Creationists And Conspiracy Theorists

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Back in April, a participant in one of my favorite evolution debate discussion forums came up with a list of similarities between die-hard creationists and 9/11 conspiracy theorists that is, to say the least, thought-provoking. He is a longtime engineer who, like me, enjoys smacking down brainlessness, especially with regards to 9/11 conspiracy nonsense and creationism. He's a lot smarter than I am, but I'll repeat his list here, and add my own thoughts.

1. Both groups come to their conclusion a priori. Finding supporting data is a post-facto annoyance.

Creationists, of course, are notorious for this.  Since the Bible is not a science text, the movers and shakers at intellectually vacant organizations like the Discovery Institute and AnswersInGenesis have concocted a whole zany pseudoscience to reverse-engineer reality in their deceitful attempt to "prove" the stories in the Bible. Readers of my "Debunking The Flood" series know that all too well. Not enough water to flood the entire planet, even the mountaintops? The creationists, not having any evidence of sufficient quantities of water, manufacture their own "evidence". They invent massive "vapor canopies" that supposedly cloaked the pre-Flood planet. They invent vast underground chasms filled with water, to fulfill what is stated in Genesis. Of course, none of this is supported by one shred of geological evidence, so they come up with bizarre explanations as to how the strata is the way it is. They totally shred reality and science in order to "explain" their preconceived conclusion - that the Bible is inerrant.

9/11 conspiracy theorists are the same way. The minute the first plane hit the North Tower, the whackjobs were off and running with a conclusion - "It was an inside job. Bush did it." In order to prove their factless conclusion, there are all kinds of wild stories about "controlled implosions" at the World Trade Center, despite the fact that no explosives were found (or heard or seen at the time). The fact that there isn't footage of a jet slamming into the Pentagon is seized upon as evidence of a Rumsfeld-ordered missile strike on the building, in an attempt to cover up dastardly deeds going on within. They have invented a new version of metallurgy, one where it is impossible for steel to soften sufficiently for the twin towers to collapse from "mere" jet impacts. Despite tens of thousands of pages of exhaustive research - the 9/11 Commission Report, the NIST investigation into the collapse of WTC 7, eyewitness accounts, thousands of interviews, photographs, etc. etc. etc., they totally shred reality and science in order to "explain" their preconceived conclusion - that "Bush did it".

2. Both groups come to their preconceived notions partly due to hatred and/or fear. One group because they hate or fear the Bush administration. The other group either because they either hate non-believers or fear their God.

This one is pretty self-explanatory. Any 9/11 conspiracy theorist who believes that "Bush did it" is someone who is going to let his or her hatred of Bush and his administration cloud his judgement and take the place of reason and skepticism. Similarly, many fundamentalist Christians are some of the most hateful people around. No matter how good the evidence of an ancient Earth, they will never relinquish the belief that the Earth is only 6,000 years old, because they hate people who would dare critique their Bible. And I have run into many decent and caring fundamentalists that are just too scared of what they perceive as God's inevitable wrath to even consider the possibility that evolution, for example, might be the correct explanation for the diversity of life we see on Earth today (and in the fossil record).

3. Both groups find tremendous support in their like-minded circle of friends.

Nothing surprising there. When you are under attack on all sides, you circle the wagons. I don't follow the 9/11 conspiracy theorists too much, but in the evo/creo debate, it often happens that a creationist's argument on a given topic is totally shredded by logic, hard data and reason. Invariably, in these discussion threads, another fundie will come along, slap the discredited fundie on the back and congratulate him for winning the argument. I always found that highly amusing. On the one 9/11 conspiracy discussion thread I do follow, the exact same thing happens. No matter how bad they lose, they always present it as a win. This support circle is partially why creationist sites like AnswersInGenesis and 9/11 conspiracy sites exist. They give people who would normally be scorned and refuted at every turn a place to call home - a place where they can coexist with like minded people.

4. Neither group is willing to concede a point to the opposition, regardless of whether or not it undermines their central thesis.

