Hello!

I’m a new member, and I come from Montréal, Québec, Canada as well.

I must confess I rather work in the field of management, not in any natural science field.
I consider myself mildly skeptical and mostly open-minded, i.e. I’m not an activist atheist.
Not atheist, I’m rather agnostic.

Here’s the list of pseudo-sciences I consider as rubbish, even dangerous in some cases:

- Telepathy, Telekinesis, Thought projection, or anykind of the external use of the mind;
  I think it has been proven many times that the human mind is a closed-circuit, and the rest is prestididigtation; 
- Apocalypses, raptures, heaven and hell, or anykind of religious fanaticism;
  I dont believe that religious beliefs are wrong per se. I believe they become wrong when use the manipulate the public in doing unethical schemes and step on civil liberties.
  Creationism is the most backwards, obscurantist movement in the Western World today.
- 2012, astrology, cartomancy, and general fortune-telling;
  Astrology is a form of entertainment. There is now way cards or anyhing else for that matter, can tell the future.
- Legendary beings and crypto-zoology;
  Vampires, werewolves, ghosts, demons, angels, fairies, sea monsters and the kind.
- Spiritism;
  I think people who sell their “services” in order to communicate with one’s dead relatives are predators and should be prosecuted.

But there is one pseudo-scientific topic I have yet to shape an opinion about, and it is about UFOs. Dont give me the laugh. I have extensively studied the phenomenon when I was at university, as a social phenomenon, not in terms of engineering or avionics. I have read tens of pros and cons books and research papers, and I’m still not sure about what it is. I’m particularly concerned about this tiny minority of repports providing military testimonies backed by radar signatures. While about 90% of “believer litterature” is outlandish and borderline crackpot and paranoid, “skeptic” litterature is also overwhelmingly disappointing, being too selective and often intellectually dishonnest, addressing only the obviously hoaxed events and weirdest UFO proponents. All in all, I do t think UFOs are extraterrestrial. I’m only curious about these strange sightings, and would appreciate to know a bit more what they could be. If anyone could give a hand…

So you’ll mostly find me in this section of the site.

Thanks for the reading

-Joce

Hi and welcome, Joce_B. I’ve split off your welcome post from the other thread to which it was appended, since it’s better to have each “hello” in its own thread.

Cheers,

Welcome Joce. You’ve certainly posted some interesting thoughts already. I look forward to more.

Welcome Joce;

Looking forward to your posts.  I am not paticularly interested in the “paranormal” but in how socities work including each socity’s mythology which can sometimes bring me into the area.

Welcome Joce.  We share views of everything you listed here.  I’d love to believe that UFOs exist here, but the distances to even the closest planets that are likely to support life, especially life that has exceedingly advanced brains, is such that it just seems unlikely that anyone could travel from there to here.

I feel pretty sure that a great many planets have life on them, and that species on some of them have developed decent neural computers (brains), but I think we are just too far apart to ever meet.

I live about 150 miles from Vandenberg Military Base, and they launch many rockets, often at about sundown.  The bizarre con trails and other things that show up from there in the early evening sky are beautiful and weird.  If I happened to see some of those without knowing what they were, I’d be likely to assume a UFO.  The problem is that many people are unable to see something inexplicable and say, “Gee, I wonder what that is” and stop there.  Instead they have to attach some fairytale explanation.

Occam

Joce, of course UFOs exist. They are Unidentified Flying Objects! They are usually identified in short order, and become Identified Flying Objects (IFO), usually the moon, flares, planes etc! Have you ever wondered why astronomers who spend thousands of hours looking at the skies, never see one? Probably because they know, more than any other, how to identify what they are looking at!

Welcome Joyce.  We look forward to your input.

Welcome Joce.  Glad to have you here and of course, asanta is right.