Comments on: Citation Needed

By: Robert Crowley

Robert Crowley — Thu, 17 Aug 2017 01:22:32 +0000

Wait, so you’re trying to tell me that the Electric Nibiru ISN’T flat?
More NASALUMINATI “consensus” fiction, eh?

We all know that Columbus sailed off the edge of the world, and the Americas were actually colonized by the reptillian Zeta Reticuli entities.

Go ahead and pull my other leg, while you’re at it, “Professor”…

But really, this is an excellent example of facts vs “what’s obvious”. Just like the numerous examples of how Birkland currents are everywhere. One of my closest friends is an electrical engineer. And a staunch EU believer. Because he trusts his eyes and barely cohesive Youtube videos more than the hard mathematics.
It’s remarkably easy for some people, who are otherwise very logical and intelligent, to fall into the WoO trap.

By: Tino

Tino — Thu, 29 Jun 2017 22:50:38 +0000

Thanks for your reply Ian. I agree with you fully on your first paragraph and neither do I really disagree with you on your second paragraph. I just feel a bit squirmy to bring religion and science discussions together. This usually doesn’t end too well. And to be fair – this blog isn’t the best place for this discussion either. Ignoring this for a second, I would like to say that there have been great scientists of all personal beliefs and that this is everybodies personal thing. There have been whole societies, greatly scientific advanced, which had their own religious beliefs. The good old Greeks for example.

Personally though, and that’s only my individual opinion, I always struggled with one thing. I can’t understand how you can have specific values and base your life on a specific religious belief based on something which you can’t really observe and you are not suppose to question either and accept this as it is, purely because. And then you try to be a scientist or at least a scientific thinking person where everything is up to be questioned and challenged while your version of truth potentially shifts with every new observation. I don’t know how those two different mind sets can easily be mingled within one person. That is the main reason I keep my kids away from any religious school for example. I think it is a cultural mind set clash. But that is every persons own business.

I have never been to the U.S. so I can’t really judge what is going on there. My opinion is purely based on what I read online and talking to two of my friends who were born and raised in the U.S. But from what I gather – with my limited horizon on that matter – it seems that Christian extremism finds the most nutritious soil within the states.

By: ianw16

ianw16 — Wed, 28 Jun 2017 10:54:11 +0000

Kia ora, Tino,
Well, I think we could take up many pixels on why the U.S. seems to be the loudest when it comes to denying much well established science. First off is their pre-eminent place as the world’s most powerful nation. So what comes out of there is bound to be reported more than the same stories from elsewhere. Secondly, is that they are heavily dependent on fossil fuels. And the companies who trade in those fuels are very powerful, and many are U.S. based. And they tend to stick a fair bit of money into backing politicians in the U.S. It is not in their interests for the real science to go unchallenged. Even if they have to make stuff up. Which they do.
Of course, that is just the climate science debate. Of all the developed western nations, the U.S. also seems to be the most ‘problematic’ when it comes to such things as evolutionary theory. This, in my view, is due to the high levels of religious belief in that country, compared to other developed western nations. And, again, this finds its way into the political arena. I very much doubt that a self proclaimed atheist could ever get elected in that country. Whereas, in Britain, NZ, Germany, France etc., nobody would bat an eyelid. Of course the denial of evolution on biblical grounds, then follows on into other sciences that impact on the fundamentalist beliefs of a decent percentage of the population; geology and palaeoanthropology, for instance. I’m not sure that this manifests itself at a governmental level quite so much as the climate science debate. It has less of an economic impact. However, you often hear stories of creationist science trying to be foisted upon people via the school curriculum at state or local government level, as we saw in the Dover school ID nonsense. Thankfully, the founders of that country were wise enough to separate church and state. Something that, bizarrely, hasn’t yet happened in a far more atheistic country like Britain!
Anyway, that’s my 2 cents. In closing may I say: God bless America! 😉

By: ianw16

ianw16 — Wed, 28 Jun 2017 10:24:24 +0000

Yes, Aldor, I suspect Brian meant to link to the long running Electric Universe thread: https://briankoberlein.com/2014/02/25/testing-electric-universe/
However, if you would like some hearty laughs at what passes for ‘science’ among these people, I would suggest looking up their ‘Electric Comet’ idea (it is not even close to being a hypothesis!). Incredibly bad ‘science’, built upon a shocking lack of knowledge of previous findings. Highly amusing and, of course, it all comes back to their belief in the works of the loon Velikovsky. I highly recommend checking it out, if you haven’t already!

By: Tino

Tino — Mon, 26 Jun 2017 02:14:11 +0000

We are here in New Zealand and we have, for example, climate change deniers just as well. Not many, but they do exist. I think the reason why conspiracy appears to be an U.S. issue these days is because there is a very famous U.S. personality who isn’t afraid of shouting as loud as he can, blaming science, journalists and intellectuals for all the evil of this world and doing it with a self esteem and self-righteousness the world has hardly ever experienced before. If facts are declared as “Fake News” and absolute nonsense is being represented as “Alternative Facts” by the very highest office within a country then the rest of the world is associating this country with the things you have mentioned.

By: Aldor Ericsson

Aldor Ericsson — Sun, 25 Jun 2017 10:32:46 +0000

The link under “Sun is powered by electricity” leads to a perfectly normal study of effect of electrons on comet tails. Probably you meant some more outlandish EU theory?

By: Brian Koberlein

Brian Koberlein — Fri, 23 Jun 2017 00:40:41 +0000

It’s not. Other countries have anti-vaxxers and homeopathic medicine, and young earth creationism is popular in more religious Muslim countries. America might be the loudest, but they are hardly alone.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Thu, 22 Jun 2017 22:49:42 +0000

One thing I have always wondered about is, why is it that pseudoscience and conspiracy flourishes in the United States but is all but absent from pretty much any other country I can think of?