Skeptical Perspectives
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Skeptical perspectives on the abduction phenomenon assert that supposed occurrences of people being kidnapped and subjected to forced medical examinations by non-human creatures do not occur literally as reported. These perspectives tend to be the ones most widely accepted by mainstream scientists. Alternative explanations, such as the extraterrestrial hypothesis, are dismissed by many academics as being pseudoscientific.
Various hypotheses have been proposed by skeptics to explain reports without the need to invoke non-parsimonious concepts such as intelligent extraterrestrial life forms, though the possibility of intelligent extraterrestrial life forms is by no means marginal to the current scientific consensus. These hypotheses usually center around known psychological processes that can produce subjective experiences similar to those reported in abduction claims. Skeptics are also likely to critically examine abduction claims for evidence of hoaxing or influence from popular culture sources such as science fiction.
Read more about this topic: Perspectives On The Abduction Phenomenon
Famous quotes containing the word skeptical:
“I am afraid that old women are more skeptical in their most secret heart of hearts than any man: they believe in the superficiality of existence as in its essence, and all virtue and profundity is to them merely a veil over this “truth,” a most welcome veil over a pudendum—and so a matter of decency and modesty, and nothing else.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)