Burden of Proof
Name: Joel R.
Date: Saturday, October 12, 2002
How can I prove to my student that the moon landings were
not faked by the U.S. government?
You cannot. There are only three ways to "know" something. To witness it with
one's own senses, to accept the account of a trusted observer or reference
source, or to acquire the information by divine revelation. Of these three,
which do you think will be acceptable to your student? There is nothing so
tight as a closed mind. I wish you luck.
Like flying saucers, aliens from outer space, and other "hoaxes", the moon
landing "hoax" charge was only a matter of time. There is a wealth of
information debunking the allegation that the lunar landings were a hoax.
A vast hoax indeed it must of been considering the thousands of people who
must have participated in the "big lie". If you search www.google.com for
the term: "lunar landing hoax debunked" you will find many links to sites
that present various rebuttals. Some even start with the proposed
allegations and proceed to pull them apart, while others present arguments
start from a perspective of a rejection of the hoax claim. Also check out
Skeptic Magazine published by Michael Shirmer (who also has a column in
Scientific American) and you may find links on his web site.
Actually, discussion of the moon landing hoax offers you an opportunity to
confront such wild claims in general. You could choose up sides, have each
side present its case, and then have each respond to the counter-arguments
of the other. This is not an empty exercise. Increasingly these days we are
confronted with all sorts of pseudo-science, and false claims -- another
example: The second law "proves" creationism and/or "intelligent design".
The ten questions to confront hoax claims and other resources can give
students a good opportunity to sharpen their critical skills.
I suppose if one believes strongly enough in conspiracies, then it's
impossible to truly "prove" the existence of any event not personally
witnessed. And even then, one could believe that what was witnessed was
some sort of fraud or trickery. Consequently, one must, at some point, be
willing to accept the preponderance of evidence that something did or did
not occur or refuse to believe anything regardless of logic. Short of going
to the moon and looking at the debris from the landings, they will have to
take the word of someone about it.
Perhaps you could find someone who had firsthand experience with the space
program in the 1960's. This person could come to your classroom and discuss
their work with the students. Hundreds of thousands of people, including
tens of thousands of scientists and engineers, worked on the space program
during that period and many of them are still around. Anyone who could
reason his or her way out of a paper bag ought to be able to see that faking
the moon landings would require acquiescence and total silence from many
thousands of people, which is theoretically possible but highly unlikely.
It should not be too hard to track down someone in your area with NASA
experience. I would suggest checking with nearby colleges of physics and
engineering to see if they know of anyone local.
For instance, in my own family, my 81-year old uncle was an electrical
engineer, first in the Air Force then for the Bendix Corporation during the
1950's and 60's. He initially worked on both the Whirlwind and SAGE
projects, which were early computerized air-defense radar systems that
formed the basis for air-traffic control systems still in use today. Next,
he worked on installing surface-to-air missile defense systems around New
York City. These were designed to provide a last line of defense for
intercepting Soviet bombers carrying nuclear weapons (and were shortly
rendered obsolete by the development of ICBM's).
Finally, working for Bendix under contract to NASA, he worked to develop and
install communications and tracking stations for space flights. As part of
his work, he interacted with the Mercury and Gemini astronauts. He
personally witnessed communication with and tracking of space flights and
has, I think, well-justified pride in the work he did in those years.
So, if the space program was faked, this would mean that a) my uncle has
been consistently lying about his work for nearly 40 years, b) he went
around pretending to install ground tracking stations for years on end, c)
another group of engineers worked in secret to cause radar, telescope, and
communication stations all around the world to display false data without
any of the other engineers or operators realizing it or d) I am a government
agent who has pretended to be a civil engineer on this BBS while biding my
time waiting for just the right moment to spread disinformation. While
these scenarios are theoretically possible, they are so preposterous that
anyone with any sense ought to be able to dismiss them outright.
My uncle's experience is only one of many thousands. (I will spare you the
story of my professor and doctoral adviser who, as a grad student, helped
make concrete out of moon rocks as part of research done at Penn State in
the 1970's.) It is just not practical that all these people are either
liars, stooges, or dupes. But, if your students prefer absurd paranoid
fantasies, then probably none of this will sway them.
Dr. Andrew Johnson, P.E.
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Update: June 2012