Madam, - On July 6th, 2006, Prof William Reville wrote in The Irish Times, "Why are people so willing to believe that aliens are visiting earth? It's not that the evidence amounts to much. . . The weight of evidence that exists doesn't seem to weigh more than the evidence for the existence of Big Foot, Nessie or The Abominable Snowman." On August 24th, 2006 he wrote, ". . .since astrology makes extraordinary claims, we should demand extraordinarily strong evidence in its favour before we could believe in it. I reviewed the evidence for astrology and concluded that it is far too flimsy to justify belief in this practice."
He is now claiming in his column of November 1st, 2007 that, "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence and is certainly insufficient grounds on which to base a conclusion of absence".
What could possibly explain this intellectual gymnastics, which in my view borders on hypocrisy?
The difference, of course, is on November 1st, Prof Reville seeks to justify his irrational religious beliefs. - Yours, etc,
MICHAEL FUREY, Oranmore, Co Galway.