Carl%20Sagan%20-%20The%20Demon%20Haunted%20World

THE DEMON-HAUNTED WORLD
Likewise, not only can photographs easily be faked, but huge
numbers of alleged photographs of UFOs have without a doubt
been faked. Some enthusiasts go out night after night into a field
looking for bright lights in the sky. When they see one, they flash
their flashlights. Sometimes, they say, there's an answering flash.
Well, maybe. But low-altitude aircraft make lights in the sky, and
pilots are able, if so inclined, to blink their lights back. None of
this constitutes anything approaching serious evidence.
Where is the physical evidence? As in satanic ritual abuse
claims (and echoing 'Devil's marks' in the witch trials), the most
common physical evidence pointed to are scars and 'scoop marks'
on the bodies of abductees - who say they have no knowledge of
where their scars came from. But this point is key: if the scars are
within human capacity to generate, then they cannot be compelling
physical evidence of abuse by aliens. Indeed, there are
well-known psychiatric disorders in which people scoop, scar,
tear, cut and mutilate themselves (or others). And some of us with
high pain thresholds and bad memories can injure ourselves
accidentally with no recollection of the event.
One of John Mack's patients claims to have scars all over her
body that are wholly baffling to her physicians. What do they look
like? Oh, she can't show them; as in the witch mania, they're in
private places. Mack considers this compelling evidence. Has he
seen the scars? Can we have photographs of the scars taken by a
sceptical physician? Mack knows, he says, a quadriplegic with
scoop marks and considers this a reductio ad absurdum of the
sceptical position; how can a quadriplegic scar himself? The
argument is a good one only if the quadriplegic is hermetically
sealed in a room to which no other human has access. Can we see
his scars? Can an independent physician examine him? Another of
Mack's patients says that the aliens have been taking eggs from
her since she was sexually mature, and that her reproductive
system baffles her gynaecologist. Is it baffling enough to write the
case up and submit a research paper to The New England Journal
of Medicine? Apparently it's not that baffling.
Then we have the fact that one of his subjects made the whole
thing up, as reported by Time magazine, and Mack didn't have a
clue. He bought it hook, line and sinker. What are his standards of
172