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Professor Says UFO Studies Should Be Taught At Universities
New York anthropology professor Philip Haseley wants young people to get the best education possible, and part of that education, he says, should be about UFOs. Haseley thinks universities should offer classes on UFOs and other unexplained phenomena from space. "[A sighting] happens to millions of people [around the world]. It's about time we looked into this as a worthy area of study. It's important that the whole subject be brought out in the open and investigated," he said. I want to believe the truth is out there in 500 words or less.
http://xkcd.com/718/
Reasonable-quality audio/video recording equipment is becoming nearly ubiquitous, being embedded in cell phones.
Yet the only "footage" that is available is grainy and poor quality.
As the quality and availability of audio/video recording equipment grows, one would expect the quality of "sighting" recordings to increase, but they aren't.
I think that's very telling.
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I took a class in religion studies in college. UFO or other paranormal theories would fit right in there.
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...would be widely embraced on campus. And much of the "truth is out there" stuff is little more than a religion.
The cultural phenomenon of the UFO is worthy of study, as is the SETI type stuff from the science end.
UFO doesn't mean aliens, space visitors, or conspiracies.
It means: Unidentified Flying Object.
If you see a condensation trail high in the sky, you know that there is something creating it, but if it is too high for you to see, it is unidentified. It is flying. It is an object. You have just witnessed a UFO. There is nothing ridiculous about it at all.
If this class focuses on the spotting of things you don't understand, and the process in which you go through to try to discover it's identity, then I'm all for it. A class that pushes students to come up with multiple possible theories and find ways to research them, to prove or exclude them, and to report on their findings.
Seems like an awesome class idea to me.
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
Podunk professor from community college in remote town close to Canada has crazy ideas and other news at 11.
Seriously this made the front page of /.? This could be on the Onion!
"We know people who think this is a nonsense subject. And we'll refer you to voluminous literature and facts about UFOs."
Seriously? These guys do understand that "voluminous" literature doesn't equate to "quality literature", right? There are tomes and tomes on dragons at your local library, but I don't think many of us would consider "Draconic Studies" a worth academic pursuit.
I think this guy is right. There should be a class on this. I even have a name suggestion:
Anthropology 150: The UFO Phenomenon as a Study in Mass Delusion
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#1 - The DM is always right.
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UFOs have been put under plenty of scientific scrutiny, and absolutely nothing has ever stood up to the test. The very best results these fools can come up with is the occasional statistical outlier that they fixate on as proof that "it couldn't have happened by accident." The simple fact is, if there were any basis to this nonsense at all, it would have been proven true a long time ago. By the way, the same applies to ghosts, bigfoot, telekinesis, and prayer.
"It's about time we looked into this as a worthy area of study." They did. And after millions of dollars and decades of research they concluded that it was a waste of time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Blue_Book
http://wwww.zerospeaks.com
Why do UFOs always show up in front of some hick in south dakota or kentucky? why don't the aliens ever land on the mall in DC or on top of the Effiel tower? Hell, I'd be convinced if they just landed on a pyramid like in stargate.
I think the closest thing to the above I've ever seen actual footage of was some weird lights above mexico city or something of the sort. Weird lights? I'm sure it was probably just the US and Soviets playing games or something of the sort. I'm not convinced.
I think this topic demands some rigorous scientific study. You look at the number of govt / intelligence / military industrial people / astronauts coming out with these "I want to say this before I die" stories, and it makes one wonder. Either they are lying, crazy, or telling the truth. I find it hard to believe they are all lying or crazy.
...in psychology and sociology courses. If they want to see crazyness and mass hysteria in action, is a perfect real world example. Probably would be useful in advertising related careers too. Why manipulate people when they can perfectly manipulate themselves?
Anyway, i would put it in the same course as religion, probably those kind of "wonders" are the kind of things that started most current religions, attribute what you cant recognize or understand as an act of gods, ghosts or aliens is cultural, next ones could be mutants, murphy fields, time machines or quantum entanglement.
I would too if he actually got us a UFO to study.
If that happened it would no longer be a UFO (Unidentified Flying Object).
Personally, I am a strong believer in UFOs. Do you want to know what they are?
I don't know. If I did, they would be IFOs.
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
I suggest you read Carl Sagan's 'The Demon-haunted World.' He dedicates an entire chapter to describing a perfectly plausible theoretical explanation for abduction stories which does not require any kind of alien (or otherwise supernatural) phenomenon.
For me, it's a fairly simple question. We know that people are prone to confusion, delusion, and wishful thinking. We know that people sometimes believe very strongly in things which do not exist. On the other hand, we have no tangible evidence of abductions, or any of their related phenomenon. So what is more likely: some people have weird delusions of otherwordly encounters, or aliens are here, and they spend all their time skulking around screwing with people and covering up all signs of their presence?