Conspiracy Theories, Skepticism, and Critical Thinking

This book is trying my patience. I was expecting conspiracy claims here and instead, I'm getting gossip stories about a nerd club that only existed for a brief period. It's frustrating because I was promised this book showed the Illuminati's secrets. I am beginning to think that none of those later conspiracy theorists have actually read it. Aside from the overall lofty goal of teaching the ideals of the Illuminati, the code names, there isn't a conspiracy here. There's nothing but a group that would be nothing more than a humanist activist group today.  Gary Allen's book, "None Dare Call it Conspiracy" was boring, but it was boring because he went into tedious "detail" about how one rich guy knew another. This book isn't even that. While Allen and the John Birch Society are conservative conspiracy theorists, they seem to be motivated by a fear of communism. Now, I need to be clear; they are not afraid of real communism, they are fearful ...

This is a weird coincidence that I could, in no way, have planned out. I do not do a lot of planning ahead for this blog. I preview each section a week ahead of time but there is no schedule. I do not have a calendar (July 20th, discuss abortion), because I do not know two weeks ahead of time what I will be covering. All of that being said, this would have been one hell of a coincidence if the topic came up three weeks ago. (International readers: the US effectively outlawed federal protection for abortion rights three weeks ago) One of my character traits is that I don't gossip. I'm not bragging, it's just that I don't see the point. I can see that some people may get a certain catharsis from gossiping, I can also see that some people may use other people's foibles to launch into larger discussions. In the case of the last viewpoint, I make up issues for my ethics courses that would be the stuff of gossip to discuss ethical issues concerning lying or cheating. I am...

No one writes letters anymore, because we don't have to. I want to discuss something with my friend "Amanda" I can call, text, or if need be, email; or in really dire straights I can video call as well. When old people lament about how no one writes letters anymore or writes in cursive, or whatever; they are correct. No one does that but I would guess that they adopted the phone pretty damn quickly as well. Letter writing is a skill because the writer has to communicate all of the information that they can with the understanding that it is going to be days or perhaps weeks before their response comes in. Imagine that you spend a few days writing a letter, send it off, and a week later your response is "*you're" by some grammar nazi.  What's more interesting is that people saved their letters. It was like a record of a relationship that I cannot fathom. My phone has all of the records across three platforms of my conversation with "Amanda." I di...

Whenever I read these conspiracy theories, the same thought runs through my head: what would Weishaupt think of them? Defending Weishaupt is like defending one of the new Star Wars titles. They're not great, they're fine, but you end up having to pick a side because disliking them puts you in the same camp as a bunch of extremist nutters who think that a black woman ruins the franchise. While I generally agree with the Illuminati's goals, I agree with Robison's initial complaint against Masonry that the ceremony and pageantry are just silly. Let's just meet up, talk, and plan; I don't need or want all the rest of the trappings. I don't know if the 18th century was just more boring, or that the wealthy classes had nothing to do; but even though Masonry had its trappings, Weishaupt's group was going to add to that. There might a cultural atmosphere that we are missing now. I've mentioned that mystical spirituality was in vogue at this point in history....

Weishaupt has lost his position, and the Illuminati were exposed for trying to push the idea that church and state ought to be two separate things. So...what do we do now? Obviously, I move forward with the book, but what does Robison do now? The Illuminati are done, and from what he's reported they weren't even that bad. Odd, sure, but there's a gaming store near me and I'm pretty sure that I can find some odd people in there. Hell, I host a skeptic's night at a bar, we are a bunch of weirdoes. No one is issuing a law to ban us.  Weishaupt has an extended statement here (page 50) but I'm not quite sure where this comes from. Robison frames the quote as being Weishaupt's declaration of the principles of Illumination. However, there was a false doctrine that went around a bit too and because Robison is being unclear I'm not quite certain which is which, and which is endorsed explicitly by Weishaupt. Is the long excerpt from the doctrine that was given to ...

We are backtracking a bit in this post because of artistic decisions. Last post I had to conclude with the dissolution of the Illuminati by the Bavarian government (not the Vatican as Dan Brown would have it). The post skipped over why that happened. As we stated the Illuminati and all other secret societies had been banned by the monarch because of pamphlets that had been passed around questioning the need for a monarchy. The edict was never really enforced and the Lodge Theodore, the Masonic lodge passing out the documents, continued to operate. Then, in 1783 four professors of the Marianen Academy confessed to being members of the Illuminati and exposed some of the secrets of the group. A couple of things right now. The first is that the group of professors making the confession worked for the widow of the previous Elector of Bavaria. The Elector had been trying to snuff out the secret societies for a bit but was unable to find legal justification to do so. Then four professors work...

We've introduced our villain--Adam Weishaupt--well kind of. He's going to take the conspiracy from all of the new people that thought Masonry could do more than just host rib night on Thursdays. Last post we dug a bit into who Weishaupt was as a person, and now we're going to move forward with the actual conspiracy plot. Finally, we're going to get to this. I was promised proof of a conspiracy against the globe and so far I got an 18th-century stand-up routine, "French masons are like this, but German masons are like this..." One thing I have to say upfront, and I definitely should have said this before: I don't know where Robison is getting his information. In the first chapter, I could divine that it was mostly his experience and then what people told him. At best, his information is coming second-hand. There was a book he mentioned that described the various Masonic lodges but that was it for sources. As he delves into Weishaupt the person and the happe...