Skeptic Project

I've been emailing a guy who is, if not a CT, certainly sympathetic to them. We've actually had some pretty productive discussions and he's at least making an effort to understand things from a skeptic's point of view. I explained to him my theory that CT'ers are fundamentally lacking the "bullshit detector" that most people have. Here is an excerpt from an email he sent me:

Some conspiracies I was hoping to address, in order to clear the air, investigate, debunk or confirm, are the following....

-Barbara Bush being the possible daughter of Aleister Crowley (something which rather surprised me as to how surely "possible" it could be. The arguments are that Barbara's mother was close friends with Crowley, may have participated in his rituals which involved sex, was away with Crowley around the time of Barbara's conception, and, finally, that Barb actually has a rather interesting physical resemblance to Crowley. To counter this, I tried some frail google searches and I have at least confirmed that Marvin Pierce, Barbara's officially listed father, has an equally strong physical resemblance to Barbara..... though I emphasize equal, because Crowley still looks a lot like her too. But thats not quite enough to rule it out altogether. I imagine I should put more work into looking into this before declaring anything, but currently the only thing that makes me refuse it is that gut instinct of how ridiculous it would feel if one of our First Ladies or U.S. Presidents were literally spawned from a leading satan worshiper. The Bullshit detector is a useful thing, but it still doesn't feel the same with out the facts to enforce it. I would say, in reference to your example, that rather than having my bullshit detector broken... I simply do not trust it. Notably, I would have used my bullshit detector against skeptics at one time before I found them useful.... so I really don't know which way to use it).

I told him I thought this was so far out there that I seriously doubt anyone would even want to try to debunk it, but I thought I'd see if there are any takers here.

Theories like this border on the perverse. Of course I'd really wonder about the relevance if she was, in fact, Crowely's daughter. Does having a genetic relation to someone suddenly transform or erase your social-familial ties that you built over your whole life? But that aside, when you start prying into issues of personal family issues and even the conception and birth of a person, you reduce that person's existence to a tabloid-ready narrative. This theory, for me, crosses a line of respect for others.