> In a msg to All on , Jack Sargeant of 1:379/12@fidonet
 > writes:
 >  JS> Galileo was persecuted by the skepics in the church.
 > Call them skeptics, but they are nothing like the skeptics you will
 > find challenging UFO beliefs.  The word has different meanings to
 > different people, and you are trying to misuse it here to prove a
 > point.  Sorry, but that doesn't hold water.
You brand yourself as a skeptic, yet refuse to take the responsibility
of fellow skeptics that were wrong? Which are you, a part-time skeptic?
...Or just someone who enjoys imposing your own beliefs on others?
 >  JS> 400 years after he was tormented, kept under house arrest, and
 > otherwise
 >  JS> ruined, he was eventually vindicated, and his beliefs upheld.
 > Yes, people with closed-minded religious beliefs were the ones who
 > did this all to him.  That has nothing to do with the skeptics that
 > challenge claims about UFOs=aliens.
A skeptic by any other name still smells the same... ...Or was that
a rose?  Some skeptics are pretty nice people. Some are not.
 >  JS> The moral of the story is, apply your skeptism with care and 
sincerity.
 > Actually, the moral is that one should be careful about how they
 > apply labels such as "skeptics."
Oh? What label would you prefer to be tagged with, if not skeptic?
Is there suddenly something derogatory with the term? There are
skeptics beside you who get along just fine in this echo, and don't
carry a chip on their shoulder such as you obviously do. They
(the other skeptics I refer to), are most welcome here, and I have
made it a point to show it. Their input is needed for a balance of
the different sides to some stories.
 > A true-life example:
 > When the recent Air Force report on Roswell came out, CNN online
 > headlined its report something to the effect, "Skeptics Doubt Air
 > Force Report."  Problem was that in this case, they were calling the
 > people who BELIEVED there was an alien spacecraft crash at Roswell
 > "skeptics."  Were they skeptical of the Air Force report?  Sure.
 > Does that make them "skeptics" in the sense that we all use the term
 > around here?  Not at all.
I think you may have "read" the story with a persecution complex.
It is your concept of "believer" that is wrong. In the above, it
was indeed the believers who were skeptical of the report. You
seem to hold both words (believer and skeptic) to a higher, yet
mysterious meaning. Since you have been asking me for definitions,
why don't you tell me what your definitions of the words skeptic
and believer are, in the context they are generally used in UFO?
js
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