

Kitchen Table Cryptozoology - tokenadult
http://www.skepticblog.org/2011/11/08/kitchen-table-cryptozoology/

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Confusion
Unfortunately, there's no convincing people that report such sightings.

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droithomme
I doubt there are sea serpents beyond the poisonous sea snakes I have
personally seen and which are not contested by anyone.

However, using this same, common "debunking" methodology, I can debunk the
existence of airplanes by pointing out that sightings of alleged airplane
lights in the sky can be explained by hypothesizing they actually saw the
planet venus and swamp gas. Concluding then that airplanes don't exist doesn't
really follow from this though.

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tokenadult
Don't you think it makes a difference that there are many other forms of
evidence for the existence of airplane lights in the sky?

[http://centennialofflight.gov/essay/Government_Role/landing_...](http://centennialofflight.gov/essay/Government_Role/landing_nav/POL14.htm)

<http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/electronics/q0263.shtml>
<http://www.google.com/imghp?q=airplane+lights+at+night>

AFTER EDIT: Thanks for your reply, in which you wrote,

 _The argument that because one imagines an alternative explanation, therefore
something is debunked; is fallacious._

I don't read the submitted article as making a fallacious argument of that
nature. From what I know of the author's other writings, observer reports are
examined for plausibility on the basis of all available evidence, including
evidence about how human observers can misperceive things they think they are
observing. If someone tells me, "I see a moving light in the sky," I can
respond with, "Let's look at how it moves, and see if it is an airplane or a
satellite." If the observer says, "It's neither; it's a spaceship from another
star system," my response would be "What evidence do you have for that?" The
point is that the observer of something unusual (a sea monster never observed
by a professional biologist, or even an experienced fisherman) should have
more evidence than the bare observation for a claim that something that
unusual exists.

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droithomme
That is a separate issue. Obviously airplanes exist. The argument that because
one imagines an alternative explanation, therefore something is debunked; is
fallacious. Hopefully all can understand this.

~~~
breadbox
It would be much closer to say: All existing evidence has alternative, and
much more plausible, explanations. Therefore, something is not debunked per
se, but it loses much of its weight.

