No, that's not true.

[Miss Chicken]

Do you know anyone who refuses to believe a simple fact no matter what proof is shown them?

I am not talking about topics like more complex like religion or evolution etc but things that can be easily proven.

I have a friend who will not believe that John Astin is still alive. She insists she remembers him dying and even though I have shown his entries on IMDB and Wikipedia and interviews with Sean Astin when he talks about his dad in the present my friend still insists that John Astin died several years ago.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

The 9/11 conspiracy crowd springs to mind.

 

[Miss Chicken]

To me conspiracies are often hard to disprove because the 'proof' needed to disprove them is often complex.

Maybe certain aspects of a conspiracy are easier to prove or disprove, for example, why the flag looks like it is waving in the moon shots.

 

[gturner]

How can you ignore the fact that John Astin has a body double?

 

[roliver]

Maybe certain aspects of a conspiracy are easier to prove or disprove, for example, why the flag looks like it is waving in the moon shots.

Mythbusters to the rescue:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMBCfuKs9i8

 

[Miss Chicken]

How can you ignore the fact that John Astin has a body double?

Maybe he is really a pod person?

 

[gturner]

No, he's not a pod person, but he did have a body double, Raul Julia who played Gomez in the movies. Raul Julia, oddly enough, is dead.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

To me conspiracies are often hard to disprove because the 'proof' needed to disprove them is often complex.

Maybe certain aspects of a conspiracy are easier to prove or disprove, for example, why the flag looks like it is waving in the moon shots.

Oh, heck...

The 'waving' flag

 

[Trekker4747]

To me conspiracies are often hard to disprove because the 'proof' needed to disprove them is often complex.

Maybe certain aspects of a conspiracy are easier to prove or disprove, for example, why the flag looks like it is waving in the moon shots.

The flag was suspended on a horizontal rod, the rod did not extend all of the way giving the flag a "rippled" look, as well the movements of the astronauts' attempts at planting the flag translated to the flag itself.

 

[Miss Chicken]

To me conspiracies are often hard to disprove because the 'proof' needed to disprove them is often complex.

Maybe certain aspects of a conspiracy are easier to prove or disprove, for example, why the flag looks like it is waving in the moon shots.

The flag was suspended on a horizontal rod, the rod did not extend all of the way giving the flag a "rippled" look, as well the movements of the astronauts' attempts at planting the flag translated to the flag itself.

That is the explanation I tried to give to a woman I used to work with but she just said 'I don't understand science' and refused to listen to the simple explanation.

She is the type of person I am talking about. How can you even startto get her to believe in the Moon Landing if she won't try to understand to a simple explanation about the flag?

 

[Trekker4747]

To me conspiracies are often hard to disprove because the 'proof' needed to disprove them is often complex.

Maybe certain aspects of a conspiracy are easier to prove or disprove, for example, why the flag looks like it is waving in the moon shots.

The flag was suspended on a horizontal rod, the rod did not extend all of the way giving the flag a "rippled" look, as well the movements of the astronauts' attempts at planting the flag translated to the flag itself.

That is the explanation I tried to give to a woman I used to work with but she just said 'I don't understand science' and refused to listen to the simple explanation.

Yeah, whenever someone says "I don't understand science" over something as basic as a pole on a flag, well, there's not much you can for them beyond helping to dry the drool off their chin.

 

[Miss Chicken]

The things is she was a library tech I worked with so she had average intelligence at the very least.

I meet another women who believes that dinosaurs and men lived at the same time. When she was asked why there was no cave drawings of dinosaurs she said it was because people didn't eat them so they didn't need to draw them.

 

[gturner]

That's just crazy. Dinosaurs taste like chicken!

 

[Miss Chicken]

No, he's not a pod person, but he did have a body double, Raul Julia who played Gomez in the movies. Raul Julia, oddly enough, is dead.

Maybe that is the death she heard about and when they said the man who played Gomez Adams was dead she assumed they meant John Astin?

Though the said friend is far more of a movie buff that I, so I wouldn't expect her to make a mistake like that.

 

[gturner]

Oh, but I'll bet that's what happened. Her brain flagged the death as "the guy who played Gomez died," and later that part of her brain talked to another part of her brain and said, "Hey, brain, the guy who played Gomez died."

"Sean Astin died?"

"Yep."

"No, really?!"

"Yes, really!"

Maybe you should make up a story about how Sean Astin died but was secretly resuscitated using an old coffin from the TV show.

 

[ShamelessMcBundy]

What about the whole Paul is Dead thing?

 

[Miss Chicken]

Oh, but I'll bet that's what happened. Her brain flagged the death as "the guy who played Gomez died," and later that part of her brain talked to another part of her brain and said, "Hey, brain, the guy who played Gomez died."

"Sean Astin died?"

"Yep."

"No, really?!"

"Yes, really!"

Maybe you should make up a story about how Sean Astin died but was secretly resuscitated using an old coffin from the TV show.

John not Sean.

John isn't Sean's biological father though for many years both of them believed that they were biological father and son. Sean still regards John as his dad.

 

[scotpens]

You can argue facts till you're blue in the face, and you'll never convince the True Believers that they're wrong. It's a matter of historical record that Americans landed on the moon. The whole world witnessed not one, but SIX successful Apollo moon missions. It would have taken more money and effort to fake the landings than it took to actually go to the moon. Not to mention the literally thousands of people involved who would have had to keep silent all these years.

And most of the "Moon Hoax" believers are, as you'd expect, too young to remember the Apollo landings. Many of today's young people don't think anything noteworthy happened before they were born.

What about the whole Paul is Dead thing?

Paul who?

I remember all that silly "Paul is dead" business back in the late ’60s. It's a bit ironic that John Lennon and George Harrison both preceded him in death -- and today Sir Paul is singing, "Holy crap, I was 64 three years ago!"

I meet another women who believes that dinosaurs and men lived at the same time.

You mean The Flintstones isn't a documentary?

 

[Kestra]

Oh, the people in my current online class. They wildly assert things with no evidence, they have no sense of common logic, and my head hurts after trying to discuss things with them. I was trying to describe that I go by science in most matters, because science is fact-based whereas things relating to god are faith-based. My favorite classmate responded with "God is fact-based" (along with a whole bunch of other nonsense) and I knew that the battle had already been lost.

The stupid thing of it all is that I don't even have an issue with religion in general, I'm religious myself, and I'm not trying to convert people or attack their beliefs. I just want to be on the same page when it comes to defining terms like "facts," "evidence," "assertions," and so on.

Did I mention this woman also doesn't believe it's true that lots and lots of time passed on Earth before humans were around? There's apparently no evidence of that! It's not true.

Aaaaaaaah!

 

[Miss Chicken]

You can argue facts till you're blue in the face, and you'll never convince the True Believers that they're wrong. It's a matter of historical record that Americans landed on the moon. The whole world witnessed not one, but SIX successful Apollo moon missions. It would have taken more money and effort to fake the landings than it took to actually go to the moon. Not to mention the literally thousands of people involved who would have had to keep silent all these years.

I said to the woman concerned that scientists all over the world tracked the Apollo moon missions including people in Australia. I said to her 'Not all of them would lie". She said they would if they were paid enough.

I then said to her "The Russians also had technology to track them, the Russians would have loved to expose the American moon landings as frauds but they didn't". She answered that the Russians wouldn't have been believed so they kept their mouths shut.