I run into this all the time. If I'm debating somebody who is totally intractable and stubborn, he or she won't even agree with me when I say water is wet. I am intensely disliked by many of the fundamentalists on the discussion forums I frequent, and I can use that fact for a good laugh. For example, I was reading an exchange between two fundamentalists who were in agreement with each other that sometimes, certain passages in the Bible were open to interpretation, and not to be taken literally. I jumped in and asked their opinion of the Book of Revelations - should that be taken non-literally as well? They didn't know I was around at the time, and they were caught off guard. So, when confronted, they naturally said that everything in Revelations is to be taken literally - even though Revelations is a big mess o' symbolism. They knew it, I knew they knew it, they knew I knew they knew it - they just would not cede that point to me because to them, I'm a "pretend" Christian who is going to hell. It's kind of tough to have a rational conversation with people like that. Similarly, I have seen people in the 9/11 conspiracy forums deny the temperature of the melting point of steel, simply because the person who mentioned it did not believe 9/11 was a conspiracy. It doesn't matter if the melting point of steel can be looked up in thousands of textbooks or websites - if "the other team" says it, it ain't true.

5. Both groups see giant organized conspiracies whose only function is to fool the public. Somehow this giant conspiracy never has members that defect & call the press or decide to cleanse their soul on their death bed.

Everyone knows about 9/11 conspiracy theories, but maybe you have never heard of the conspiracy theory aspect of fundamentalism. Well, it exists, although not all fundamentalists share this extreme viewpoint. Basically, here it is in a nutshell. When Darwin's theory of common descent and evolution of species by natural selection first gained traction, it was quickly seized upon by evil atheists who want to destroy religion (especially Christianity). These evil atheists used the principles of evolution to create the science of eugenics (a social philosophy which advocates the improvement of human hereditary traits through various forms of intervention). Adolf Hitler, being a typical atheist evolutionist, used evolutionary and eugenic theories as his justification for the Holocaust. And today's godless and atheistic scientists are pursuing eugenics and genetic research as a means to create a master race (of atheists, I presume).  Hey, don't look at me that way - I'm just repeating what I see around the internet. Basically, any science that is not Bible-based is part of a plot by mad scientists to take over the world and destroy Christianity. It doesn't matter that no scientist in the last thousand years has ever come forward and confessed. It doesn't matter that many scientists are devout Christians (renowned geneticist Francis Collins, the former head of the Human Genome Project, comes to mind). It doesn't matter that no scientists have ever mentioned this vast conspiracy on their deathbeds.

Similarly, the 9/11 whackos are just as convinced of a massive and intricate plot to pull off the 9/11 attacks. It doesn't matter that 9/11 is one of the most intensely investigated events not just in American history, but in world history. It doesn't matter that not one shred of evidence has ever surfaced that points the finger of blame anywhere but where it belongs - al-Qaeda. It doesn't matter that no reputable witness has ever come forward with a confession or credible story of a Bush administration conspiracy. The lunatic conspiracy theorists are right, the tens of thousands of eyewitnesses, engineers, forensics experts, metallurgists, physicists, and countless other investigators are all wrong.

6. Both groups consider anyone who disagrees with them to be stupid, evil or part of the giant conspiracy.

No surprise here. If you are so gullible and stupid to believe in a totally illogical and nonsensical conspiracy theory in the first place, naturally your paranoia carries over to accusing anyone who disagrees with you of being part of said conspiracy. I've been accused of being a blind fool for not believing that the Flood never happened. I've even been accused of being part of this insidious atheist master race conspiracy for accepting evolutionary theory. Hell, I can't even use a Bunsen burner without what's left of my rapidly-thinning hair catching on fire. But since I disagree with the more extremist Christians, that means I'm guilty of plotting to create a master race of atheists that will make the baby Jesus cry. Sheesh.

7. Both groups are willing to cling desperately to wild, easily-disproven "evidence". There is ZERO filtering of this evidence.

Anyone who has read my blog, or other sites or books that discredit "Bible science", know this well. There are plenty of crazed fundies out there that unblinkingly accept whatever the creationist websites tell them to accept. They just don't get that not only does every aspect of the physical world refute every claim ever made by the fashioners of creationist pseudoscience, but that the actual truth is much simpler than anything they believe. Every time the scientific world debunks a creationist claim, the creation "scientists" have to come up with something even more bizarre to explain away the debunking. Now you know why I spend so much time on the Flood myth - it is the classic example of fundies desperately coming up with more and more laughable lies dressed as science in order to keep their illusion of biblical inerrancy going. The Flood is the poster child for creationist deceptiveness and stupidity.

