{"id":34441,"date":"2016-06-24T18:27:49","date_gmt":"2016-06-24T22:27:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=34441"},"modified":"2016-06-24T18:27:49","modified_gmt":"2016-06-24T22:27:49","slug":"the-crackpot-index","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2016\/06\/the-crackpot-index.html","title":{"rendered":"The Crackpot Index"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

John Baez came up with a \u201cCrackpot Index\u201d<\/a> for those who\u00a0think they are geniuses with revolutionary ideas in physics. What do you say we adapt the list for the field of historical Jesus? How do you think the list below \u2013 adapted ever so slightly from Baez\u2019s \u2013 works? What changes would you recommend? How would it apply to mythicists that you\u2019ve interacted with?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

A simple method for rating potentially revolutionary contributions to historical Jesus studies:<\/h4>\n
    \n
  1. A -5 point starting credit.<\/li>\n
  2. 1 point for every statement that is widely agreed on to be false.<\/li>\n
  3. 2 points for every statement that is clearly vacuous.<\/li>\n
  4. 3 points for every statement that is logically inconsistent.<\/li>\n
  5. 5 points for each such statement that is adhered to despite careful correction.<\/li>\n
  6. 5 points for using a thought experiment that contradicts the results of a widely accepted real experiment.<\/li>\n
  7. 5 points for each word in all capital letters (except for those with defective keyboards).<\/li>\n
  8. 5 points for each mention of \u201cSchwitzer,\u201d \u201cAirman,\u201d or \u201cDone.\u201d<\/li>\n
  9. 10 points for each claim that historical critical scholarship on the Bible\u00a0is fundamentally misguided (without good evidence).<\/li>\n
  10. 10 points for pointing out that you have gone to school, as if this were evidence of sanity.<\/li>\n
  11. 10 points for beginning the description of your theory by saying how long you have been working on it (10 more for emphasizing that you worked on your own).<\/li>\n
  12. 10 points for mailing your theory to someone you don\u2019t know personally and asking them not to tell anyone else about it, for fear that your ideas will be stolen.<\/li>\n
  13. 10 points for offering prize money to anyone who proves and\/or finds any flaws in your theory.<\/li>\n
  14. 10 points for each new term you invent and use without properly defining it.<\/li>\n
  15. 10 points for each statement along the lines of \u201cI\u2019m not good at math, but my theory is conceptually right, so all I need is for someone to express it in terms of equations.\u201d<\/li>\n
  16. 10 points for arguing that a current well-established theory is \u201conly a theory\u201d, as if this were somehow a point against it.<\/li>\n
  17. 10 points for arguing that while a current well-established theory fits the evidence perfectly, it doesn\u2019t explain \u201cwhy\u201d the events occurred, or fails to provide a \u201cmechanism.\u201d<\/li>\n
  18. 10 points for each favorable comparison of yourself to a famous scholar (20 for each comparison of yourself to a great thinker in physics or philosophy), or claim that\u00a0methods used in Biblical studies\u00a0fundamentally misguided (without good evidence).<\/li>\n
  19. 10 points for claiming that your work is on the cutting edge of a \u201cparadigm shift.\u201d<\/li>\n
  20. 20 points for emailing me and complaining about the crackpot index (e.g., saying that it \u201csuppresses original thinkers\u201d or saying that I misspelled \u201cEhrman\u201d in item 8.)<\/li>\n
  21. 20 points for suggesting that you deserve a Nobel prize.<\/li>\n
  22. 20 points for each favorable comparison of yourself to a famous historian\u00a0or claim that historical study as practiced by historians\u00a0is fundamentally misguided (without good evidence).<\/li>\n
  23. 20 points for every use of comic books\u00a0or science fiction\u00a0as if they were fact.<\/li>\n
  24. 20 points for defending yourself by bringing up (real or imagined) ridicule accorded to your past theories.<\/li>\n
  25. 20 points for naming something after yourself. (E.g., talking about the \u201cThe Smith\u00a0Hypothesis\u201d when your name happens to be Smith.)<\/li>\n
  26. 20 points for talking about how great your theory is, but never actually explaining it.<\/li>\n
  27. 20 points for each use of the phrase \u201chidebound reactionary.\u201d<\/li>\n
  28. 20 points for each use of the phrase \u201cself-appointed defender of the orthodoxy.\u201d<\/li>\n
  29. 30 points for suggesting that a famous figure secretly disbelieved in a theory which he or she publicly supported. (E.g., that Ehrman\u00a0is a closet opponent of the historicity of Jesus, as deduced by reading between the lines in one of his\u00a0textbooks.)<\/li>\n
  30. 30 points for suggesting that Einstein, in his later years, was groping his way towards the ideas you now advocate.<\/li>\n
  31. 30 points for claiming that your theories were developed by an extraterrestrial civilization (without good evidence).<\/li>\n
  32. 30 points for allusions to a delay in your work while you spent time in an asylum, or references to the psychiatrist who tried to talk you out of your theory.<\/li>\n
  33. 40 points for comparing those who argue against your ideas to Nazis, stormtroopers, or brownshirts.<\/li>\n
  34. 40 points for claiming that the \u201cacademic establishment\u201d is engaged in a \u201cconspiracy\u201d to prevent your work from gaining its well-deserved fame, or suchlike.<\/li>\n
  35. 40 points for comparing yourself to Galileo, suggesting that a modern-day Inquisition is hard at work on your case, and so on.<\/li>\n
  36. 40 points for claiming that when your theory is finally appreciated, present-day scholarship\u00a0will be seen for the sham it truly is. (30 more points for fantasizing about show trials in which scholars\u00a0who mocked your theories will be forced to recant.)<\/li>\n
  37. 50 points for claiming you have a revolutionary theory but giving no concrete testable predictions.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    John Baez came up with a \u201cCrackpot Index\u201d for those who\u00a0think they are geniuses with revolutionary ideas in physics. What do you say we adapt the list for the field of historical Jesus? How do you think the list below \u2013 adapted ever so slightly from Baez\u2019s \u2013 works? What changes would you recommend? How […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":34676,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64,78],"tags":[2254,2255,5118,7853,7856],"class_list":["post-34441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mythicism","category-pseudoscience","tag-crackpot","tag-crackpots","tag-index","tag-mythicism","tag-mythicists"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Crackpot Index<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"John Baez came up with a "Crackpot Index" for those who\u00a0think they are geniuses with revolutionary ideas in physics. 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