In a msg to Chuck Pierson on , Paul Andinach of 3:690/650 
writes:
 CP> Personally, I am on neither side.  I allow for the possibility of
 CP> alien life.  However, I haven't seen any evidense to support this
 CP> belief.  Neither have I seen anything proving that there is no alien
 CP> life.  I accept UFO's for what they are: "Unidentified Flying Objects."
 PA>    Congratulations, that's a very good summary of what a skeptic 
 PA> should be.
And actually a very good summary of what most of us ARE.  The problem is that 
some believers portray us as being different than that (witness Jack's 
frequent repost of a mythical conversation between a believer and a skeptic 
for a perfect example of a bad stereotype job) and then other believers 
actually accept the stereotype instead of looking at what is really being 
said.
For example, I can't tell you how many times I've had discussions that look 
something like this:
Me:  There is no good evidence that UFOs are alien spacecraft.
Them:  Why can't you accept that we're not alone in the universe?
Me:  I never said anything about that.  I see no reason to believe we're 
     alone, but being alone has nothing to do with other folks coming to 
     visit!
--- msgedsq 2.0.5
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