The autism/vaccine link is up there for me, as are homeopathy, voodoo, horoscopes, alien abductions, etc.

The silliest, to me, are the claims that can be very easily tested and debunked. The more complicated theories like 9/11 stuff, alien testing, Illuminati, etc. certainly don’t compel my belief, but I would feel slightly less willing to say, stake my life on the claim that they’re false. The stuff that can be debunked easily and thoroughly through peer-reviewed research, like homeopathy and autism/vaccines and magnetic bracelet woo and psychic powers earns my scorn much more solidly.

As for the more complex theories – I mostly worry about the social, mental and emotional health of the people who spend large amounts of time investing interest in them. I don’t see who it’s helping, and as much as I’d love more transparency in government, I don’t think these obsessors are likely to make a whit of progress towards “uncovering” anything, even if something is there to be uncovered.

I think it’s a very human temptation to feel involved in a real-life drama, whether one is a victim, an investigator, a hero, or simply someone more “enlightened” than the rest of the world through some mystical secret. Atheists certainly aren’t immune.

That was the craziest until I read about chili pepper guy up there.

The term conspiracy theory doesn’t mean what the dictionary means, today it means “Crazy theory to explain something that is almost certainly wrong, also, people that propose it are kooks”.

But this is unfair. There are conspiracies out there and there are groups of people meeting, often in secret, with a lot of power and/or hidden aims.

Now, that doesn’t mean we undertsnad them, but it does mean we shouldn’t dismiss them light as “conspiracy theories”. Perhaps we should choose to look at the evidence and view them as conspiracy hypothesis.

examples of theories that did/do exist
The illuminati – now hold on before you call me crazy. This group DID exist in bavaria but was disbanded. While it existed it did indeed have crazy aims at destabilising the state. I do not believe they exist in a modern form

Watergate – government cover up, crime sanctioned by the president, secret sources with mysterious names, this one has it all.

MK ULTRA (and similar intelligence/military projects) – This project did exist, it did look at some wacky fringe phenomona, such as ESP, remote viewing, telepathy, brain washing, psycho active drugs, etc. Did it create any real successes, i highly doubt it.
Bilderberg – This group does indeed exist and meet, some very powerful people are members. What do they do? i have no idea.

Conspiracy theories that really are silly
-David Ichkes reptile people
-9/11 truthers that think the government unloaded the planes and remote piloted them into buildings
-Alien visitation theories
-Roswell
-Area 51 being a lab where they work on Alien tech

In our culture, most of us have a need to think someone is in control, whether it be a god, a tribal “Big Man,” or secret societies.

Just because chemtrails aren’t part of a “Secret Government Plot” doesn’t mean they’re harmless. Nor does it mean there isn’t some scientist in a laboratory who knows for a fact they are potentially harmful.

Just because 9/11 probably wasn’t orchestrated by Cheney and company doesn’t mean that someone somewhere didn’t know about it and fail to act on the intel ahead of time, effectively letting it happen. And do you really think all there is to know about 9/11 has been made public? If anyone believes that, I have a bridge to sell them.

And face it, we know that “secret societies” exist. Look at the whack jobs in the John Birch Society and imagine what might happen if they had more power? Is it hard to imagine that happening? Is it even possible to obtain political power in the United States without being obsessive?

Just because groups like the Illuminati don’t exist the way Robert Anton Wilson or Dan Brown describe them doesn’t mean there aren’t groups out there — secret or not — that have their own hidden agendas and the political and economic power to execute their plans.

Read up on “Team B” (any familiar names?) and the works of Leo Strauss and Irving Kristol. Is this a conspiracy theory?

What about John Hagee’s work in support of The Temple Institute? Is this a conspiracy theory?

We atheists should know better than anyone that what appears to be a “conspiracy” doesn’t have to have conspirators. Some dangers are systemic and develop organically.

Paranoid or not, that doesn’t mean someone somewhere isn’t doing something that could be potentially very dangerous.

Anyway… as for my own favourite conspiracy theories, I’d say pretty much everything that came out of the Bush administration during the lead up to the Iraq war regarding WMDs and an Iraqi connection to al Qaeda.

Bill OReily

I live about five miles from an airport and as such I tend to see dozens of jet contrails in the sky every day. They’re basically harmless, but there’s these people absolutely convinced that the trails are part of a Secret Government Plot to poison us, control our minds, make us sterile, etc etc. It’s the kind of crazy conspiracy that I put in the same bin as Crazy Sprinkler Lady.