Joseph Capp - had a daylight sighting of two flying disks. It is not a matter of faith for me. ~ Joseph Capp, author UFO Media Matters blog.

Skeptics, who flatly deny the existence of any unexplained phenomenon in the name of 'rationalism,' are among the primary contributors to the rejection of science by the public. People are not stupid and they know very well when they have seen something out of the ordinary. When a so-called expert tells them the object must have been the moon or a mirage, he is really teaching the public that science is impotent or unwilling to pursue the study of the unknown." (Jacques Vallee: Confrontations, New York: Ballantine Books, 1990.)

Not Faith
Recently I wrote a piece on my blog The OrangeOrb about faith vs. the UFO or Bigfoot witness in context of chronic skepticism. My point was that chronic skeptics often back off from going after religious people and all things religious (or most, anyway) because, they will tell you, it's a matter of faith, and you can't argue/prove faith. However, they continue, UFOs, Bigfoot, and the land of the strange is anecdotal (i.e., worthless) and can't be proven or verified. The implication is that witnesses are unreliable, liars, easily deluded, and that the phenomena itself is mere imagination gone awry.

As Joseph Capp states in the quote above: I had a daylight sighting of two flying disks. It is not a matter of faith for me.Exactly.

One may put their own interpretative spin on what those disks were; thatâ??s a matter of faith. But to deny the witness reports that they saw a craft -- a machine -- in the air, or a living, breathing, and smelly (from most reports) flesh and blood creature, as with Sasquatch sightings - is what is delusional. It borders on the irrational when these reports offer video, film or photographic evidence, and the insistence it isnâ??t so persists beyond reason.

Liars and Hoaxers
Witnesses can be liars. And when there is just one witness all we have is their word. But we have much to go on, including our intuition. We can usually tell when someoneâ??s lying. And if we know the person, especially if theyâ??re close to us, there are matters of trust. Are we going to believe the person we supposedly love, or stubbornly cling to some antiquated standard of critical thinking by insisting they didnâ??t see what they say they did, even though we weren't there, even though we have no proof they're lying? Of course there have been hoaxers. There will always be hoaxers and the outright deluded. It's a given, but we can move on from that obvious point.

We have to ask ourselves questions when someone tells us about their encounter. Who is this person? Are they generally trustworthy? Have there been other stories of UFOs, Bigfoot, hauntings, etc. in the area? Does the person seem sort of shaken up by this event? Why would this person lie? And then of course, thereâ??s just listening.