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spawned hundreds of conjectural papers and press releases based predominantly
on supposition and little or no data (Rapp, 2007). Most of these papers and press
releases are heavily laden with phrases such as ''there might be'' or ''it is possible
that''. The preoccupation with the search for life has become so rampant that it
has become common practice to ''seed'' any proposal to NASA on almost any
topic with allusions to the search for life; otherwise, there is little likelihood of
receiving NASA funding. Yet, there is no basis at all for believing that life forms
easily and repeatedly; on the contrary, there are good reasons for believing that
the evolution of life from inanimate matter is an extremely rare and fortuitous
event. Crichton (2003) disparaged the futile efforts in the search for extra-
terrestrial intelligence (SETI) as another outgrowth of the unfounded belief that
life is widespread in the universe. The search for life in the solar system is almost
sure to be a losing effort (Rapp, 2007).
(2) The belief that rising CO 2 levels were entirely or predominantly responsible for
global warming in the 20th and 21st centuries. This belief is stated as proven fact
by government agencies, professional societies, and various other bureaucratic
organizations. It is taught in schools and our whole society has been indoc-
trinated with this belief even though very few have any knowledge of the fragile
technical basis for the belief (Idso, 2008; Rapp, 2008). Oreskes et al. (2008) wrote
a 70-page treatise on CO 2 as the cause of global warming in which the entire
argument is based on a comparison of the credentials of those who believe it vs.
the credentials of those who oppose it.
(3) The belief that the astronomical theory explains the occurrence and timing of ice
ages and interglacial cycles. There are literally thousands of websites, books,
pamphlets, and papers that proclaim this belief as fact. Most of the authors have
never bothered to delve into the details of this topic but have merely adopted the
view of the consensus.
In late 2009 and early 2010, an extensive set of emails between principal
figures in the paleoclimatological cabal was made public. These emails revealed a
deeply imbedded agreement amongst these climatologists to promulgate their
orthodoxy that the Earth's climate has hardly wavered over the past 2,000 years
and that CO 2 was the principal cause of unprecedented global warming in the
20th century. As Mosher and Fuller (2010) pointed out, they:
ruthlessly suppressed dissent by insuring that contrary papers were
never published and that editors who didn't follow their party line were forced
out of their position. When Freedom of Information requests threatened to
reveal their misbehavior, the emails showed them actively conspiring to delete
emails to frustrate legitimate requests for information. Worst of all, one scientist
threatened to delete climate data rather than turn it over, and that data is still
missing.''
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