Re: Moon landing Hoax

[Larry Smith <Larry.Smith@SNOW.EDU>]

At 11:28 PM -0700 2/20/01, Jim Green wrote:
> At 21:38 20 02 2001 , you wrote:
> > So, Jim, you are telling us that it is reasonable that NASA and the
> > rest of the Federal Government, involving at least several hundred
> > thousand people, have managed to keep this little hoax alive for over
> > thirty years without anyone, including the Russians, finding out?
>
> No, Hugh, I say that it is stupid to call the program stupid without
> looking into it a bit -- as many have done here.
>
> I repeat:  I don't care if it is true or not -- it is just not that
> important to me.  But I won't call it stupid without much more information
> than anyone on this list seems to be privy to.  If someone can give me
> evidence that the Federal Government has never covered up anything, I would
> change my mind a bit.  But I still wouldn't care much.

Isn't that a little like asking for evidence that I've never contemplated a
trip to Madagascar or that my grandmother never claimed to be a champion
pole vaulter?  How do you prove (or even provide evidence for) such
negatives?

I think the onus for evidence is on the hoax believers.  As Sagan kept
saying, "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" and I think
the hoax claim is even more extraordinary than the claim that we achieved
what NASA says we did.

But I do agree with Jim that it is very unphysics-like to automatically
reject claims out of hand just because we don't like them or because we
don't understand them.  Of all people, physicists should be open-minded.
Case in point: maybe magnets really do heal people and make them sleep
better or soften their water; let's run the experiments instead of just
saying, "Gee, I can't figure out how magnets can heal arthritis, therefore
they must not be able to."  (I'm not saying anyone on this list has said
that, I'm just arguing for open-mindedness in general, even though I think
the evidence we went to the moon is overwhelming and I don't believe the
hoax theorists on this issue).

On the other issue, I _do_ think we (including Jim) ought to care.  If we
went to the moon then that is not only important historically and socially
but also scientifically.  And if we really didn't then that is even more
important in all three areas!  I'm betting Jim would agree with that, so
maybe he can elaborate on what he means by "I don't care if it is true or
not."

Larry