I think there is something to be said about the level of earned credibility of some of the people claiming UFOs versus other sorts of miracles. I am generally more likely to trust a navy officer who is not obviously into the mythology of UFOs and reports what they saw without tacking on an interpretation than a random person who has not gone through any of the kinds of vetting for trustworthiness that a career as a military officer entails and is clearly super into the mythology of their particular miracle.
For one, eye-witness reports of UFOs have in many cases been corroborated by radar evidence, which to my knowledge has not happened in the case of any claimed miracles. (See e.g. this playlist, the 1952 Washington DC incident, the 1986 Brazil incident, and Coumbe, 2022.)
Second, the eye-witnesses are in many cases trained pilots who describe going through a fairly rational process of hypothesis testing, like “first I thought it might be a balloon, then that was ruled out by x maneuver”, “then I thought of y conventional hypothesis, but that was ruled out by z”. And the witnesses generally don’t have any interest in UFOs, and they often report finding it difficult to believe what they saw.
Third, there are a number of cases where different pilots report seeing the same object from different angles (e.g. Dietrich and Fravor from different jets).
What makes eyewitness reports of UFOs more credible than eyewitness reports of miracles, which are if anything more frequent?
I think there is something to be said about the level of earned credibility of some of the people claiming UFOs versus other sorts of miracles. I am generally more likely to trust a navy officer who is not obviously into the mythology of UFOs and reports what they saw without tacking on an interpretation than a random person who has not gone through any of the kinds of vetting for trustworthiness that a career as a military officer entails and is clearly super into the mythology of their particular miracle.
For one, eye-witness reports of UFOs have in many cases been corroborated by radar evidence, which to my knowledge has not happened in the case of any claimed miracles. (See e.g. this playlist, the 1952 Washington DC incident, the 1986 Brazil incident, and Coumbe, 2022.)
Second, the eye-witnesses are in many cases trained pilots who describe going through a fairly rational process of hypothesis testing, like “first I thought it might be a balloon, then that was ruled out by x maneuver”, “then I thought of y conventional hypothesis, but that was ruled out by z”. And the witnesses generally don’t have any interest in UFOs, and they often report finding it difficult to believe what they saw.
Third, there are a number of cases where different pilots report seeing the same object from different angles (e.g. Dietrich and Fravor from different jets).