DCP rejects all conspiracy theories except his own

The catch-all forum for general topics and debates. Minimal moderation. Rated PG to PG-13.
drumdude
God
Posts: 5212
Joined: Thu Oct 29, 2020 5:29 am

DCP rejects all conspiracy theories except his own

Post by drumdude »

Today's blog, hot off the keyboard:
DCP wrote:Unless there are strong reasons to oppose consensus, it’s generally safest in intellectual and other regards to be guided by it.

Vaccination is almost certainly useful against COVID-19 and almost certainly does’t(sic) cause autism. Petroleum jelly probably doesn’t cure blindness. It’s very unlikely that the Great Pyramid of Giza was built by aliens. A program of repeated enemas most likely won’t cure cancer. Earth almost certainly isn’t flat. You probably shouldn’t take arsenic as a remedy for leukemia or malaria. The Biden administration probably isn’t run by a secret cabal of cannibalistic pedophiles. The white race very likely wasn’t created by a black scientist named Yakub in a laboratory on the Isle of Patmos 6600 years ago. Dr. Pepper isn’t a brain tonic. Dr. Kilmer’s Swamp Root almost certainly won’t cure “internal slime fever,” which almost certainly doesn’t exist. Hitler isn’t living in Brazil. And Bubba Ho-Tep may not be entirely based on fact.
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeters ... idity.html

I would love to see Daniel Peterson's strong reason to oppose the consensus that the Book of Mormon is an ahistorical fiction. And since we're making a list of conspiracy theories with no strong evidence to oppose consensus:

You and I almost certainly are not descendants of a literal Adam and Eve who lived in Garden of Eden, Missouri. Mormon leaders probably don't have any more power to discern truth than you or I. Priesthood blessings almost certainly don't provide any health benefit beyond placebo. Mormon prophets can't see around corners. The three Nephites are not actual people traveling around Utah helping lost motorists. Baptism isn't a magic spell that requires complete submersion in water to be effective. Neither is the extra-virgin olive oil around a Mormon's neck a cure-all.

Daniel C Peterson rejects all conspiracy theories except his own.
User avatar
Physics Guy
God
Posts: 1557
Joined: Tue Oct 27, 2020 7:40 am
Location: on the battlefield of life

Re: DCP rejects all conspiracy theories except his own

Post by Physics Guy »

I like to think I have better reasons for rejecting most of those crackpot theories than just respect for consensus.

I do rely on consensus for the swamp root and Bubba Ho-Tep.
I was a teenager before it was cool.
drumdude
God
Posts: 5212
Joined: Thu Oct 29, 2020 5:29 am

Re: DCP rejects all conspiracy theories except his own

Post by drumdude »

Physics Guy wrote:
Sun May 21, 2023 9:18 pm
I like to think I have better reasons for rejecting most of those crackpot theories than just respect for consensus.

I do rely on consensus for the swamp root and Bubba Ho-Tep.

It’s probably best to defer to experts on those! :lol:
User avatar
Everybody Wang Chung
God
Posts: 1623
Joined: Wed Oct 28, 2020 1:52 am

Re: DCP rejects all conspiracy theories except his own

Post by Everybody Wang Chung »

Yes, unless there are strong reasons to oppose consensus, it’s generally safest in intellectual and other regards to be guided by it. Unless DCP is talking about the Book of Mormon, Book of Abraham, Bigfoot/Cain, 3 Nephites, Lamanites, Nephites, Jaredites, Mulekites, elephants, dowsing rods, seer stones, Gold Plates, horses, steel, etc.

DCP is about as intellectually dishonest as they come.
"I'm on paid sabbatical from BYU in exchange for my promise to use this time to finish two books."

