Leader: Is the truth out there?

Published on Wednesday 30 July 2008 21:08

WE LIVE, we are told, in a sceptical, indeed cynical, age.

We trust nothing and take nothing for granted. But perversely, because of this, we can believe in anything at all. How else can we explain the public's apparent faith in the wackiest conspiracy theories? An online survey linked to the UK release of the second X-Files film, I Want to Believe, finds that nearly half of the 1,000 respondents say they believe Groom Lake in Nevada was a covert base for extraterrestrial studies instead of weapons testing.

More than one in three said they believed the 9/11 twin towers atrocity was a US-backed plot to create an excuse to invade Iraq and Afghanistan. Four in ten believe the Apollo Moon landing was a hoax.

And one in four believes the Illuminati and the Masons are trying to take over the world.

Gullible, or what? The survey found that in general, 61 per cent believe in aliens, 52 per cent think ghosts exist and 21 per cent believe in monsters.

But given the bizarre reality of the world that we do live in, perhaps it is not surprising that people are willing to believe in anything. Perhaps Dr James Boys of Richmond International University is right in believing people put their faith in outlandish theories in order to avoid confronting their own mortality.

Or maybe that's just what they want you to think.