I had the privilege of speaking at the First Friday’s at the Castle in CIT Blackrock Castle this weekend. My talk was “Hoaxes and Hysteria in Astronomy”, where I took a sceptical look at Astrology, UFO’s and the Moon Landing “Hoax” conspiracy theory.
I first spoke about astrology. To understand why astrology is wrong, you need to understand how it originated, and how astronomical discoveries since the 1500’s have completely overturned the basis of the belief system. It also gave me the opportunity to present Phil Plait’s frequently posted diagram:
Then I gave a potted history of UFO’s and our culture’s fascination with all things extraterrestrial. Part of it featured Orson Welles’ infamous radio broadcast that panicked half of America in 1938. Here is the first piece of the radio show. Even now, over 70 years later, it still works as a monumental piece of broadcasting.
Orson Welles later described why he did it:
While a great many people claim to have seen UFO’s, there has never been any hard evidence provided. UFO reports have been plagued by problems of mistaken identity, delusion and hoaxes. One of the best hoaxes was crop circles: initiated by two drinking buddies in the south of England.
I then spoke about the widespread perception that the moon landings of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s were a hoax and that NASA staged a cover-up of monumental proportions. There have been many rebuttals, most comprehensively done by the Mythbusters team.
Personally, I love Michell and Webb’s take on it.
At the end of the talk, I got around to my Baloney Detector Kit:
That last one, the “lone mavericks” suffering for their ideas, is particularly true. There have been far, far more wrong-headed lone mavericks” in history than the tiny number of people who have eventually been proven right.
Finally, if you have managed to read through to the end, here are some useful links should you wish to know more.
- BadAstronomy.com : Phil Plait waxes lyrical about his wonderment of the universe, while regularly debunking the widespread misinformation.
- Snopes.com : If you hear a strange tale or you get an email that sounds fishy, check this website out. It will give you some food for thought.
- Skepdic.com : The Skeptic’s Dictionary is a tremendous resource for people who want to understand the scientific view of modern delusions and weirdness.
- Randi.org : The James Randi Educational Foundation has been fighting baloney for years. There are plenty of resources there for budding sceptics.
- Skeptoid.com : Brian Dunning has created a comprehensive list of ten-minute podcasts debunking all sorts of strange ideas. You name it, it’s probably there.
We run regular “Skeptics in the Castle” meetings in Blackrock Castle, where experts are invited to talk about the reality behind modern misconceptions, fads and strange beliefs. Check out our website corkskeptics.org. We are also on Facebook and Twitter.
Passive Impressions 
Interesting, and I agree with most of it, but submit “beware the lone maverick” may commit ad hominem fallacy!
Trying to make it snappy! The lone maverick fallacy happens if you agree with a persons view point just because they consider themselves to be lone pioneers. That on its own is not enough. It may well be that they are right, but more investigation would be required to establish this. That’s why I say “beware”, instead of dismissing it out of hand. Like many fallacies, they may be correct, but the assertion on its own does not make it correct. I mention it because it is a tactic often used by proponents of woo.
Great Lecture, Fascinating an very interesting all the way through 🙂 Enjoyed immensely & look forward to going back again … Great Job !
Thanks Deb!
Souldn’t the same apply to agreeing with someone’s view just because they consider themselves to be “mainstream”, “peer-reviewed”, etc., on pain of committing the fallacy of appeal to authority?
Appeal to authority and ad hominem are two sides of the same coin – in both cases the quality of the person is appealed to instead of the quality of the theory. The quality of a person counts if he is giving testimony (as a witness in court, for example, where we have to “take his word for it” and judge his trustworthiness). But a guiding constraint on scientific evidence is that theory stands or falls independently of the credentials of its proponents or opponents.
That’s right. We have to be aware that people whom we hold in high esteem may say silly things from time to time: an example being James Randi’s siding with global warming deniers some years ago.
Yes, if epistemologists were still going along with “maintream” Descartes, we’d be like hamsters on treadmills! The most important epistemological idea of recent times was not had by a highly respected epistemologist or logician but by an “outsider”: the physicist Pierre Duhem.
Ola! Colm,
Cool Post, Astronomy is perhaps the best science for teaching children. Astronomy-themed learning projects can help teach children not only astronomy but many subjects–reading, writing, math, history, geometry, chemistry, art, photography, etc. Almost any area of knowledge can be integrated into a children’s astronomy class or workshop. Children are not only learning the fascinating subject of astronomy that has engaged children of all ages for centuries–the solar system, the planets, the stars, the nebula, the comets, the galaxies, the spaceships and space marvels, the telescopes–but astronomy can be the coordinating art and science.
Wishes
Mark