#160: David Ray Griffin

We’ve already covered the cranky 9/11 conspiracy theorist Richard Gage. Here’s his mentor. David Ray Griffin is a retired professor of philosophy of religion and theology. His philosophical work consists of attempts to justify a certain view of God by drawing upon diverse resources. In other words, his whole life was spent starting with the conclusion you wanted to reach and then trying to find a way to justify it. That, of course, is confirmation bias set into system, and might help explain why he so easily would be drawn to conspiracy theories like this one.

He has written several books on the subject, and they have become increasingly insane, ending up being featured on Alex Jones’s show. Among his books is “Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11: A Call to Reflection and Action”, and Griffin has pointed out that “If 9/11 is not a religious issue, then I don't know what is.” Griffin is really in at the deep end of trooferism, and he is really crazy.

Known for snowing and making extensive lists of things he objects to in the “official stories” (so that when one is thoroughly refuted he has at least thirty more – most of them resting on such fundamental misapprehensions (and paranoia) that they are not even properly characterized as “wrong”).

He is also a creationist, by the way (quoted by Behe), claiming that there is no evidence for evolution anywhere. It just struck me that the whole problem may simply be that Griffin just doesn’t understand what evidence is.

Also diagnosed here.

A masterful debunking of some of his recurring arguments can be found here.

Diagnosis: Virulent crackpot who has carved himself quite a lot of influence, Griffin is confirmation bias embodied. He started out as an übernut professor of philosophy of religion and has plummeted downwards from there. Mind boggling.