More than forty years after men first landed on the Moon (July 1969),
polling indicates that 6 percent of Americans believe the landings were faked –
that they couldn’t have happened.
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| Neil Armstrong standing on the Moon July 1969 (Apollo 11 mission) Credit: NASA |
These nonbelievers study photographs from the moon missions and
see studio fakery. They see a photo of the American flag waving in the vacuum
of space and claim fraud. They note the risks of traveling through radiation
belts and contend astronauts couldn’t have survived.
If they are correct, it’s all a large conspiracy that would have involved more than 400,000 people who worked on the Apollo project for nearly ten years
-- astronauts, scientists, engineers, technicians, and skilled laborers. Can that many people keep a secret?
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| Launch of Apollo 11 July 16, 1969 Credit: NASA |
It probably would have been much easier to land on the Moon
than to generate such a huge conspiracy to fake the landings!
To date, nobody from the United States government or NASA
who would have had a link to the Apollo program has said the Moon landings were
hoaxes.
And yet they walk among us, the doubters.
So why is it that so many people believe this, and other conspiracy
theories? They can't all be paranoid schizophrenics. New studies are providing
some eye-opening insights and potential explanations.
If you, like me, are interested in knowing why people get on
the bandwagon for any conspiracy theory that comes along, you’ll want to read
this Scientific American article that offers some insight.
And for a full discussion on the Moon landing conspiracy theories, and the counter-argument that proves each theory wrong, read this Wikipedia article.
I hope you have enjoyed this series of posts about some of the more well known conspiracy theories that continue to circulate among us!
Of course, the Moon Landings conspiracy. You make the perfect point: it would have been harder to fake it than to just do the trip to the Moon. It was quite a magical day, when the TV live broadcast came of the first steps etc. Some people just prefer the conspiracy to facing the facts.
ReplyDeleteI have enjoyed your series, Sanda; just thought I'd mention our Australian one - In 1967 our Prime Minister, Harold Holt, an enthusiastic surfer and swimmer, waded into a turbulent surf beach off the coast of Victoria, (possibly showing off to a group of bikini-clad young women on shore), and was never seen again. Rumours were that he was a secret communist spy and was picked up by a Chinese submarine and taken to live out his life in China! His body was never found but given the conditions on the day this is unsurprising. There is no basis whatsoever to substantiate the rumour, which is another of those strange urban legends which emerge to explain events which people find incredible.
Patricia, that is an amazing conspiracy story about your former Prime Minister. I had never heard that, so went online to read more. Thanks for that!
DeleteI'm glad you've enjoyed reading about some of our more "popular" conspiracy stories. There are so many more, but the ones I posted about seemed to be some of the more interesting ones.
the scientific american article is interesting. the comments there are great! one comment accuses the government of starting all the conspiracy theories to keep people from learning the truth. roflol!
ReplyDeletei thoroughly enjoyed this series. thx for all your research :)
Very interesting article in Scientific American. I like that you are on top of all the abbreviations used in social media; had never heard roflol. Assume it means "rolling on floor (laughing out loud," which I am familiar with).
DeleteEnjoyed the series, you missed my favorite one about aliens. It is known as the Roswell Incident. Here's a wikipedia link for anyone interested.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roswell_UFO_incident
Darla