How sad that some critics have misunderstood not only the nature of faith in God but the nature of science! Consider now the importance of human experience. How can science exist without human experience? By definition, operational science involves what is repeatable and observable. Galileo succeeded, in the long run, because he provided a way for people to see not just specks of light circling Jupiter: a way for people to open their eyes to a new idea. Others could repeat the same observations—that is an example of operational science.
To call a number of persons “liars or deluded” because they make similar observations—that criticism now needs to be addressed. It came about in June of 2007, on a forum discussion on cryptozoology.com. “Rainbow Medicine Man” (RMM), after a number of comments by several writers of various opinions said (among other things):
– No 6K year Earth, friend. That is not so. And not being so is a FACT, not a theory.
– The Geological record is very accurate, and consistent. Also a FACT.
– There’s no fossil record of any ptero since 65M years. If some managed to survive, they would’ve changed beyond recognition, but they haven’t; they went extinct. No Ramphorynchus!. Again, a fact.
That is why I claim that these who say to have seen pteros are liars. Or deluded. It is surprising the percentage, of lately, of Creationists between the witness. Ask myself why?.
But RMM was replying to my statements, and I was not commenting on the age of the earth or the accuracy of the “Geologic record” or fossils. I made two long postings. The first one mostly referred to the Destination Truth expedition (which was NOT a Creationist expedition at all) in which a flying light was videotaped; later analysis could not find any explanation for the cause of the light. My second posting mostly referred to sightings of apparent pterosaurs and to those sightings in which an apparent pterosaur was seen to glow.
Why did RMM bring up the subject of religion? Why did he assume that all the investigators have the same religious belief? In the same comment, he later said, “Some Christian factions are really dangerous.” He seems to be oblivious to the possibility that the investigators I mentioned or alluded to may have a wide variety of religious beliefs, for some of them were members of the Destination Truth expedition, which was not at all a religious excursion, despite the name. Did RMM look only at the outward appearance of the name “Destination Truth” and assume that all those explorers had the same “dangerous” religious beliefs as me and Garth Guessman and David Woetzel?
Listing ones beliefs and appending each one with the word “FACT”—that does not prove ones beliefs. And it does not prove that those eyewitnesses who have seen something outside the philosophy of RMM are all “liars” or “deluded.”