How Disillusioned Scientists Start Religious Cults

Like with all things, these ambitions start small. Probably just how Scientology started.

Today, for example, Andrew recommended this:

On March 19, the moon's orbit will make its closest approach to Earth in 18 years while at the same time be in full phase. Such a coincidence has been named a "SuperMoon" by astrologer Richard Nolle.

...So the questions that emerge are: 1) Is there any legitimate science linking the Supermoon and extreme natural hazards? and, 2) Did the upcoming Supermoon play a role in this morning's horrific earthquake in Japan, the fifth most powerful on record?

...There were SuperMoons in 1955, 1974, 1992 and 2005. These years had their share of extreme weather and other natural events. Is the Super Moon and these natural occurences a coincidence? ... He noted that one of his readers pointed out that the last extreme supermoon occurred on January 10, 2005, right around the time of the 9.0 Indonesia earthquake.

I reply:

Ha!

Last night, I turned on George Noory’s radio show, and it was a field day for the solar flare people, plus every excitable caller west of the Rockies.

Andrew replies:

Yes, science goes out of the window and anecdotal theories abound!

I answered:

At lunch just now, I was explaining to a friend of mine named “J” that the trouble with the solar flare hypothesis is that there is no obvious coupling with the tectonic plates. J agreed, and said people don’t understand that there is a hole in the gravitational field in California, that the principle of repulsion applies here, not attraction, and that no one even thinks about magnetics.

Sometimes it’s just hard having a scientific education....

Andrew didn't quite follow:

You have lost me now ... magnetic fields etc?

I replied:

Believe me, I’m lost too. He also has theories about how alien beings are masquerading as humans and how most of our problems can be traced to the avarice of the British Empire, plus poor diet.

He’s fun to talk to, but sometimes he makes my head hurt.

Andrew replied:

Mine too – just hearing you talk about it without even meeting him. [A relative] is into some of these alternative theories to accepting the reality of climate change concerns. Apparently things like solar flares, gravitational forces make human carbon emissions of no significance. What a cop out! Shall we sit around some time with a few glasses of wine and come up with some of our own whacky theories??!! It seems that many people give greater acceptance to the whacky stuff than to decades of good science.

I replied:

That sounds like fun! But we could be too successful, and end up like the Scientologists, and create a new religion.

Whatever the theories will be, they have to fit into a coherent whole. (Or maybe not – no one else is worried about coherence)