Conspiracy Theories, Skepticism, and Critical Thinking

Conspiracy theorists have a problem in that they make things way more complicated than is necessary. Simpler is always better, it’s always more believable. If you want to lie about something the vaster and more complicated the lie the more likely it would fall apart if true. Kaysing’s theory has run out of steam, but he’s got to say something about the physical evidence to bring There is no better example in my mind of this than the moon rock claims in this conspiracy. Kaysing introduces this section, “ In 1977 I requisitioned some films from the Las Vegas Public schools system. Among them was one describing and illustrating the work of the NASA Ceramics Laboratory. As the film progressed, it became clear that this facility would have been ideal to create the various ‘moon’ rocks used as conclusive proof that the Apollo trip took place. Let’s examine how this could have been done. ” First off, I want to credit Kaysing because this is a great opening paragraph for a section. It lays out...

 When I started this book, I thought I’d be dealing with more “evidence.” So far, there’s been very little and there’s not that much left in the book itself. We enter into the last leg of this journey titled “Common Sense Questions” and I just know that this is going to end up being the “just asking questions” part of the book. What we begin with is not a good sign, “ There is an old Greek saying from the 1st century BC. ‘False in part, false in the whole.’” I am a philosopher this is not a Greek saying. It’s a Greek concept, but it only pertains to logical and mathematical reasoning. The Pythagorean theorem doesn’t work if part of it is false. A syllogism doesn’t work if a premise is false. Thus, the respective proofs of both will not be valid. The concept here involves logical necessity. Historical events do not apply. Another issue is that common sense considerations involve common sense, which is neither common nor sense. Let’s ask the locals what they think about jet propulsio...

 This chapter begins with a quote from Buzz Aldrin, that Kaysing has as "Col. Aldrin.” This is a trick that dumb people use when writing—they use the titles unnecessarily. You can just say Buzz Aldrin, he doesn’t need the distinguishing addition of Colonel, because Aldrin was the second person on the Moon. This is just like how you don’t have to introduce a quote by Martin Luther King with Reverand Doctor Martin Luther King—he accomplished enough to transcend the titles. Kaysing, and conspiracy theorists do this because they have a recognition that what they are saying needs the addition of the title to remind people of the authority of the person speaking. In the conspiracy world it’s never Dr. Fauci but it’s always Dr. Wakefield. The quote is Aldrin commenting about the feelings of the Moon landing, “ There was a lack of reality about everything, a kind of euphoric strangeness to all that was going on.” The chapter is titled “Were the Astronauts Manchurian Candidates?” and this ...

 The story is that Kaysing was commissioned to write this book. Skeptics will concentrate on the portion of that story where Kaysing would claim that he wrote it as a goof but then started to believe it; I want to focus on the other part. That someone paid him to write this because that implies some kind of editorial decision. An editor is what we need here because mid-chapter the format changes. Last week I criticized the ordering Kaysing presented: Baron’s testimony, then Baron’s report, then the Phillip’s report. I said that it should have gone Baron’s report, Baron’s testimony, then Phillip’s. This is because we have Baron’s findings, then the investigation into his findings, then a corroborating report. They didn’t do that for some reason. Now, we have something new, side-by-side comparison of the claims Phillips’ is making with Baron’s. This is fine, but either do this for the entire chapter or don’t do it all. Either choice is better than suddenly deciding to do it. What wer...

Last week we ended with Kaysing very long insertion of Thomas Baron’s testimony to the Congressional investigation into the Apollo 1 fire. The goal of that section, and this one, is to claim that the conspiracy theory is plausible because sometimes massive projects have flaws. The method to complete that goal is the inclusion of official documentation, because so far, all we’ve had to go on is what Kaysing assumes to be the case. We’ve had him guessing, makings things up, and providing a rendering of what the command room migh t look like if it were real. Official documentation makes the theory seem better, and since we are over halfway into the book, no one is reading it anymore. The first report comes from General Samuel C. Phillips, director of the Apollo program. In the preface to the report Phillips makes it explicit that he is not satisfied with the progress made by the program and that substantial improvement is needed. He also spells “enclosed” with an “I” (“Inclosed”) which I’...

 Today’s post is going to be about two chapters. The first is a page and a half, completely unnecessary, and concerns how the radio transmission was faked. This question of the radio waves was never an issue to anyone in both the historical explanation and the conspiracy theory. It’s an issue that no one raises because we live in the age of global instant communication. Even back in the 70s, when the book was written, you could still phone England from Iowa. It would cost a lot, but no one doubts the technology. You might get some HAM operator nerd type wondering about the direction the transmission was coming from, but there are probably ways to explain that. Kaysing does engage in technobabble in an effort to confuse and bewilder the reader. He begins talking about ultra-low frequency transmission and how it is used to transmit messages to submarines. This was the backup to the actual transmission. Which doesn’t make sense because, according to Kaysing, we’re trying to fake the t...