It's not a matter of believing or not believing, but determining what is true. If something is true, it needs to be shown to be true. Which means evidence that anyone can access and examine. People, however genuine and sincere, describing what they saw is not necessarily reliable. People make mistakes. Sometimes not putting things into perspective. Events may happen fast and are not perceived accurately, beliefs may effect ones experience, etc. Some folk see signs and wonders where others see unusual but natural events.
''Research has found that
eyewitness-identification testimony can be very
unreliable. ... Although witnesses can often be very confident that their memory is accurate when identifying a suspect, the malleable nature of human memory and visual perception makes
eyewitness testimony one of the most
unreliable forms of evidence.''
Eyewitness testimony is fickle and, all too often, shockingly inaccurate
''Many researchers have created false memories in normal individuals; what is more, many of these subjects are certain that the memories are real. In one well-known study, Loftus and her colleague Jacqueline Pickrell gave subjects written accounts of four events, three of which they had actually experienced. The fourth story was fiction; it centered on the subject being lost in a mall or another public place when he or she was between four and six years old. A relative provided realistic details for the false story, such as a description of the mall at which the subject’s parents shopped. After reading each story, subjects were asked to write down what else they remembered about the incident or to indicate that they did not remember it at all. Remarkably about one third of the subjects reported partially or fully remembering the false event. In two follow-up interviews, 25 percent still claimed that they remembered the untrue story, a figure consistent with the findings of similar studies.''
