You have written a paper that supports the idea that crop circles can appear almost instantaneously based on reports of the testimony of a pilot who claims that a circle appeared near Stonehenge in a 15 minute period in which he was not observing a certain piece of ground. Does the available evidence really support the idea that this testimony is compelling and reliable?

1. Who is this pilot? What plane was he flying at the time? Who was he working for? What was the purpose of his flight? Why did he have to fly over the same piece of ground twice at an interval of 15 minutes?

2. Is this pilot known to be reliable? Was he a crop circle believer before making this report? Is it impossible that he is committing "pious fraud," in which a believer makes up a story to convince others of something he "knows" to be true?

3. Is it the case that pilots never make mistakes? Is it possible that he didn't notice the crop circle the first time he flew over it?

4. Do we have the direct testimony of the pilot? Or do we instead have the testimony of a crop circle believer who is telling us that some pilot had his experience?

Once you have considered these questions, write a paper in which you explain just how seriously we need to take this report, given the weight of evidence against the idea that crop circles can appear almost instantaneously.

Copyright © 2004 by Martin C. Young


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