Naturally, the 9/11 conspiracy theorists are the same. What is the more rational explanation for 9/11 - that a bunch of brainwashed Islamic fundamentalists, trained and financially backed by America-hating Osama bin Laden, hijacked four planes and wreaked havoc? Or that there is a massive government conspiracy that has never been breached by anyone, reaching to the highest levels of government, to bring down the Twin Towers themselves and blame al-Qaeda to give them an excuse to invade the Middle East to steal their oil? Remember, these conspiracy theories are from the same general group of people who don't give President Bush credit for the intelligence to wipe his own ass.  Sigh. It's called Occam's Razor, people - the principle that states that all other things being equal, the simplest solution is the best. These creationists and 9/11 conspiracy theorists throw Occam's Razor, and indeed all logic and reason, out the window in their desperate attempts to cling to their untenable positions.

8. Both groups are composed of typical fanatics, with all the characteristics that entails - bi-state world, good guys & bad guys, everyone falls into one of those categories, this issue defines good & bad guys, etc.

Ain't that the truth. In both the worlds of creationism and 9/11 conspiracy theories, there are no shades of gray - only black and white. In these worlds, the Bible and 9/11 are the utlimate litmus tests for deciding who is evil (or just stupid) and who is righteous and good. If you believe the Bible is totally word-for-word accurate, you're good, and Heaven awaits. If you don't believe that the Bible is the literal word-for-word transcription of God's thoughts, off to the lake of fire you go. If you believe the official explanations of 9/11, you're an idiot, or worse, a part of the vast conspiracy. If you agree with the 9/11 whackjobs, you're an enlightened person who doesn't drink the Bush administration's Kool-Aid.

9. Both groups recruit heavily amongst the YoungAndStupid and the YoungAndCredulous.

Since believing in either fantastically complicated 9/11 conspiracy gibberish or creation "science" involves a total suspension of disbelief coupled with an unhealthy dose of gullibility, this makes sense, and I see it a lot in the evo/creo debate forums. Fundamentalists new to the argument come to the forums I frequent, young and fresh and full of the standard platitudes that they have read in creationist literature. These are the YoungAndCredulous, and they invariably stomp away angrily after their claims are casually dismissed with a bit of logic and snark. The YoungAndStupid, though, are too dumb to know when they've been debunked, and grow into the type of person outlined in the above paragraphs. They are just too dunderheaded to know that they have lost, and just keep going and going and going, like fanatical Energizer bunnies. Unfortunately, studies have shown that on average, religious people are uneducated compared to people who are not religious. They don't have as high a level of education as their non-religious peers, and their IQs tend to be lower. I don't think that's because you have to be dumb to believe in God. I think it's because organized religion, in its desire to keep the Bible perfect and inerrant, tends to keep people who are non-critical thinkers. Organized religion doesn't scoff at stupid people, it scoffs at educated people - the people who say "Hey, there is no way the Bible can be 100 percent true". Luckily, not all churches are this anti-intellect, and in those churches you tend to find the better-educated worshippers.

10. Few members of either group are ever swayed out. A few. A very few.

As I've said, I don't really participate in the 9/11 debate (I've got my own set of nutjobs to deal with in the evo/creo forums). But in all the time I've been involved in the evo/creo debate, I have seen one person be swayed by reason, fact and logic. One. I have read a lot of the 9/11 forum debates and I have yet to see anyone renounce their conspiracy fantasies. I believe that is because (in both groups) these people cling so desperately to their beliefs, no matter how wrong, because their identities start becoming intertwined with those beliefs. Renunciation of their ridiculous theories means renunciation of their very selves. It really is a mental illness with many of these people, and for that reason alone it is not productive to have debates with most of these yammerers.

But we keep the debate going anyway. Why bother? Because it is important to not allow the truth to be inundated by lies and fairy tales. If we allow knowledge and truth to be supplanted by fantasy and lies, then all of humanity loses. When I argue with a hard-core creationist on an internet forum, I know full well he or she isn't interested in the truth. But by posting the facts, other people, people who are intelligent but undecided, people who are reading but not participating, can read both sides of the story and come to an informed decision that is right for them (hopefully, they'll choose the side of reason). And that's important.