Why is it, if there is so much evidence to say we landed on the moon?

Question

that some people still refuse to believe?
and some of these people are very intelligent people.
I know an ex USAF fighter pilot from the 70s, who tells me they Nasa didn't goto the moon in 69.
yet he his an highly intellegent man.
so why don't people believe that we went?

Answer 1

Some people just love to love a conspiracy theory.... America could not keep 6 people quiet over Watergate so i dont think they could keep 2000 people quiet who were involved in the moon landing.... Just because someone is intelligent does not make them have any better common sense than you.

Answer 2

Yeah, this is a question I’ve often wondered about, especially because in my younger days I believed the that the moon landings may have been hoaxed, I absolutely believed in the JFK assassination conspiracy theory, and also believed in God.

As I’ve grown older (and, perhaps, wiser?) I have found that I no longer believe these things.

Why?

Well, could it be as simple as; we humans *love* a good mystery? Or maybe we just go along with what we consider to be the most *exciting* version?

A classic example of this is the “It’s dangerous to use a mobile phone at a petrol station” myth. There’s absolutely no truth in that at all, but almost everyone believes it to be true. (See here… http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/4366337.stm )

But, I think the most likely reason, for me at least, is that, as I’ve got older, I’ve become better read, and I’m more likely to read up on a subject to find out the facts, rather than just jump on any old band wagon. Could it be that young people (and some older people) just don’t have the time or interest to do boring stuff like read articles about these subjects?



Oh, and I think it’s slightly harsh of ‘crabby_blindguy’ (above) to suggest that I’m suffering from a psychological abnormality, just because I’m not convinced there’s any looming catastrophe on the horizon due to human induced global warming. There’s a world of difference between the *theory* of global warming and the *fact* of the Apollo Moon landings.

In 2001, the IPCC estimated that the human related warming of the Earth was 2.43 watts per square metre. This month, after six years where the Earth has not warmed anywhere near as much as they predicted, they have cut their estimate by more than a third to 1.6 watts per square metre.

This would be like NASA saying; We landed on the Moon “here”. But when a future mission to the Moon went “here” and found no evidence of a Moon landing, NASA suddenly changes their mind and says; Er? Actually we landed over “there”.

I have little doubt that, when we do return to the Moon, we will find all the evidence of the Moon landings, exactly where NASA says it should be.

On the other hand, I doubt the predictions made by the IPCC in their 2007 report will turn out to be any more accurate than their predictions in the 2001 report.

Answer 3

I guess that is really a psychology question. I suspect the main cause of doubt is the fact that we don't land people on the Moon any more. People naturally assume that if we could do it then, we could do it now, and that if we could do it now that we would be doing it. By starting with the fact that we don't do it now and running that chain of reasoning backward, they conclude that we couldn't have then.

But that reasoning is flawed. We could build pyramids now but we don't. Does that prove that the ancient Egyptians could not have built the pyramids? Some people say so and assume they were built by aliens or whatever. It is a similar kind of reasoning, but in the case of the pyramids, they are there for all to see where the Apollo landing sites are too far away to see.

But again, the reasoning is flawed. The ancient Egyptians built massive temples, which are arguably even harder to build than the pyramids, and I have never heard anyone claim those temples were built by aliens.

Answer 4

about as a lot as there is for the germ idea of affliction, truly. The Soviets were gazing us. They--and some thing of the international--ought to fairly song our radio transmissions. If our adult men hadn't been transmitting from the lunar floor, the secret would've gotten out virtually at modern-day. as a replace, even the Soviets, who would have relished the probability to crow about a US landing hoax, grudgingly yet publicly congratulated us on having performed what we said. as well, the Soviets despatched out a pattern go back probe, which presented decrease back a small quantity (i imagine about a pound) of lunar regolith (soil, notwithstanding the Moon don't have genuine soil). In a medical substitute, we traded a small pattern of our respective samples for evaluation. If the Apollo samples hadn't been genuine, the Soviets would've conventional. If this turned right into a conspiracy, in simple terms how wide and deep became it? NASA did not construct its own kit--it gotten smaller that stuff out. The Apollo tablet became made by North American and the LM became made by Grumman, case in point. If it became only a NASA conspiracy, it would have had to deceive the contractors. notwithstanding the contractors would were construction hardware able to going to the Moon on the inspiration that it really is what they were being paid to do. If it wasn't conceivable, that they had likely have conventional and blown the lid on the conspiracy If, as a replace, NASA protected the contractors' executives, we nevertheless have an similar problem with the decrease-factor engineers etc. being kept interior the darkish, and probably uncovering that what NASA claimed it became doing couldn't be performed. Now, if the contractors as an entire were being presented into the conspiracy, that solves those issues, except that you presently have a conspiracy spanning thousands of thousands of human beings--and yet they have all kept quiet about it? no longer even a spate of deathbed confessions and revelations written into wills? there is a great number of different info, yet those are the failings that leap to thoughts that i imagine are a lot less likely to be coated by individuals the following in Astronomy.

Answer 5

Because some people just don't want to believe.

Since the first landing on July 20 1969, people have found something about it that doesn't quite fit in with their pre-conceived notions.

