And, Lo...The Creatards Shalt Scream Bloody Murder....

[robvalue]

Can you imagine the lengths everyone would have to go to, to have a scientific conspiracy?

The reason religion gets away with all their insane claims is that they are all unfalsifiable. That's a big scary word, I know. It means they can't be proved wrong. Far from meaning they are true, it means they are useless. Something that can't be proved wrong also can't be proved (or even demonstrated to be) right.

On the other hand, every single claim science makes is falsifiable. It can be proved wrong. And as soon as you do that, the theory is discredited, and must be improved or abandoned. This is the difference between science and religion (not that they are the exhaustive mutually exclusive things that very poor debaters try to paint them as). Science cares about what is actually true, and only deals with what can be tested. Religion sits around making unfalsifiable claims, and expects everyone to just accept them.

And to prove a theory wrong in science, you just need evidence. Anyone can do it. That's why the idea of a conspiracy is so ridiculous. However, to prove it wrong, you need to demonstrate evidence that stands up to repeated, independent testing. The scientific community consists of people desperately trying to find fault with anything put forward. That is its job. That is why once a theory gets accepted it is so strong, because the whole community could not make a dent in it. So if you have a rebuttal, this will similarly be taken apart. If your rebuttal is substantial, it will stand, and science will change. It's that simple. To suggest otherwise is to say that there's a worldwide network of thought police secret agents silently vanishing anyone who even thinks about a way of rebutting a theory, before they can so much as post it on the Internet. If you want to believe that, be my guest, enjoy the view of your padded cell.

Once it gets out on the Internet (your rebuttal), and assuming it has some merit, that opens the door to anyone using it to disprove the theory. And the prestige you would get for dismantling an important theory would be immense. You'd be an instantly famous figure.

Because science cares about truth. What can be demonstrated, in reality. Not imaginary goings on of an infinity of possible "maybe" scenarios with all kinds of magic and special creatures.

One crackpot talking shit that doesn't even make sense is not a rebuttal to a scientific theory. I think this point needs to be driven home to some people. If it was that simple, that science had to change a theory anytime any whacko writes a couple of lines down about how it "doesn't make sense" then science would be as confused and as useless as religion.

*Drops mike*
*On foot*

Ow.

Tl;dr- There is no scientific conspiracy. It would have be on such an epic and pre emptive scale, with the power of the Internet available, that it would be impossible.

[Tonus]

How do you even function in the modern world?

You are so willfully ignorant that if you expended even a tenth of the effort on education that you do on denial, you would be a paragon of knowledge.

In my experience, all but the most deranged conspiracy nuts go on about their lives as if the stuff they constantly pretend to worry about isn't happening. I have a friend who falls for just about every conspiracy out there, but it simply doesn't change his day-to-day life. It strikes me as very "Walter Mitty-ish." They get to pretend that they're one of a small group that has somehow managed to step outside of the matrix and see the real machinery of control, but they're also pretty confident that the men in black aren't going to kidnap their family.