my friend and his goofy opinions

In My Humble Opinion
1

I have a friend who has lots of free time and his hobby is reading history books. He has read lots of books about the Bible and Jesus, his favorite being one calledsomething like “The Revolutionary Jesus”, which purports to describe the historical and political climate of the time of Jesus’ life and what lead to the creation of the ‘story’ of Jesus, and the creation of the Catholic Church. See, Jesus isn’t real.

During this same discussion he throws out that, btw, Shakespeare didn’t write his plays. Ol’ Bill was an ignorant bum who got the glory somehow. I didn’t want to get into it.

Yesterday, he was expounding on the huge cover-up around the JFK assasination and how Oswald was the fall guy. He was quoting police reports that state Oswald was in the cafeteria eating a sandwich 90 seconds after the assasination.

I have done some searching on my own, I can’t quite place the book about Jesus he likes so much. I heard about the opinion that Shakespeare didn’t write his plays, Bacon did. I was unser the impression it was a fringe belief, but an argument could be made for it. And I don’t think anyone will dispute the somewhat mysterious facts surrounding JFK’s assasination. Seeing as how I have a job and life, I can’t spend all my time trying to rebut this guy. He has tons of “facts” to back him up. He spouts these things off like I should just believe him. And honestly, I’m not up for the research. I have neither the time nor the inclination.

So, I turn to you Dopers. How much of a crackpot is this guy? It seems to me he has found some points of view that he likes and, rather than reading everything about a certain subject, he seeks out books and authors which will reinforce the opinion he has already formed. But I really have nothing to back up that
“fact”.

2

If he’s wrong, he’s a crackpot.

If he’s right, he’s a visionary.

3

If you don’t know enough about the topics to spot whether he’s right or wrong, the best thing to do is to leave his genius/stupidity ranking in the “undetermined” column.

Oh, and the “somewhat mysterious” facts about the JFK assassination have been shot down by level-headed folks, repeatedly. You can mosey over to Great Debates and search for a few recent threads on the topic.

4

There is one all-purpose response.

“Hey, how about those Kansas City Chiefs!”

5

I’d get a bibliography from him…and check his tin-foil hat for leaks :wink:

6

As you suspect, it seems, he has a predeliction for “alternative hypotheses”, otherwise known as conspiracy theories.

I’m sure you’re right and he seeks out sources that validate his way of thinking (as we all do of course).

But I’m not really sure what you’re after here. Official backing for that opinion? You won’t get that without a psych report.

7

I’ll either have to “arm” myself with enough knowledge to refute his claims, or learn to not be bothered by them.

8

OK, why not pick on one of his more demonstrably false theories, like the Shakespeare one, or the faked moon landing one if he’s that far gone.

Then we can find a site that has done the hard work of debunking for you, and you only need to learn up on that one topic.