PA> -=> Quoting RON TAYLOR to JAMES ROOT <=-
PA> JR> I really don't see any distinction or comparison between witch hunts 
an
  > JR> UFO sightings.
PA> RT> Me either, but I didn't bring it up.  It was used as an argument in
  > RT> favor of accepting circumstantial evidence.... I think.
PA>   Jack Sargent asked X (read "Paul's too lazy to dig into his records and 
f
  >out who X was" :) ) why five people would be laughed at if they reported a 
U
  >with only circumstantial evidence, but taken seriously if they reported - 
ag
  >with only circumstantial evidence - that X had killed a friend on a 
ishing
  >holiday.
  >   X asked for examples of people having been convicted and punished on
  >circumstantial evidence alone.
I was the circumstantial murderer that Jack convicted in that
scenario.... one that I don't believe could happen in real life.
Circumstantial evidence and hearsay are two distinctly different
animals.  The former is information that is  circumstantial to an
event.. in the hypothetical case, a murder.   BUT, the circumstances of
murder were not substantiated... it was clearly noted that no victim was
accounted for.  Consequently, the eye witness testimony was only hearsay
and not acceptable as evidence to a murder.
>   I cited the Salem Witch Trials, and made a TIC comment that some people
  >might not like the suggestion that there was some similarity between witch
  >hunts and UFO sightings.
In that respect, the witch hunts and the UFO phenomena bear a distinct
similarity.  In neither case are the beliefs based on substantiated
circumstance.  Rather, they were/are anchored on unexplained phenomena
which progressed to mass hysteria.
The citizens of Salem were so adamant in their beliefs that they were
eager to execute family members, friends, and neighbors in a most
horrific manner.  Does anyone today not question the substantiality of
their actions.
I see the ET believers arriving on the brink of very similar emotions.
The "Heaven's Gate" incident is witness to this where some thirty people
were willing to take their own lives for the sake of boarding an alien
spacecraft to journey to "another plane of existence". Does anyone here
not doubt the fallacy of their thinking?  Is this different to the
mindset of the Salemites?
Most ET believers are assuredly equally sincere.... but thankfully not
yet so extreme.   I have to believe that some day, in retrospect,
they will see the fallacies in their own conclusions.
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 þ QMPro 1.02 42-7029 þ But I DID read the manual...
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