Two experts went head to head Wednesday in a debate over one of the most controversial issues of modern times: UFOs.
Stan Friedman, a nuclear physicist, and James McGaha, a retired U.S. Air Force officer, answered questions and posed some of their own about extraterrestrial visitors to Earth.
"There is far more than enough data (to prove that UFOs are real) but most people are not reading the information out there," said Friedman, who has worked on numerous classified projects and lectured at more than 700 colleges and professional gatherings.
But McGaha is skeptical that the "data" these sightings provide proves anything at all.
"The burden of proof is on the person making the claim," McGaha said. "Ultimately, this comes down to physical evidence. There is none. People were seeing things like lights in the sky and land traces."
Friedman dismissed the idea that most UFO sightings were under poor circumstances, citing the existence of many multi-person sightings.
McGaha trusts the human memory less, however.
"The mind is not a videotape," he said.
Friedman displayed slides and some little-read documentation on UFOs.
"The facts are real," he said. "We are not being told the truth."
Friedman asked the crowd how many had read any information regarding the existence of UFOs. A handful responded.
He said that many scientists argue that the ability to travel such far distances in space in such a short amount of time is impossibility. Friedman asserted that scientists have often been proven wrong when it comes to statements about the impossibilities of various acts, including flight, going to outer space and visiting the moon. It was not long ago that these ideas were preposterous, he said.
But McGaha, who insisted that he was not speaking as an agent of the Air Force or the government, said the belief in UFOs is an example of how powerful myths can be in the human mind, and how the line between myth and scientific fact is often blurred in our culture.
"Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups," McGaha said.
McGaha is also a consultant to the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, and has discovered 15 asteroids and 18 comets.
Eric Klumpe, astronomy assistant professor, moderated the debate, which was sponsored by the Campus Freethought Alliance.
Amanda Cotton, the group's president, put the debate together. Cotton took a UFO debate course through the honors college with Jill Hague. Since the class, she has found herself interested in the UFO debate.
"I was particularly interested in the skepticism (of the existence of UFOs)," she said.
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