send conveyances light years across space would be more than able to evolve artifacts that could easily avoid detection by our puny satellites, telescopes, spacecraft and anything else we might have. If there are aliens who can send spacecraft so far, we must be a long way behind them. Their non-detection doesn't prove anything, positive or negative.
As for why this is placed in a Crippled Zoology, I mean Cryptozoology, blog, the two subjects are at times not unconnected, although many a cryptozoologist has a somewhat illogical tendency to distance himself from all other paranormal phenomena.
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