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SO I know flat earth is a current conspiracy, but I wonder how many people actually subscribe to it?
My thought is that they are probably a very small minority who get more attention thanks to the Internet than they should, and that they are likely few and far between, but none the less, still present in the back woods of fundy religions.
According to the link below, 10% of survey respondents in the USA think the earth is flat, 9% are unsure, and 80% disagree.
The question then becomes, how many of them are yanking the survey's chains, and how many really mean it, etc. But for about 1 in 5 citizens to be leaning that way or "unsure" of settle scientific facts, is not encouraging.
The eclipse came and went, and Carbondale IL is still standing and has not had an earthquake since the minor one back in December. Just sayin'.
My stepson came up with a good one ... notice how it's always cloudy during eclipses? Must be a guv-mint conspiracy to cover up that there aren't any eclipses, lol. (We had 98.9% totality here, and also about 98.9% clouds).
Are you a moderator? Several posters above have mentioned the earthquake and the eclipse as well as conspiracy. Must every post contain the above themes?
He's not, but I am. Sure, you can talk about conspiracy theories, but do so within the context of Religion and Spirituality or Atheism and Agnosticism.
It's my opinion that biblical literalism is a major contributor to many conspiracy theories.
Agreed. If you are literally claiming things that are contrary to established science or impossible according to natural law, then you have to "debunk" contrary facts, and calling it a conspiracy is a great way to do so. All those millions of scientists over hundreds of years must have all successfully conspired to tell a false story or draw wrong conclusions.
It shouldn't be that effective -- and it certainly isn't effective at all with skeptics -- but it works well enough for others who share your motivated reasoning and have no desire to look deeply into anything.
Maybe not. Conspiracy theories can be purely non religious, like 9/11 wasn't what it was portrayed as being.Flat earth (which is basically non -religious), UFOs (which once threatened to become religious) and science -denial (covid, global warming) which is at base, religious.
Point is, conspiracy theories don't have to be religious to work here, but if they are, it helps, as it makes the denial of evidence a moral good.
Agreed. If you are literally claiming things that are contrary to established science or impossible according to natural law, then you have to "debunk" contrary facts, and calling it a conspiracy is a great way to do so. All those millions of scientists over hundreds of years must have all successfully conspired to tell a false story or draw wrong conclusions.
It shouldn't be that effective -- and it certainly isn't effective at all with skeptics -- but it works well enough for others who share your motivated reasoning and have no desire to look deeply into anything.
The conspiracy bit is the easy cop-out. You can always use "the established thinking is a big lie" line. As long as you claim the established thinking is false, and that the true facts are being suppressed, you don't really have to provide the truth, as the truth is suppressed.
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