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jmcginn
Skeptic Friend
343 Posts |
 Posted - 01/29/2003 : 08:07:44
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Did anyone see the UFO shows on the history channel last night? My gosh they were horrid. Not one reasonable person from the skeptical side was presented.
The first one was labelled the history of UFOs and started out presenting supposed ancient art with supposed depictions of UFOs on them. The majority of the images they used can be found here: http://ufoarea.bravepages.com/gallery_aas.html
They moved on to several supposed UFO stories from ancient times all with current "expert" testimony gushing how these must have been eye witness accounts of UFOs.
Finally they moved up to slightly modern times and started with Kenneth Arnold, "the man who started it all". Then they moved on to the Roswell incident. They interviewed two believers and no on else about the whole thing. One lady even testified to receiving a death threat if she told anything, of course there she was on TV telling away.
They really attacked the Air Force's Blue Book project, having again several "experts" say that it was just one big cover up. Again no defense of it was offered. They also said that it was previously labelled project Grudge and before that project Sign. They said that the final report from project Sign claimed that they [UFOs] were of ET origin but was dismissed by a general and then the project was cancelled, people fired, and a new project (Grudge) was started. Has anyone ever heard of this?
They then proceeded to the UFO boom years and interviewed numerous abductees. At this point I am pretty sure a skeptic view wasn't even needed, the interviewees did all the damage a skeptic could ever do.
One man gushed he had been abducted over 350 times by aliens from Jupiter.
Another said the aliens were from Mars and Venus and that there was life on Venus.
Another man described them as wearing plaid skirts a black blouse and a red beret (I really think this guy was having a personal fantasy of some sort).
Another woman claimed she was continuously having telepathic communication with aliens across the universe while another claimed she was as one with the universe now since her encounter.
Again UFO after UFO "expert" gave testimony but not one skeptical view was offered 
The second show was even more laughable, dealing with UFOs in the Bible. In this show they tried to assert that a number of the various "miracles" in the Bible were actually UFO visits, from the guiding of Moses through the wilderness the ascent of Elijah, the transfiguration of Jesus, the rescue of Peter, to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
To back this all up they had a really spaced out looking Presbyterian minister, several UFO "experts" and even Hugh Ross of Reasons to Believe got in on the act. They did have one gentlemen offering a slightly skeptical view but it was meek and hesitant to say the least.
The minister even went as far as saying Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by a nuclear weapon released by the aliens and how this fit the description of the raining fire and brimstone. Funny I never knew nuclear weapons rained fire and brimstone, I always thought they sent out a super powerful shockwave followed by huge ascending mushroom cloud. They then tried to make it sound even more authentic by claiming archeaological evidence had been discovered of two towns right where S&G were supposed to be (how this was determined was never mentioned). The towns appeared to have been destroyed and one even *gasp* had a layer of ash over it. Of course they were extracting nice big pottery jars from the wreckage, hardly the scene of a violent death from above.
Of course at the end they did offer this tid bit (rough quote from memory).
"Of course to believe these miracles were caused by ETs requires blind faith, the same kind of blind faith it takes to believe God caused them". Of course they didn't mention it requires the same kind of blind faith to believe the miracles happened at all.
So did anyone else see this garbage? I think they are having at least two more shows on tonight, but I could be wrong.
Here are links to the shows I saw
http://www.historychannel.com/perl/tv/tvlistings.pl?channel=3&tz=EST&get=program&id=200329010000
http://www.historychannel.com/perl/tv/tvlistings.pl?channel=3&tz=EST&get=program&id=200329010100
And it looks like there are at least 5 more shows to be aired on the subject.
Weekly schedule:
http://www.historychannel.com/perl/tv/tvlistings.pl?channel=hist&get=week
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walt fristoe
SFN Regular
USA
505 Posts |
 Posted - 01/30/2003 : 17:40:21 [Permalink]
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| I don't even look at this stuff anymore. It's the same old crap they've been peddling for years, and I just can't stand to see it again and again. It's frustrating! |
"If God chose George Bus of all the people in the world, how good could God be?"
