Greater Manchester Skeptics: Winchester

Friday, November 20, 2009

Winchester is the UFO capital of Europe???

I saw this entertaining piece of nonsense last month in the Metro (October 5th), but it's slipped my mind until tonight. Better late than never I suppose. According to Councillor Adrian Hicks, a humanoid alien was wandering around Winchester high street (this sighting was apparently linked to US and British military operations.)

I'm not quite sure what he's basing that on as the close proximity of an a Air Force base doesn't necessary mean they are connected - even assuming it is an alien. The alien was closer still to a branch of the Works bookshop, perhaps the alien could be linked to them?

“UFOs are flying in and out of the military base – Winchester is the UFO capital of Europe.” - Adrian Hicks

What is Skepticism?

Skepticism is a method of discerning truth from fiction. Doubt is preferred to belief - when presented with an unusual claim, a skeptic will doubt that claim unless there is a decent amount of evidence to back it up.

Many people confuse Skepticism with Cynicism. This is not the case - cynicism is the tendency to ascribe the worst possible motives for the actions of other people, while skepticism is simply the refusal to accept claims without good evidence to back it up.

While a skeptic will try to remain rational, skeptics are of course fallible. A skeptic might also be cynical, close-minded or just plain wrong, but a good skeptic should always try to change their beliefs when shown how and why these beliefs are wrong.