We have previously discussed the sometimes curious notion of an intellectual in Saudi Arabia. The fact is that I have met many brilliant Saudi academics and that fact is that every country has their wing nuts. However, Saudi has had a litany of these respected clerics or academics spouting nonsense. The latest is Sheikh Bandar al-Khaibari who corrected a student and told him that it is a myth that the Earth revolves around the Sun. Al-Khaibari’s defense of the Ptolemaic system would seem a few hundred years out of date but he appears to view geocentrism as commanded by Allah.
Al-Khaibari insisted that the Earth is “stationary and does not move.” He insisted that the “rotation theory” can be disproved by a simple “logical” deduction by what you can see. He used a water cup to show how virtually every scientist for the last 400 yeas has been wrong. It turns out that his water cup is far better than that silly the telescope used by Galileo in 1609. He states by saying “First of all, where are we now? we go to Sharjah airport to travel to China by plane, clear?! focus with me, this is Earth;.” You can focus with him below. However, his theory is that if a plane stops still in air “China would be coming towards it” in case the Earth rotates on one direction. It the Earth rotates on opposite direction, the plane would never reach China, because “China is also rotating.”
By the way, al-Khaibari also insists that man has never gone to the moon and that the landing was a Hollywood stunt.
It is just a shame that it took so long to debunk those guys Copernicus and Galileo. Of course, they did not have his water cup.
Comment at 10:16:
“This guy would fit in perfectly w/ our Truthers, Birthers, and other conspiracy theory folks here.”
Response:
“Truthers”, “Birthers”, and this guy aside, the author of the following book review makes some excellent points about what has become an overused and misused term: conspiracy theory.
http://my.firedoglake.com/sancheq/2013/11/05/book-review-conspiracy-theory-in-america-by-lance-dehaven-smith/
Quoting:
“Author Lance deHaven-Smith solidly builds in Conspiracy Theory In America a case that State Crimes Against Democracy have been committed in America. He uses a scholarly analysis of conspiracy denial in the social sciences. He looks at European philosophers Karl Popper and Leo Strauss, who largely influenced a transformation of U.S. social science, moving it away from the well documented conspiracy beliefs of this country’s Founders. These two actually blamed conspiracy theory for totalitarianism in Europe, World War 2, and the Holocaust. He says the following:
Popper is largely responsible for the mistaken idea that conspiracy theories are modern variants of ancient superstitions and nineteenth-century social prejudices. […] For his part, Strauss did not use the term “conspiracy theory,” but he advocated state political propaganda and covert actions to protect a society’s traditional beliefs and ongoing illusions about its origins and virtues…
Looking at the conspiracy theory label, the American tradition of conspiracy belief, conspiracy denial in the social sciences, the ironic conspiracy to debunk conspiracy-theory, and his well documented exploration of State Crimes Against Democracy, deHaven-Smith ends up with a discussion of restoring American democracy. It pays to remember, he says, that the U.S.A. was established as a nation of laws, and that these shouldn’t just apply to its citizens. These laws should apply to government as well.
Ask the basic question of crime investigation: Qui bono? Who benefits? This is the question that should have been asked from Day One.
Conspiracy Theory In America is an excellent presentation, logical and well documented. Do pick it up and see for yourself.”
Nice lobotommy! I was thinking the same thing! I want to get a trampoline and get some serious air so I could end up in LA and warm up! Isn’t there a Saudi C-Span? I would pay money to watch them in action!
Too bad they hold the leashes of our esteemed politicians.
Paul C …”no one was injured?” Well, now, we can’t have that can we? Our world today is going progressively insane. And I do NOT mean in the political sense of “progressive”, but in the accelerating sense of insanity. Look at the ME and tell me I am wrong…for those who might. Good luck. 🙂
Equally crazy to Christians eating the literal body of a sky-god’s son (who’s also himself) and then washing it down with totally real blood. Our species can’t even move past metaphorical (well, “actual”) cannibalism let alone surmounting the comedic-if-it-wasn’t-so-tragic lunacy that pores out of the personified religious delusion seen above.
Issac…well played. You and Roseanne would get along fine 🙂
Paul C …”the deal with that” is sarcasm. Hence the smiley face emoji.
When people disappear “poof like” they fall off the edge of the earth. I am certain of it…& if they come back, it is of course, magic. I am fully in tune with Roseanne Rosannadana.
Aridog and issac – back in the days when I was reading a lot of science fiction I read a short story that dealt with this issue, however I cannot remember how they resolved it. 😉 No one was injured though, I remember that.
Paul
First he just gets smaller cuz he gets farther and farther away, then you get tired of watching so he doesn’t really fall off until you stopped looking. Where do they go, well that’s easy. On the other side of the flat earth is another earth exactly like this one and the guy reappears on the other side of the disk. You don’t notice this cuz you just finished getting tired of looking in the other direction. Then he comes up to you and taps you on the shoulder. Next question.
Annie, LOL. I don’t really have much of an opinion about god. But if there is a god [who intentionally created humans], I often wonder if the actions of humans leaves him/her in a state of perpetual laughter. More likely, a state of perpetual regret.
It would be cool if you could travel west at 800 mph or so just by jumping up. Of course you would get smacked pretty hard by the Rockies, if not the house next door. Damn you Newton and your first law
He’s going to be a guest speaker in Utah and then spend a few weeks with John Travolta, and then onto other epicenters of intellectual genius: Rome, Jerusalem, Mecca, …..
People in Oklahoma must be a lot smarter than those in the blue states that elected this conman were stuck with in the white house
This makes me cringe. Step away from the microphone.
We put this guy on Planet Earth from Remulak. You see we believe that Planet Earth needs diversity. This man’s spirit or brain as you call it, came from Planet Gonad. You must also watch out for him around women. He is what you folks in New Orleans call “horny” and in Jefferson Parish they call guys like him Horny Barney for some reason. Science and Math seem to now be the focus of the Chinese. You folks are obsorbed in things like football.
Old nurse, exactly what I was thinking! Of course Paul thinks you’re my sockpuppet, lol. This is what regressive societies do, regress.
I have to correct the honorable Saudi…nothing revolves, the earth is flat, ‘cuz every time I watch a guy walk toward the horizon, he disappears…must be he fell off the edge 🙂
Aridog – the thing about falling off the edge is that he would just disappear, poof like. Not slowly disappear which is what happens. And if people disappear, poof like, where do they go? Do they suddenly reappear? They certainly seem to show up again. So, what the deal with that?
The men who landed on the moon were military officers, therefore; the ironed and used heavy starch to keep it stiff and straight.
They should hire him to teach in Oklahoma.
I am with him on the moon landing. It was clearly staged. The flag does not wave or does wave or something. There is something about the flag.
But, but … let’s not forget the Crusades.
This guy would fit in perfectly w/ our Truthers, Birthers, and other conspiracy theory folks here.