A Religion, Not a Science

I have been arguing for a while that 9/11 conspiracy theorists hold beliefs of more of a spiritual or religious, than academic or scientific nature. It is no coincidence that the godfather of the movement, David Ray Griffin, is a professor, not of engineering, but of theology. The group “Scholars” for 9/11 “Truth” has a total of 9 philosophy professors, and 3 theology professors, but only 1 mechanical engineer, and not a single structural engineer among their full members.

While listening to this interview with Kevin Barrett, a lecturer at the University of Wisconsin, who recently appeared on Hannity and Colmes, this became even more evident. Barrett, a Muslim who started the group Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance for 9/11 Truth, talks at length regarding the spiritual effects of his faith on his 9/11 beliefs.

Fundamentalist religious groups, especially those referred to as cults, tend to have similar patterns of beliefs and practices, including; a belief in the infallibility of your cause, a feeling of superiority to non-believers, a paranoia that others are persecuting you for your beliefs, a belief in proselytizing and spreading the faith, a belief in the paranormal, and a veneration of your messianic leadership. Mr. Barrett demonstrates many of these signs:

Barrett: Conserve your energy for what is most productive. 9/11 is such an open and shut case that once we nail them on that, then these other things might be easier to resolve. And also, in terms of our audience, we shouldn’t be preaching to the converted. We should be trying to reach the people who haven’t understood yet and in order to do that we have to work with their attention span that’s out there. The 9/11 evidence is fairly straight forward, but it is a challenge to people with an ordinary attention span, and if we start throwing in every other issue. If we start throwing in Illuminati bloodlines, JFK...

Joe Hawkins: It’s endless...

Barrett: UFO’s, that will just confuse people with too much on their plate, and they will shutdown and think we are paranoid whackos, so-called conspiracy theorists. So I really recommend trying to stick with the clearest evidence and talk about it in the calmest possible way, kind of follow the David Griffin approach.

Later on the host talks about attending the recent conspiracy theory conference in Chicago, but for him too, it goes beyond a mere conference, it takes on more religious tones:

Joe Hawkins: I was afraid going, but once I was there, my fear quickly left, and the whole time I was there, I became completely energized, powerfully, and I came back with a much deeper sense of not being afraid. And not worrying, but much more. Just being around those people, it was much more than… You know I am a doctor, and I have been to a million conferences, and you know whatever, right? But this wasn’t a conference, these were souls who had gathered together to speak, I would submit some of the most important deepest truth on this continent.

If I pulled up a quote from someone who attended a Billy Graham revivial, it would probably sound much the same. I am not saying there is anything wrong with this, but recognize it for what it is, a faith based movement.