I've heard loads of these in the past - eg the Pyramids were built by aliens and they're meant to be some sort of cosmic beacon to guide the "visitors" back to earth in the future some time. Also there a lot surrounding the Easter Island statutes and those patterns in the desert in South America (spiders and stuff). If you've read Foucaults Pendulum by Umberto Eco you'll know the kind of nonsense I mean.

:rolleyes:

What's the weirdest you've heard? have you ever been tempted to fall for one?

I think we've had this before. But I will submit as mine:

"That John F. Kennedy was killed by someone other than Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone."

I once heard that an Arab terrorist ordered his minions to simultaneously hijack four planes on the eastern seaboard of America and fly them into buildings. Can you imagine - oh wait, that really happened.

Seriously, I think the Pyramids being built by aliens would have to be the weirdest. Never mind that there are Egyptian depictions of them being bulit by men.

Originally posted by Primeval Dragon
Seriously, I think the Pyramids being built by aliens would have to be the weirdest. Never mind that there are Egyptian depictions of them being bulit by men.
But don't they look rather odd? Really, they have those big eyes, and are always shown in profile - maybe they're not from here...
:rolleyes: ;)

I think the paranoid stories in the US about the mysterious "black helicopters" ranks high. Also the age-old stories about the Freemasons really being a collective of international string pullers, a la 'Foucault's Pendulum'.

Remember: the first official political party of the United States was in fact the Anti-Freemasons, and I think they (the Freemasons) are still a pretty weird and secretive cult. I think the first widely publicized happening linked to them was a kidnapping of some guy in the early 1800's, I can't remember the exact name of the event though.

But still pret-ty weirrrrrrddd...:rolleyes:*whew*

Hiawatha was born exactly 2000 years after Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha). :egypt:

There is the theory about the US having space aliens and space ships. in California, New Mexico, and/or Nevada. I think it is nuts, based on personal experience that I cannot go into. :eek:

Originally posted by Primeval Dragon
Seriously, I think the Pyramids being built by aliens would have to be the weirdest. Never mind that there are Egyptian depictions of them being bulit by men.

In fact Vitruvius architecture treaty clearely indicate how to move big block of stones with a ancient tehnology.

Regards,

Originally posted by Richard III
I think we've had this before. But I will submit as mine:

"That John F. Kennedy was killed by someone other than Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone."

Are we allowed to open a 'who shot JFK?' thread??

Not sure why this ranks up the top of your weird list, there is a good variety of evidence pointing to the possibility (emphasis on 'possibility') that there was a conspiracy, the most compelling case to my mind is set out in the book, 'The Mafa Killed President Kennedy' (I think that is the exact name, being here at work I can't check). There is certainly means, motive and opportunity, combine this with the peculiar reluctance of Hoover to investigate the possibility of a conspiracy or even acknowledge that the mafia existed despite all the evidence to the contrary and there is at least a case to answer.

Putting that in the same bracket as aliens building the pyramids or my fav - MI6 had Diana, Princess of Wales murdered on the Duke of Edinburgh's orders in order to prevent news leaking out that she was pregnant by a muslim - is surely a little strange?

i could handle a Diana thread for the sheer amusement value but not JFK -please! It would never end! :rolleyes:

Originally posted by bigfatron


Are we allowed to open a 'who shot JFK?' thread??

Not sure why this ranks up the top of your weird list, there is a good variety of evidence pointing to the possibility (emphasis on 'possibility') that there was a conspiracy, the most compelling case to my mind is set out in the book, 'The Mafa Killed President Kennedy' (I think that is the exact name, being here at work I can't check).

A very good book to read on the topic is Case Closed by Gerald Posner, who offers a comprehensive investigation of the events surrounding the assassination itself, and the breadth in variety of conspiracy theories.

I have read and studied nearly every book on the conspiracy in the JFK killing, and this one does an outstanding job of shooting down those theories.

here the weirdest thing you will ever see:D
a conspiracy of a dog eating alien!
http://www.princeton.edu/%7Eaccion/chupa.html

The Chupacabra was the topic of an episode of the X-files a few years back... when both Muldar and Scully were in each episode. They did not use the alien theory to explain it :)....

And we all know the X-files seeks: "the truth is out there..."

What about that damned "UFO" myth. Some people thought it it REALLY HERE! Oh come on! Those are new American planes, rockets, space satelites, streetlights and comets with planets very far away.

