Car Headlights or Pterosaurs?

Some critics proclaim the extinction of mystery in the interpretation of Marfa Lights. Car headlights they believe are the only strange lights people are seeing in southwest Texas. Years ago, some college physics students watched car headlights near Marfa; they watched for two nights. But they did not actually proclaim that their findings eliminated any possibility of the existence of any strange lights other than night mirages of car headlights. Their experiment proved little except that some car headlights near Marfa can appear mysterious and those car headlights appear often on that highway at night.

The problem lies with the careless blog writer who neglects clear thinking or careful research, who prefers a quick opportunity for sarcasm. Perhaps this might apply to the writer who ridiculed the hypothesis of bioluminescent flying predators being responsible for the Marfa Lights (Dec 7, 2010, HoustonPress blog):

You may have thought that the mystery of the Marfa Lights had been pretty much settled with scientific research showing that the eerie illuminations are just far-off car headlights bouncing off thermal layers.

WRONG.

Now comes a creationist scientist who has a new book that shows the lights are….big birds? [The blog writer later ridicules the pterosaur connection.]

That blog writer may have been careless in researching the scientific studies done on Marfa Lights . . . Well, “may have been careless” is mild, for one of the two scientific pages referred to is a scientific study written up by scientists that include James Bunnell, and Mr. Bunnell (when one reads much of his writings on the lights that are truly mysterious) is clear on this: Some strange lights near Marfa are not at all like car headlights. But that writer of sarcasm displayed sophisticated political awareness, apparently trying to persuade the readers to avoid a deep investigation and simply dismiss, with contempt, the report of the possibility of bioluminescent flying predators.

Science thrives on detailed examinations and open discussions from those with differing opinions. Science does not thrive, however, on careless attacks of sarcasm. A chemistry experiment may need hydrochloric acid as a measured ingredient, but no experiment is likely to benefit from a careless sarcastic blog writer who, out of distain for the professor’s philosophy, purposefully vomites on the lab equipment.