Page Content (OCR)
monitors. Thousands of people from all walks oflife in every continent have seen these objects, including many pilots and military officers. The group represented in this book, myself included, understand that what the skeptics love to call a "claim"—the existence of unknown objects in the sky—is actually an established fact. There is more than enough evidence to determine that something physical is there. We in this group are also "militant agnostics": we don't know what this something is, nor do we know what it is not. We are not making an extraordinary claim, because we're not claiming anything beyond the reality of a physical phenomenon, and the five premises that stem from this reality as outlined in the introduction to this book. Yes, that phenomenon is definitely extraordinary. The basic misunderstanding underlying the skeptics’ catchy buzz- phrase—"Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence"—is, once again, the equating of UFOs to extraterrestrial spacecraft by definition. When the debunkers rally around this battle cry and dismiss all the evidence with a wave of their hand, this is really what's on their minds; otherwise, there would be no need for them to be so blindly defensive, and even hostile. Their concern is understandable, even if it's dealt with dishonestly. The COMETA group pointed out at the very beginning of this journey, and many of our contributors have stated as well, that the extraterrestrial hypothesis is the most likely one to explain what we know. That's a very loaded proposition, but we're stuck with it. And actually, it is not an extreme position, in comparison to the two polarized positions that are so common in the culture: either we know already what UFOs are (alien spacecraft), or they can't possibly exist at all, and therefore don't. These two extremes are the real extraordinary claims. We ask those on the two sides of this outmoded contest between unwavering believers and nonbelievers to realize the fallacy of both positions, and to accept the logic, necessity, and realism of the agnostic view. Scientists must disavow the untenable claim that we have no evidence other than eyewitness reports, which are to them—of course— unreliable. That is another "extraordinary claim" that doesn't hold up, as aes 4 The time has come to proceed logically. Given that we know we have a physical manifestation of something highly unusual of unknown origin, isn't it time to acquire the additional evidence needed to find out what it is? If we need extraordinary evidence, then let's do our job and go get it. We Americans will have the cooperation of other scientists from a4 44004 04 ee .o4 around the world who have already invested their limited resources into such an endeavor. And so a new slogan is in order: "An extraordinary phenomenon demands an extraordinary investigation." [11] The world's scientists are entirely capable of devising the methodologies and manufacturing the technology needed to solve this extraordinary mystery. capable and are this book attests.