One of the first "doubt theories" to appear, was regarding the shadows on the lunar surface - they didn't appear the way they "should" (read that as the way people thought they should). When asked, these people (scientists, no less) stated that the shadows were "all wrong". When asked to elaborate, they stated that the shadows didn't appear as they would on Earth - too sharply defined, as if under artificial light! Duh! It's the MOON, not Earth - there isn't an atmosphere to diffuse the light - shadows would be sharper! The other thing with the shadows was the casting - the shadows appear to be at different angles - proof of several light sources. No. You can have 2 people standing next to each other (on Earth) on a bright day - their shadows will be at differing angles. This is called reflection and refraction.

Another "doubt theory" that appeared - again, posited by scientists - was regarding the Van Allen Belts which surround the Earth. These belts of radiation are attracted to the Earth because of the magnetic field. They (the scientists) stated that 12" of lead shielding would be required to traverse the belt, without the astronauts showing signs of radiation sickness - correct - if you're moving through it at around the speed of a jet, or around 550-600mph! As Apollo 11 was moving at more than 30 times that speed, the astronauts were exposed to a total of about 1 rem (about 1/25th the amount required for radiation sickness).

Then there's The Peculiar Walk Theory: "Experts" say men wouldn't walk like that on the moon, therefore the footage was filmed at one speed (on Earth) and played back at half that speed! Ummm - have they been there? Armstrong and Aldrin were wearing 500lb suits with backpacks in a hostile environment at 1/6th the gravity of Earth - and they think they're gonna walk NORMALLY?

And here's the best one: My own MOTHER thinks it never happened; wait'll you hear her reasoning. Hope you're sitting for this one - falling down to roll about laughing can hurt.

Her reason is that the Saturn V rocket (with the Apollo 11 capsule attached of course) looked "jerky, like it's on strings" at launch. Duh! She was in her home country (UK) watching on a B/W tv IN 1969! Of course the launch footage looked jerky - the steadicam hadn't even been THOUGHT of. She thinks that you can keep a camera (handheld or on a tripod) still while a 100+ ton bomb with 3 men strapped on top launches itself into the air at 1000mph! Anybody who has ever been to a shuttle launch knows that even the GROUND shakes! Ah! She has been to one - and still didn't make the connection . Oh well.....

Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Michael Collins have stated categorically for nearly 40 years "Yes; we did go to the moon". There were thousands of people involved in preparing for launch and hundreds more oversaw the launch and subsequent landing on the moon (and, according to conspiracy theorists, hundreds more must have been involved in faking the landing). And with all these people involved, are we expected to believe that NOBODY has EVER let the cat out the bag? Because nobody ever has, that must mean the cat and the bag don't exist, which in turn means three heroes (what else can you call somebody who deliberately straps himself into a bomb to further human knowledge?) DID land on the moon on July 20 1969.

The fact is, most people LIKE to believe in conspiracies (take a look at the ones about Area 51, Roswell and Project Bluebook). A retired (obviously, if he was in the USAF in the 70s) fighter pilot is going to be no exception. He may well be intelligent, but many intelligent people were, and still are, fooled into thinking it was all faked - based on what they know to be true ON EARTH.

Have a good one.

Answer 6

There is a bit of human nature that always wants uncertainty. It's natural for people, even highly intelligent people to be drawn in and want to believe conspiracy theories, whether they be about people's deaths or significant events.

In the case of the lunar landings it's even more so, as the moon has always been a source of mystery in the human imagination. Anything which removes that mystery is bound to present difficulties for the mind to reconcile.

Answer 7

This sort of refusal to accept compelling evidence isn't a function of intelligence--it's a symptom of mental illness. Many people with psychiatric problems build fantasies which become more real to them than reality itself. Contradictory evidence that calls their fantasy into question is either ignored, rationalized away in some fashion-or attacked

Note that this is entirely different from questioning "accepted ideas" per se. For example, a few years ago, it was reasonable if someone asked "how sure are we that global warming is caused by human activity?" and to express doubts about the (at the time) inconclusive evidencee--even though that was pretty much the way virtually all scientists were leaning. But the "non-belieivers" in global warming as a human-induced phenomenon now are either lacking in knowledge (which means their opinion isn't worth much)--or they are dismissing or avoiding an overwhelming body of evidence. And in those cases, you are not dealing with rational skepticism, but with psychological abnormalities.

Also, bear in mind this sort of mental fixation on a fantasy can result from external factors--the most common being the sort of psychological indoctrination we see cults using--as well as some "churches' that continue to condition their members to ignore evidence that conflicts with the pronouncements of their leaders--the so-called "creationists" who deny evolution despite the massive body of evidence supporting the evolutionary paradigm. These people would benefit from psychological help asl well--but the causes of the abberation is different--the result of indoctrination rather than internal dysfunction--their perspectives are warped, but its not "mental illness" as such.

Answer 8

well,, some people think that people on mars can hear what they are thinking so they put on tin foil hats and run in circles..

think the gov blew up the buildings in 9/11
or some other stupid stuff...

you can not pay them any attention other than to point and smile..
if you goto any nut house you will find some of the people that are guest.. are smarter than anyone else on earth... just are just crazy....

you might ask him if we have landed on mars with the little go cart with a camera.. or if we have taken pictures of the other planets see what he says.. then ask him if he is hearing what he is saying.. other than that walk away