Posted                          

quote:

---

Originally posted by TheAlethiophile:
I think my favourite is the Phantom Time Hypothesis - the idea that we are actually in the 18th century, because around 300 years of history in the middle ages was a fabrication.

---

Posted                       

quote:

---

Originally posted by Adeodatus:
Not a conspiracy as such, but wasn't there a popular theory a few decades back that most religious experience in the ancient world (including Christian) could be attributed to the use of magic mushrooms? I think the writer Robert Graves held the idea - he mentions it in his Greek Myths. But then I think he also thought the Odyssey was written by Homer's daughter, so perhaps it wasn't the ancients who were using the mushrooms ...

---

Posted                       

quote:

---

I was told that the rumour can be traced back to Lockerbie locals who speak to US accented people at the scene minutes after the crash.

---

The rumour was obviously started by someone who is unaware of the fact that American tourists in search of their roots can turn up anywhere. Scotland is a popular destination due to the large number of Americans with Scottish ancestors.

If they really were CIA they must have been psychic - the reason why it came down on Lockerbie was because the takeoff was delayed. If the plane had left on time it would have exploded somewhere over the Atlantic and the crash investigation team might never have had enough evidence to pin the crime on anyone...

My favourite conspiracy theory is that old chestnut, the Bermuda Triangle. I have a book on my shelves entitled 'The Bermuda Triangle Mystery - Solved'. It was compiled by a librarian who was sick of being asked about fairytales connected with the Bermuda Triangle, and published in 1975.

A quick Google reveals that despite this heroic effort to set the record straight, the Bermuda Triangle myth is still going strong.

Posted                      

quote:

---

Originally posted by Hedgehog:
Why do you want to know?

Along with the moon landing, I would add the Roswell conspiracy.

Actually, for pure daftness, throw in any conspiracy that depends almost entirely on the competence of decades worth of politicians and civil servants to keep a secret. Particularly when those politicians are from opposing political parties!

---

Posted                       

quote:

---

Originally posted by ChaliceGirl:
So there you have it: a Jewish Pope!

---

Of course, so was St. Peter.

Over on the "Persuasion" thread in Purg there has been a reference to the anti-vaccine conspiracy nuts. But perhaps they are not daft so much as dangerous.

--------------------
"We must regain the conviction that we need one another, that we have a shared responsibility for others and the world, and that being good and decent are worth it."--Pope Francis, Laudato Si'

Posted                      

quote:

---

Originally posted by Stetson:
I'd like to take this opportunity to say that, even though I seriously doubt that Paul McCartney died in 1966(or at any time since), it's not hard to entertain the possibility that the Beatles wanted people to think that. I mean...

-He appears on the back cover of Sgt. Peppers with his back turned, while all the other Beatles are facing the viewer.

-In the same picture, Harrison's fingers really do point to the words "He blew his mind out in a car".

-He is the only one dressed in black on the cover of Magical Mystery Tour.

-Possible confirmation bias, but it's pretty easy to construe the Abbey Road cover as a funeral procession. Maybe it's for for the band, I guess, but Paul would seem a likely candidate to represent the deceased in that particular semiotic arrangement.

-As many times as I've listened to it, I cannot hear the words at the end of Strawberry Fields as "Cranberry Sauce". It really does sound to me like "I buried Paul".

Though for that last clue to match the Abbey Road symbolism, the lyric would have to be read by George(the gravedigger), not John(the priest). Unless "buried" is used to mean "officiated the funeral of".

---

In my youth, the similar rumor was that rapper Tupac Shakur staged his own murder and was actually alive. The evidence was slim, based on numbers and the fact that he nicknamed himself Machiavelli. (According to the proponents of the theory, Machiavelli advised faking your death to fool your enemies. No idea if that is true.) But it does explain why they kept finding "new unreleased" Tupac records for about ten years after his death...

--------------------
"I like to eat crawfish and drink beer. That's despair?" ― Walker Percy

Posted                       

quote:

---

Originally posted by Francophile:
On a light-hearted vein, and not wishing to enter into overly deep discussion about the theories, I wonder what are the most daft conspiracy theories currently abounding?

I have always thought that one about the Apollo moon landings having been staged for the TV cameras somewhere in Texas takes some beating for daftness.

---

My ex-roommate/girlfriend was a Naval aviator and swears that there is no possible way the moon landing could've been real because the radiation belt surrounding the Earth's atmosphere would kill the astronauts immediately. She also talked about the controversy of the flag waving on the flag pole. I told her that the guys on "Mythbusters" had proven that the moon landing hoax was completely nuts and also explained about the flag, but she insisted that the guys on the show were paid to say that... I gave up trying to talk reason to her. She's a little on the weird side anyway and she tends to get very upset if someone argues with her.

--------------------
God gave me my face but She let me pick my nose.

Posted                       

quote:

---

Originally posted by balaam:
Apple pie is American.

---

Posted                          

quote:

---

Originally posted by L'organist:
balaam


[actually, the worst ever apple pie I've eaten was in the USA - incredibly thick pastry and it had been made without cloves ]

---

Posted                      

quote:

---

I told her that the guys on "Mythbusters" had proven that the moon landing hoax was completely nuts and also explained about the flag, but she insisted that the guys on the show were paid to say that...