How about the theory that Jesus spent a bit of time in England and Joseph of Arimathea went there after the resurrection (& brought the Grail). Along with this goes the theory that Brits are the descendants of the lost tribes of Israel. Crazy thing is, there are still people who believe this (like the parents of a very good friend of mine).

Speaking of which, The Celtic Reader claims that the Irish were the descendants of fallen Troy and traced one of their kings' lineage to Aeneas himself.

Here goes the wierdest conspiracy theory:

Every time for the last 3 years, whenever the BJP govt. in India has had a domestic problem like the recent Gujarat problem, the "Jehadis have been gracious enough to attack some civilians and take the pressure of the govt.

Incredible!?, not so, trace the major intl. crises between India and Pakistan for the last 3 years and you realize that just before such an event, the NDA govt. here was facing a doemstic problem. After the intl. "crisis" was over, no one even bothered to think about the previous problem. This would'nt have happened if India and Pak were not nuclear powers. May 19th, 1998 has more significance now than ever.:eek:

there appear to be an unbelievable number of conspiracy theories involving the Knights Templar, of which i have little understanding.

also, in a somewhat tenuous link to what thuloid said, i believe that the house Stewart, sometime ruling family of Britain, claimed to be the direct descendents of jesus and mary magdalene.
it's not really a conspiracy theory, but it's certainly weird.

Originally posted by starlifter
There is the theory about the US having space aliens and space ships. in California, New Mexico, and/or Nevada. I think it is nuts, based on personal experience that I cannot go into. :eek:

Exactly! Everyone knows the real alien material is held in South Dakota, and near a baseball field in a cornfield in Iowa.:D

I also am a little tired of the whole "Shakespeare didn't write Shakespeare's works" stuff. Amongs other things, the obsession with the idea that it was a noble in hiding strikes me as typical British classist snobbery.

R.III

If we're going literary, how about the (still somewhat prevalent) view that To Kill A Mockingbird was written by Truman Capote with Harper Lee (an actual person and friend of his) as a pseudonym.

One of the most popular type of conspiracy theory (if you could call it that) at the moment is that *insert name of historical figure* was actually gay.

What these theorists never go on to explain is how this should alter the way we view these people or the things they did. The most popular of all these is that Hitler was a secret homosexual - so what?? What a pathetic excuse for an unknown academic to boost his pension fund and get a bit of the limelight :rolleyes:

I like the 'Knights of Malta' conspiracy theory, which is that they influence practically everything in the US on the orders of the Pope - you should see the membership list! If it (the membership list) is true, it's incredible!!!
To name a few current and former members (and as far as I know, these are not contested): George Bush sr, J. Edgar Hoover, Heinrich Himmler, James Jesus Angleton, Oliver North, "Wild Bill" Donovan, Pat Buchanan, Giscard d'Estaing, Frank Capra, Alexander Haig, Joseph Kennedy, Kim Philby.....

If you like rooting around for conspiracy theories, this is a great one, no? And as I say, I believe the membership list is correct. So, for me this one has taken over from Roswell as the best current conspiracy theory.

I'd forgotten about the Shakespeare nonsense. Nobody who could write all that brilliance would be stupid enough to do so under the pseudonym of an actual contemporary playwright. Odd that the family of the so-called "true" Shakespeare waited 20 generations to bring it up. Or was that make it up?

Snobbery, indeed. I remember one of the 'solid' reasons for promoting this story was that "no commoner could have written it." Well, no nobleman could, either - yet somebody did!

Thomas Edison invented the dog in 1886. All previous references to and depictions of dogs are actually a now-extinct species of badger.

Originally posted by Thuloid
Thomas Edison invented the dog in 1886. All previous references to and depictions of dogs are actually a now-extinct species of badger.
:lol: Did somebody actually come up with this story? If you have any reference, I'd love to have it! :crazyeye: How on earth could they justify it?

Sorry. I've been spreading that story for years (it's my own, I'm afraid).

The Pope Joan thing is a real one, though. Some people actually claim that there was an English woman who somehow masqueraded her way into St. Peter's throne sometime in the Middle Ages. Problem is, different sources claim at least three different time periods (centuries apart) for this event, and none of them really make sense anyway. That, and the sources all appear to be Reformation-era propaganda.