Bill Maher |
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Infamous
Skeptic Friend
85 Posts |
Posted - 01/31/2003 : 08:24:54 [Permalink]
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Actually, that stuff about Project Blue Book is true.
Project Sign was formed in December 1947 at the request of the Air Material Command to “collect, collate, evaluate and distribute to interested government agencies and contractors all information concerning sightings and phenomena in the atmosphere which can be construed to be of concern to the national security.” In August 1948 a top secret estimate of the situation was prepared by the Air Technical Intelligence Center, concluding that UFOs were extraterrestrial spacecraft. Chief of Staff General Hoyt Vandenberg rejected this conclusion, arguing that there was no evidence to support such a belief. Needless to say, the crackpots who produced this report were reassigned rather quickly. Morale degenerated within the project, and Brigadier General Donald Putt reformed the project, changing the name to Project Grudge. It was declassified in 1997.
Project Grudge was initiated in July 1949 and lasted until September 1951 when Captain Edward Ruppelt took over the project. In October 1951 the project was temporarily designated Project Grudge II. In March 1952 the project received the official designation Project Blue Book. Neither Project Grudge, Grudge II, nor Blue Book ever reached any conclusion suggesting that UFOs were extraterrestrial in origin. Project Grudge was declassified in 1997. |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13476 Posts |
Posted - 02/01/2003 : 10:04:53 [Permalink]
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On the brite side, there is this:
Critical Eye on Discover Science Channel
Aliens
Do extraterrestrial life forms really exist? Examine the evidence from UFO sightings to government conspiracies and cover-ups.
"Aliens" which is episode #7 of the Discovery Science Channel show, "Critical Eye" will air beginning February 2, 2003 at 10:00pm (eastern time).
see: http://science.discovery.com/schedule/episode.jsp?episode=1&cpi=85302
Skeptics featured on the show include Ken Frazier, Joe Nickell, James McGaha, and Jill Tarter.
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Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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jmcginn
Skeptic Friend
343 Posts |
Posted - 02/04/2003 : 08:40:01 [Permalink]
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quote:
Actually, that stuff about Project Blue Book is true.
Cool however you should have heard the spin this show put on it. The spin is totally opposite of yours, all hinting at government cover-ups. They even suggested that the staff of Project Blue Book was nothing more than a media front not actually doing any real investigations.quote:
Critical Eye on Discover Science Channel
Dang it I missed it :<. I have to try and catch a rerun on that one. |
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Tim
SFN Regular
USA
775 Posts |
Posted - 02/08/2003 : 02:30:18 [Permalink]
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quote:
"Critical Eye" will air beginning February 2, 2003 at 10:00pm (eastern time)
I've watched it every Monday morning for the past month or so. (The Discovery Channels show their primetime stuff over and over again until the next days programming begins, with the exception of The Discovery Channel which airs those wonderful infomercials in the AM).
Anyway, 'Discovery Science' (now just the Science Channel), and to a lesser degree, 'Discovery Civilization' appear to be the only television channels that avoid all the hocus pocus and the woo woo crap.
The History Channel has become a Woo Woo Wonderland. I got tired of all the war panegyrics long ago. Now, all that is left is UFOols, crap circles and a whole lot of spirits and ghouls "from the other side" of sanity.
Well, there's always the quality programming on a few other networks, like Sonya Fitzpatrick's odyssey into the inane, http://animal.discovery.com/fansites/petpsychic/petpsychic.html and John Edward's dialogues with the dead, http://www.scifi.com/johnedward/
Ya gotta love 'em! |
"We got an issue in America. Too many good docs are gettin' out of business. Too many OB/GYNs aren't able to practice their -- their love with women all across this country." Dubya in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, 9/6/2004
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