How can we use science to explore the past and debunk conspiracy theories?

[russ_watters]

I don't really care if people do teach evolution in school. I'm already flooded with things that you could call "offensive" to my religion. Every day I'm asked, in school, to participate in atleast something that is directly against my religion but still considered a "school" activity. There are posters all over my school incouraging kids to vote, join the armed forces, give blood, pledge allegence, "show pariotism," or even make Christmas orniments during the holidays, etc, all of which is against my religion. Not to mention my American Government class (I don't hate it, or even really dislike it). We're suppost to due research on the election even though in my religion you aren't suppost to be involved in politics or support government.

If I may ask, what religion is that? I've never heard of any of that (with the possible exception of the Amish).

 

[Janitor]

If I may ask, what religion is that?...

The parts about not pledging an oath and not celebrating holidays sound like Jehovah's Witness.

 

[Janitor]

... Some of the them believe that the Earth is only 6000 years old, and what that means is that all the evidence we find such as bones of dinosaurs isn't real. All of that was already in place when the Earth was created, and those ancient animals never lived. So from that perspective, everything that science considers as evidence isn't real, and isn't going to convince them of anything.

There is a novel co-written by Arthur Clarke, The Light of Other Days, which revolves around the invention of a time periscope. I can't remember if that is exactly what it is called in the book, but that gives you the idea. The operator dials in a time and place that he or she wants to view, and it shows up on a monitor screen. It is fun to imagine how Biblical literalists would react to such a machine. I suppose some of them would say that it was an instrument of the Devil, and nothing that showed up on the screen need actually have been a real event. Or they could say that just as God planted fake dinosaur bone fossils in the ground, He also puts fake video of dinosaurs running around the swamps 80 million years ago onto the monitor screen.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Light_of_Other_Days

Reading the book got me to wondering how hard it would be to locate someone such as Jesus with such a device. Dial in the latitude and longitude of some skull-shaped hill near Jerusalem, set the time for 1970 years or so ago, and fast-forward the time control to watch for any Roman-style crucifixions taking place on the hill. Probably there were a whole slew of such executions on the hill, so look for distinguishing characteristics of the crucifixion of Jesus, such as the sword wounding and the thief on a nearby cross. If I recall, the device in the novel did not transmit sound. But somebody who knows Aramaic could probably lip-read what people were saying back then. Surely Aramaic has undergone large changes since then, though? Imagine how different English will be when it is two millennia old, as compared to Old English.

And, uh, if the time periscope showed Oswald as the lone gunman on that November day in 1963, no doubt some conspiracy theorists would likewise deny the validity of the device.