I really enjoy the show Mythbusters. The science isn’t always as rigorous as I’d like, but the engineering can be really fun to watch.

One show in particular stands out to me because of the audience response. If you go the Mythbusters forums on this topic you’ll see a thread with posts into the thousands. I am, of course, talking about the (in)famous Plane on a Conveyor Belt episode. Here’s Adam Savage describing the problem on the show:

Let me spell it out for you, normally a plane sits on the runway, spins up its engines, moves forwards gets enough air over its wings and takes off. But in this case, the plane is sitting not on the runway, but a huge conveyor belt that is matching the planes forward speed in reverse, and the grand question is can the plane take off? The myth is that it can’t

Just in case you haven’t seen the show I’ll continue below the fold so that I don’t spoil it for you.

Since it isn’t actually the focus of this post, allow me to simply give it away. The plane takes off. If you want more detail, check out the forum for all kinds of explanations.

Anyway, the reason I wanted to point this out is because many people have this mistaken idea that only creationists and possibly conspiracy theorists make the type of cognitive errors that render their beliefs immune to logical refutation. The fact is that such errors exist everywhere in all forms and can be quite independent of someone ideology. This example in particular is focused on a physical question. It’s not a conspiracy theory. It’s not a religious dogma. It isn’t open to interpretation, and it isn’t some vague idea with loosely defined variables. It’s a well defined and scientifically answerable question. If you read the thread you’ll find terms that are explicitly defined, an organization of the points into those that are relevant and irrelevant along with explanations of why, and mathematical equations demonstrating the forces that are work (not all in one comment, but spread throughout). There’s even a link to a YouTube video that both explains and demonstrates what’s happening.

And yet there are those who ignore all of that and claim that it is simply wrong. All of the evidence that is presented is simply ignored. There’s no ideological underpinnings to the belief that a plane on a conveyor belt will not take off. There is no hope of exposing some secret organization for the evil creature that it is. There doesn’t seem to me to be any real reason to not accept the conclusion. It’s simply a cognitive error that makes it impossible for someone to accept evidence that is contrary to their own belief.

The crux of all this is that of course a creationist may be dishonestly ignoring evidence and using faulty logic to support their beliefs. But then again they may also believe as they do because they have a cognitive disfunction that renders them incapable of properly evaluating evidence to the contrary. Kind of  like those people who believe a plane on a conveyor belt cannot take off in spite of seeing it happen with their own eyes.