Debunking Dana Scully

I've just restarted diving head-first into the the saga of the X-Files, and I profoundly realized that Dana couldn't even logically answer a straightforward question in the pilot episode put to her by Fox Mulder, and she is meant to be the grounding character:

Mulder: "Do you believe in the existence of extraterrestials?"

Scully: "Logically, I would have to say no. Given the distances needed to travel from the far reaches of space, the energy requirements would exceed the spacecrafts capabilties..."

Notice the reluctance of the yes/no answer, which is the only possible reply to the question, from a fundamental sense?

All Mulder is asking, is - paraphrasing - "do you believe in life, that exists apart from, that which lives on planet Earth?"

Yet Scully retorts amazingly not with an answer regarding extra-Earth-life, but a question of travel distance? This is not apples and oranges, and a scientist should know better!

 

The truly sad thing about X-Files is that the REAL Fox Mulder was a UFO de-bunker, the way Harry Houdini did for mystics, psychics, and what-not.

 

Have you considered that she understood the question and chose not to answer?

 

Well, scientists are capable of misunderstanding questions. At worst that's all that line is.

It is also possible that she understood the question and knew where Mulder was going with it, so she decided to just cut to the chase with her answer.