An old friend e-mails me with warnings about every conspiracy theory on the blogosphere. He also consults astrology and believes all of Nostradamus’ predictions. I’ve learned that his son is a fundamentalist who thinks that the theory of evolution is totally false and that the world is a few thousand years old.

Recently people paid $60 to attend a UFO conference in San Jose to listen to exciting lectures on alien visitors, the earth being hollow, humans being living on earth for hundreds of millions of years, a Bigfoot/UFO Connection, civilization on the dark side of the moon, and surgeries for removal of alien implants. They even have a medical doctor who wrote a book called Hidden Truth – Forbidden Knowledge. If it’s hidden and forbidden, why is it a best seller?

After every earthquake or hurricane, someone says it’s divine punishment for something or other, even though we have learned the causes of these events.

Why do people use pretzel logic to create difficult explanations for things that can be explained simply? Why, when thousands of geologists agree on the inner earth, do some people believe the one who says it might be hollow?

I wonder if we are hard wired for superstition. Perhaps ancient sages and cryptic new age gurus are more fun to read than hard nosed realists. Maybe some folks just like being among the in crowd that is privy to these hidden truths and forbidden knowledge.