But one can't set metaphysics aside. Metaphysics is the science of reason itself. If reason is set aside, nothing makes sense.
I'm not claiming that space aliens exist, by the way. (I think it's possible but unlikely.) My point is that it is impossible to objectively prove any claim. One cannot say "the sky is blue"; the best one can do is say "the phenomenon I refer to as 'the sky' appeared to me to be reflecting light of a wavelength of 440 nm at a given time and under given conditions".
My point is that it is impossible to objectively prove any claim. One cannot say “the sky is blue”; the best one can do is say “the phenomenon I refer to as ‘the sky’ appeared to me to be reflecting light of a wavelength of 440 nm at a given time and under given conditions”.
WELL, WISELY, AND ACCURATELY PUT, imho.
Of course, the popes and addictees to the RELIGION OF SCIENTISM
are not remotely consistent with their own criteria, boundaries on such things. They only use them when it seems to serve their biases. The rest of the time, they are more inconsistent than a NM summer rain.
If one operates from the point of view that nothing is proveable, then nothing will be. I'm not claiming that space aliens exist, by the way. (I think it's possible but unlikely.) My point is that it is impossible to objectively prove any claim.
Parading space aliens through the streets and analyzing them in scientific laboratories goes a long way towards proof. The alternative is to simply claim that such things exist and angrily demand that others either believe your claim or else disprove it. If such things exist, and certainly to the extent that is bruited about, then it should be relatively easy and quick to produce such things. I interpret the reluctance to prove their existence with such emotion and hysterics to be strong evidence that they in fact don't exist and simply are a fantasy.