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off-hand comment by Ludwigs2
The problem here, brangifer, and the thing that (as an academic) annoys me the most, is that you are doing something that no scholar would ever do.  You are starting from a pre-defined judgement (i.e., that anything not-science is bad) and working your way backwards to find supporting evidence for that position.  One can always find someone reputable, somewhere, who says what one already believes - ufologists do that all the time, cherry-picking quotes from scientists and government agencies -  but it's bad scholarship to do so.  You want so desperately to believe that the scientific community agrees with your radically skeptical position that you're grasping at straws.  That's not the way things are done.  Ludwigs2 "