Daniel C. Peterson, 2014
User avatar
Everybody Wang Chung
God
Posts: 1623
Joined: Wed Oct 28, 2020 1:52 am

Re: DCP rejects all conspiracy theories except his own

Post by Everybody Wang Chung »

I've seen the proprietor of SeN make this same claim over and over. It really shows the lengths the proprietor will go to stretch the truth, misrepresent and lie. The proprietor wrote:
Alfred Wegener’s proposal of “continental drift” directly clashed with the geological consensus of his day, and it didn’t help matters that he was an outsider whose doctorate was actually in astronomy. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists organized an entire symposium specifically devoted to rebutting Wegener’s hypothesis, and George Gaylord Simpson, arguably the most important paleontologist of the twentieth century, went out of his way to oppose it. Nearly a century after Wegener’s premature death during a 1930 expedition in Greenland, continental drift is universally accepted among serious geologists.
Continental Drift as proposed by Wegener is not accepted among any geologists or scientists that I know. However, Plate Tectonics is universally accepted. The simple reason Wegener's theory of Continental Drift was not accepted is that it was (and is) demonstrably false, as pointed out by the scientific community. For example:
Part of the problem was that Wegener had no convincing mechanism for how the continents might move. Wegener thought that the continents were moving through the earth's crust, like icebreakers plowing through ice sheets, and that centrifugal and tidal forces were responsible for moving the continents. Opponents of continental drift noted that plowing through oceanic crust would distort continents beyond recognition, and that centrifugal and tidal forces were far too weak to move continents -- one scientist calculated that a tidal force strong enough to move continents would cause the Earth to stop rotating in less than one year. Another problem was that flaws in Wegener's original data caused him to make some incorrect and outlandish predictions: he suggested that North America and Europe were moving apart at over 250 cm per year (about ten times the fastest rates seen today, and about a hundred times faster than the measured rate for North America and Europe).

By the late 1960s, plate tectonics was well supported and accepted by almost all geologists. We now know that Wegener's theory was wrong: continents do not plow through the ocean floor. Instead, both continents and ocean floor form solid plates, which "float" on the asthenosphere, the underlying rock that is under such tremendous heat and pressure that it behaves as an extremely viscous liquid. (Incidentally, this is why the older term "continental drift" is not quite accurate -- both continents and oceanic crust move.)
https://ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/wegener.html
"I'm on paid sabbatical from BYU in exchange for my promise to use this time to finish two books."

Daniel C. Peterson, 2014
drumdude
God
Posts: 5212
Joined: Thu Oct 29, 2020 5:29 am

Re: DCP rejects all conspiracy theories except his own

Post by drumdude »

Hope springs eternal at SeN that one day we will find the lost civilization of the Nephites, Lehites, Jaredites, and Anti-Nephi-Lehi-Shmeehites. They’re probably right next to the unexploded nuclear bombs that Scientology thetans placed.
“SeN comment liked by DCP” wrote: Since I keep a list of instances where settled science has been mistaken or refuted, I loved the direction of this article...until the end. Seems church critics are quick to point out that academic "consensus" is substantially unfavorable to the historicity of the Book of Mormon and the Book of Abraham. I hope someday soon that mistaken consensus will be refuted.
Any day now the Smithsonian Institute will have to issue an apology for their letter saying there’s no evidence for the Book of Mormon! :lol:
User avatar
Everybody Wang Chung
God
Posts: 1623
Joined: Wed Oct 28, 2020 1:52 am

Re: DCP rejects all conspiracy theories except his own

Post by Everybody Wang Chung »

drumdude wrote:
Mon May 22, 2023 12:29 am
Hope springs eternal at SeN that one day we will find the lost civilization of the Nephites, Lehites, Jaredites, and Anti-Nephi-Lehi-Shmeehites. They’re probably right next to the unexploded nuclear bombs that Scientology thetans placed.
“SeN comment liked by DCP” wrote: Since I keep a list of instances where settled science has been mistaken or refuted, I loved the direction of this article...until the end. Seems church critics are quick to point out that academic "consensus" is substantially unfavorable to the historicity of the Book of Mormon and the Book of Abraham. I hope someday soon that mistaken consensus will be refuted.
Any day now the Smithsonian Institute will have to issue an apology for their letter saying there’s no evidence for the Book of Mormon! :lol:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k8craCGpgs
"I'm on paid sabbatical from BYU in exchange for my promise to use this time to finish two books."

