Review by John C. Snider © 2009
Aliens landed at Roswell. The Apollo moon landings were faked. HIV doesn’t cause AIDS. And 9/11 was an inside job.
Americans love their conspiracy theories almost as much as they love their religion. Once a crackpot idea grabs the public’s attention, no amount of data, science and common sense will talk them off of whatever ledge they’ve crawled onto–and no one has perfected the art of blithe denialism more than the so-called 9/11 Truthers.
by John C. Snider © 2009
Consider the following quote from the late Rev. Jerry Falwell (1933-2007), sent to me a few years ago by a friend who edits a local freethought newsletter:
“The decline in American pride, patriotism, and piety can be directly attributed to the extensive reading of so-called ’science fiction’ by our young people. This poisonous rot about creatures not of God’s making, societies of ‘aliens’ without a good Christian among them, and raw sex between unhuman beings with three heads and God alone knows what sort of reproductive apparatus keeps our young people from realizing the true will of God.” –Jerry Falwell, “Can Our Young People Find God in the Pages of Trashy Magazines? No, Of Course Not!,” Reader’s Digest, Aug. 1985:142-157
Outrageous, wouldn’t you agree? Another ridiculous assertion by the same guy who claimed lesbians and abortionists were responsible for 9-11! An uninformed comment by one of America’s pin-headed televangelists!
An analysis published by LiveScience shows that the “Health Care Debate Based on Lack of Logic.” Should this be a surprise? Nearly every political debate is rife with faulty logic: working backwards from conclusions, ad hominems, credulous acceptance of outrageous urban legends, emotional attachment to arguments that are demonstrably false, dismissing data that disproves an argument while crowing over data that supports it. And the stupidity is spread on both sides of the political aisle; i.e. both Democrats and Republicans do it all the time. It’s enough to drive me to despair. I only hope that self-identified atheists/freethinkers/skeptics guard themselves against these errors and embrace rationalism across the board.
We celebrate the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11! On July 20, 1969 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first human beings to set foot on another world. Our special guest this time is Seth Shostak, senior astronomer with the SETI Institute, co-host of the Are We Alone? radio show, and author of the book Confessions of an Alien Hunter (available at Amazon.com and/or Amazon.co.uk).
The 2012 frenzy has begun. In case you didn’t know it, the Mayan calendar ends on December 21, 2012. As far as I know, the Maya themselves attached no significance to this fact, but every whackjob, wingnut, and opportunistic New Age prophet have latched onto this bit of trivia to spin a tale of global catastrophe and cosmic dread. The next time you wander into your local bookstore, check out the impressive amount of shelf space devoted to something that has no historical or scientific basis. And I hate to be a pessimist, but I’m willing to bet there’ll be a non-trivial number of people whose lives will be ruined by poor decision-making based on the premise that It All Comes to an End on 12/21/12. Tim Farley, keep those pencils sharpened.
We interview Tim Farley, creator of the website WhatstheHarm.net (an invaluable database of death and destruction caused by alternative medicine, superstition, lack of critical thinking, etc.). Tim has also given talks and organized seminars to teach skeptics how to be better communicators–check out Skeptical Software Tools.
Look for Tim at Dragon*Con in September, but first! he’ll be seminarifying at The Amazing Meeting, July 9-12 in Las Vegas (yes…Nevada).
Telegraph.co.uk reports that a boy in Germany claims to have been struck in the hand by a small meteorite, which “knocked [him] flying” before leaving a foot-wide crater in the ground.
I’m not an astronomer, but the story sounded fishy to me (including the “fact” that the meteorite was travelling at an incredible 30,000 mph). Luckily, Phil Plait IS an astronomer (albeit a “Bad” one), and he throws some great analysis towards this questionable tale.
Gary Jones, publisher of the Elberton Star (the local newspaper of Elberton, Georgia), informs me that the Georgia Guidestones, a regional curiosity and recent target of vandalism by anti-New World Order whackjobs, “have been cleaned and are almost ‘good as new.’ [The] sheriff has been keeping [a] closer eye on them.”
Today marks the 10th anniversary of the horrific mass-murder at Columbine High School. It was one of the most-reported events in recent memory, with hundreds of eyewitnesses and endless media saturation. And yet…much of what we think we know about Columbine is wrong. So claims author Dave Cullen in his new book, simply titled Columbine. It’s a fascinating case study in how urban legends are born, nurtured and perpetuated. (And in the face of misinformation like this, people still think we can know something that happened 2,000 years ago.) For more read this CNN report.
Creflo Dollar: liar or dupe?
Tuesday, April 14th, 2009Creflo Dollar tells his credulous flock about Drilling to Hell (literally). Thanks to American Freethought fan Bob (whom we met at last week’s American Atheists convention) for passing along this tidbit, and thanks to David for his research. It made great fodder for my new gig at Examiner.com.
Tags: creflo dollar, drilling to hell, well to hell
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