Casey Luskin, in his attempt to refute ID critics conspiracy theory that the editors-in-chief of Synthese caved to the demands of the ID movement, wrote:
"People often invent conspiracy theories when they feel dejected and disenfranchised, but are unwilling (or politically unable) to admit the possibility they are wrong. Such theories are often an attempt to save face by inventing opponents who can then be blamed.
Apparently imaginative (and as far as I am aware, totally and completely false!) conspiracy theories about censorious pressure and lawsuit threats from William Dembski or other ID proponents are easier for these ID-critics to believe than it is for them to simply accept that perhaps their methods were distasteful to the average scholar who believes in civil, well-reasoned academic discourse. But given that the whole issue was co-organized by an NCSE leader and a 9/11 conspiracy theorist, perhaps their conspiracy-theorizing and unwillingness to admit incivility and error isn't that surprising."
Now I happen to agree with him that the editors-in-chief realized that some of the comments of the ID-critics were "distasteful to the average scholar who believe in civil, well-reasoned academic discourse." (Though I wonder why they allowed the sworn enemies of ID to have a special, self-edited edition to publish their opinions. As I wrote previously, that is where I would suspect a conspiracy theory).
My problem is with Casey's statement that, "People often invent conspiracy theories when they feel dejected and disenfranchised, but are unwilling (or politically unable) to admit the possibility they are wrong."
For believe it or not, Casey Luskin is a conspiracy theorist himself. He is an admitted advocate of Intelligent Design Theory, which posits a designer to explain the origin of life and perhaps some or all of its evolution. In other words, Casey rejects the idea that the origin of life can be explained without the need of someone conspiring to make it happen. Now did he become an advocate of ID because he felt "dejected and disenferanchised" and is "unwilling to admit that he is wrong"? Let's hope not. Let's hope that he became an advocate of ID because he thinks there is good evidence for it. And let's hope that he is willing to admit that he is wrong, if only someone could show him the light.
Likewise, people often accept other conspiracy theories, besides ID, because they think there is good evidence for them. And let us hope that they would be willing to admit that they are wrong, if only someone would show them the light. The 1500 architects and engineers (who reject the official conspiracy theory) who believe that the WTC towers were brought down by controlled demolitions would be a good example of people who claim that there is good scientific evidence for their position.
As far as I know, no one has presented adequate evidence to refute their position.
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