These researchers say they have serious questions about UFOs, aliens
A group of researchers say it's time for academia to get serious about studying UFOs.
Michael Cifone, who holds a Ph.D. in the philosophy of science from the University of Maryland, College Park, is hoping the study of UAPs can become the subject of serious, rigorous academic study, with the same scientific objectivity of any discipline.
He's the nonprofit's executive director and co-founder along with Michael Silberstein, a philosophy professor at Elizabethtown College. Cifone is currently a research fellow at the Center for Alternative Rationalities in Global Perspectives at Friedrich-Alexander University in Germany.
The Society for UAP Studies' board of advisors, advisory council and leaders include dozens of academics from all over the world, representing a variety of disciplines including philosophy, law, the sciences and humanities.
"We're not necessarily taking a position" on whether UAPs are evidence of extraterrestrial life, or what their existence could mean for humanity's understanding of its place in the universe, he said. "But we are interested in taking on these topics that don't fit neatly anywhere. As academics, our skill is in establishing a framework so we're not simply speculating, but situating it within historical, cultural and scientific frameworks."
He realized that "while (the study of UAPs) was a topic of ridicule, there was still something strange and odd for which there seemed to be some good anecdotal evidence and witness evidence, evidence that was not easily dismissible by conventional analysis."
It wasn't just ordinary people reporting strange, unexplained sights. In 2004, U.S. Navy pilots and radar operators aboard the U.S.S. Nimitz and the U.S.S. Princeton reported seeing "anomalous aerial vehicles,” or AAVs high above where commercial and military craft can fly, performing maneuvers that seemed impossible to their trained eyes. In 2024, Congress conducted hearings on the issue, and the Pentagon, while saying it found no definitive evidence of extraterrestrial beings, also said there were "definitely anomalies."
Cifone said the society's goals are to bring scientific and academic rigor to phenomena that to many is still a fringe idea. They're not trying to convince anyone, including themselves.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nati...602420007/
A group of researchers say it's time for academia to get serious about studying UFOs.
Michael Cifone, who holds a Ph.D. in the philosophy of science from the University of Maryland, College Park, is hoping the study of UAPs can become the subject of serious, rigorous academic study, with the same scientific objectivity of any discipline.
He's the nonprofit's executive director and co-founder along with Michael Silberstein, a philosophy professor at Elizabethtown College. Cifone is currently a research fellow at the Center for Alternative Rationalities in Global Perspectives at Friedrich-Alexander University in Germany.
The Society for UAP Studies' board of advisors, advisory council and leaders include dozens of academics from all over the world, representing a variety of disciplines including philosophy, law, the sciences and humanities.
"We're not necessarily taking a position" on whether UAPs are evidence of extraterrestrial life, or what their existence could mean for humanity's understanding of its place in the universe, he said. "But we are interested in taking on these topics that don't fit neatly anywhere. As academics, our skill is in establishing a framework so we're not simply speculating, but situating it within historical, cultural and scientific frameworks."
He realized that "while (the study of UAPs) was a topic of ridicule, there was still something strange and odd for which there seemed to be some good anecdotal evidence and witness evidence, evidence that was not easily dismissible by conventional analysis."
It wasn't just ordinary people reporting strange, unexplained sights. In 2004, U.S. Navy pilots and radar operators aboard the U.S.S. Nimitz and the U.S.S. Princeton reported seeing "anomalous aerial vehicles,” or AAVs high above where commercial and military craft can fly, performing maneuvers that seemed impossible to their trained eyes. In 2024, Congress conducted hearings on the issue, and the Pentagon, while saying it found no definitive evidence of extraterrestrial beings, also said there were "definitely anomalies."
Cifone said the society's goals are to bring scientific and academic rigor to phenomena that to many is still a fringe idea. They're not trying to convince anyone, including themselves.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nati...602420007/
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