Daniel C. Peterson, 2014
TwoCumorahFraud
Star A
Posts: 98
Joined: Fri Mar 10, 2023 12:34 am

Re: DCP rejects all conspiracy theories except his own

Post by TwoCumorahFraud »

DCP is a conspiracy theory; promoting fake geography for The Book of Mormon plagiarized from L.E. Hills who created and copyrighted it during World War I in Independence, MO, but DCP refuses to acknowledge the RLDS author.

April 6, 1917 - the date US Congress declared war on Germany, entering the US into WWI.

Image

https://tinyurl.com/LEHills1917mapArticle

And Jack Welch, DCP’s worshipfulness, admits to working with CofC Scholars, but DCP had no idea. He claims he got the idea from John L. Sorenson, which shows DCP is no scholar. Just a marketer. If not a snake oil salesman.

“Relationship of Book of Mormon Central to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints”

“Some of our volunteers are members of Community of Christ or Restoration Branch congregations.”

https://bookofmormoncentral.org/content ... -questions

Why anyone would trust those World Wide Web clowns, is astonishing.

Hills’s 3 books and 4 maps can found online independent of DCP or Jack Welch. Welch found them in a dumpster and is reselling them.

Image
User avatar
Physics Guy
God
Posts: 1557
Joined: Tue Oct 27, 2020 7:40 am
Location: on the battlefield of life

Re: DCP rejects all conspiracy theories except his own

Post by Physics Guy »

Everybody Wang Chung wrote:
Sun May 21, 2023 11:51 pm
ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/wegener.html wrote:Wegener thought that the continents were moving through the earth's crust, like icebreakers plowing through ice sheets, and that centrifugal and tidal forces were responsible for moving the continents. Opponents of continental drift noted that plowing through oceanic crust would distort continents beyond recognition, and that centrifugal and tidal forces were far too weak to move continents -- one scientist calculated that a tidal force strong enough to move continents would cause the Earth to stop rotating in less than one year. Another problem was that flaws in Wegener's original data caused him to make some incorrect and outlandish predictions: he suggested that North America and Europe were moving apart at over 250 cm per year (about ten times the fastest rates seen today, and about a hundred times faster than the measured rate for North America and Europe).
Thanks for this background, which I didn't know. It's an interesting point.

Wegener gets credit for being right about continents having moved around, and everybody else gets condemned for failing to recognize his insight. But what exactly counts as Wegener's idea? Only the bottom-line conclusion that continents have moved around somehow, by whatever means or in whatever way? Or does Wegener have to take responsibility for his absurd theories about how the continents were supposed to have moved?

This scientific episode took place in the 20th century. At that point nobody would have gotten much of a hearing just by saying, "I think Africa and South America must have split apart somehow, but I have no idea how this could have happened." And I don't think that anybody should have gotten attention for such a vague claim, either. We knew too much about physics, at that point, to tolerate such a huge "..." in a theory. We might not have known much about the interior of the Earth, but we knew that things don't just happen somehow. If continents moved, they would have to move under some particular force, with some particular mechanism for getting through the apparent obstacle of the solid sea floor.

Evidently Wegener himself fully realised the need to provide a theoretical mechanism for his proposed drift; he knew that without such a mechanism, he didn't actually have anything to say, no matter how neatly African and South American coastlines might seem to fit. And so he did propose a mechanism. It was just nonsense, and had nothing to do with the actual mechanism of plate tectonics.

Wegener probably deserves some credit nonetheless for spurring debate. The people who called him wrong at the time, though, were not just being hidebound. They were right: he was wrong. Giving him the credit of a lone prophet who declared the truth while scribes and Pharisees mocked is like giving the credit for inventing the airplane to someone who proposed that humans must be able to fly by flapping their arms.
I was a teenager before it was cool.
User avatar
Rivendale
God
Posts: 1166
Joined: Tue Mar 16, 2021 5:21 pm

Re: DCP rejects all conspiracy theories except his own

Post by Rivendale »

And yet somehow dowsing works. I wished he had addressed that.
Post Reply