Is the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis Falsifiable?
by Martin Kottmeyer There have been individuals frustrated by the behavior of ufologists and who level the charge that their beliefs are unfalsifiable. Advocates say this or that case is unexplainable or this or that pattern cannot be explained by conventional means. Solve the case, show the pattern is explicable, do they accept this negates their position? They will probably just come up with a new case or pattern. This is annoying behavior, but does it really constitute evidence of unfalsifiability? We are dealing with the proposition that intelligent beings are surreptitiously flying about the world and actively trying to prevent their detection. Maybe the evidence is ambiguous, but aren’t we allowed the faith that someday someone will build the better mousetrap that will capture the proof to silence the cynics? Efforts to find them in photographic sky surveys have met with no success. Efforts to videotape aliens capturing repeat abductees don’t seem to be working. One researcher ha