---

Posted                       

quote:

---

Originally posted by Twilight:
Someone would have blabbed to the waitress at Dennys long before the tabloids had a chance to make an offer.

---

Posted                       

quote:

---

Originally posted by HCH:
When I looked for "mock apple pie", one of the first recipes I found was for zucchini mock apple pie.

---

Posted                      

quote:

---

The ones who really seem looney to me (well, the believers and ideas are wacko, the promoters are con artists) are the many flavors of "personal sovereignty" claims, where your name in all upper case letters is a different legal entity that makes you immune to many government laws.

---

Posted                         

quote:

---

Originally posted by The Great Gumby:

quote:

---

Originally posted by TheAlethiophile:
I think my favourite is the Phantom Time Hypothesis - the idea that we are actually in the 18th century, because around 300 years of history in the middle ages was a fabrication.

---

It's funny, I was just reading up about that one the other day. The thing that I keep wondering is how you'd disprove a theory like that.

---

Posted                          

quote:

---

Originally posted by Lyda*Rose:
One word: Birthers. What a bunch of dingbats.

---

Posted                       

quote:

---

Originally posted by The5thMary:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Francophile:
On a light-hearted vein, and not wishing to enter into overly deep discussion about the theories, I wonder what are the most daft conspiracy theories currently abounding?

I have always thought that one about the Apollo moon landings having been staged for the TV cameras somewhere in Texas takes some beating for daftness.

---

My ex-roommate/girlfriend was a Naval aviator and swears that there is no possible way the moon landing could've been real because the radiation belt surrounding the Earth's atmosphere would kill the astronauts immediately. She also talked about the controversy of the flag waving on the flag pole. I told her that the guys on "Mythbusters" had proven that the moon landing hoax was completely nuts and also explained about the flag, but she insisted that the guys on the show were paid to say that... I gave up trying to talk reason to her. She's a little on the weird side anyway and she tends to get very upset if someone argues with her.

---

Posted                      

quote:

---

Originally posted by georgiaboy:
One I just heard recently, although it has apparently been around quite some time, is that it wasn't the Titanic that hit an iceberg and sank, but the substituted Olympic, which was supposedly a 'jinxed' ship.

Given all the publicity about the sailing of Titanic, the substitution would have had to have been elaborately complicated, so it's all quite farfetched, IMO, but then, that's how conspiracy theories operate, innit?

---

Posted                          

quote:

---

Originally posted by Carex:
Some years back I read a long screed about how you could send a letter with just 3 cents postage...[/QB]

---

Posted                          

quote:

---

Originally posted by The Machine Elf:

quote:

---

Originally posted by The Great Gumby:

quote:

---

Originally posted by TheAlethiophile:
I think my favourite is the Phantom Time Hypothesis - the idea that we are actually in the 18th century, because around 300 years of history in the middle ages was a fabrication.

---

It's funny, I was just reading up about that one the other day. The thing that I keep wondering is how you'd disprove a theory like that.

---

Carbon dating would show that things which are 2000 years old are four times as old as things which are 500 years old, so any history which has artefacts and dates linked needs to fit with that - you can only miss out 300 years if no buildings were made of wood in those years, and all wooden things before then are actually 300 years older than other records suggest. You could posit that carbon dates are, say, 15% more recent than previously imagined and loose three centuries since 1AD that way, but then you may hit dendrochronology - a tree which was known to have been felled 1000 winters ago should have a similar carbon date, and losing 300 years may put that date outside the measurement error.

---

Posted                      

quote:

---

Originally posted by Chorister:
Way back in the mists of time, there used to be an Urban Myths board. I went to look to see if I could drag up some of the ones people were talking about back then. I didn't find much, but this Procter and Gamble one turned up.

---

Posted                          

quote:

---

Originally posted by Chorister:
Way back in the mists of time, there used to be an Urban Myths board. I went to look to see if I could drag up some of the ones people were talking about back then. I didn't find much, but this Procter and Gamble one turned up.

---

Posted                          

quote:

---

Originally posted by The Machine Elf:

quote:

---

Originally posted by The Great Gumby:

quote:

---

Originally posted by TheAlethiophile:
I think my favourite is the Phantom Time Hypothesis - the idea that we are actually in the 18th century, because around 300 years of history in the middle ages was a fabrication.

---

It's funny, I was just reading up about that one the other day. The thing that I keep wondering is how you'd disprove a theory like that.

---

Carbon dating would show that things which are 2000 years old are four times as old as things which are 500 years old, so any history which has artefacts and dates linked needs to fit with that - you can only miss out 300 years if no buildings were made of wood in those years, and all wooden things before then are actually 300 years older than other records suggest. You could posit that carbon dates are, say, 15% more recent than previously imagined and loose three centuries since 1AD that way, but then you may hit dendrochronology - a tree which was known to have been felled 1000 winters ago should have a similar carbon date, and losing 300 years may put that date outside the measurement error.

Personally, I'm secretly hoping that the badger cull is actually a cover for a hunt for the black beast, what with they both being in the same general area.

---