Comments on: 4 of History’s Greatest Hoaxes

By: Ginny

Ginny — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 19:46:18 +0000

My mom lived in Queens and listened to the original War of the Worlds broadcast. When I asked her if it scared her, she said she knew very well that it was a radio show, that in fact it was part of a series that she listened to every week. I’m not sure if all the shows in the series were sci-fi or not, but she said that anybody who was a regular listener had no problem telling that it was just a radio play.

By: Ronald

Ronald — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 14:43:53 +0000

The “Constitutum Donatio Constantini” has to be one of the biggest and longest enduring. From Wikipedia:
“Purportedly issued by the fourth century Roman Emperor Constantine I, the Donation grants Pope Sylvester I and his successors, as inheritors of St. Peter, dominion over the city of Rome, Italy, and the entire Western Roman Empire, while Constantine would retain imperial authority in the Eastern Roman Empire from his new imperial capital of Constantinople. The text claims that the Donation was Constantine’s gift to Sylvester for instructing him in the Christian faith, baptizing him and miraculously curing him of leprosy.”

“In 754, Pope Stephen II crossed the Alps to anoint Pepin king, thereby enabling the Carolingian family to supplant the old Merovingian royal line. In return for Stephen’s support, Pepin apparently gave the Pope the lands in Italy which the Lombards had taken from the Byzantine Empire. These lands would become the Papal States and would be the basis of the Papacy’s secular power for the next eleven centuries.”

“nserted among the twelfth-century compilation known as the Decretum Gratiani, this document continued to be used by medieval popes to bolster their territorial and secular power in Italy. It was widely accepted as authentic, although the Emperor Otto III did denounce the document as a forgery. The poet Dante Alighieri lamented it as the root of papal worldliness in his Divine Comedy. It was not until the mid 15th-century, with the revival of Classical scholarship and textual critique, the Church had begun to realize that the document could not possibly be genuine.”

By: steamboat

steamboat — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 13:26:53 +0000

What about Vista ?

By: Jason

Jason — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 22:32:08 +0000

Try again:

google.com/search?q=Transgressing+the+Boundaries%3A+Toward+a+Transformative+Hermeneutics+of+Quantum+Physics&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

By: Deadguy

Deadguy — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 22:22:11 +0000

Google has nothing on “Transgressing the Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Physics,”. You sure this hoax isn’t a hoax?

By: Peter

Peter — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 23:28:19 +0000

I know its not as cheerful a hoax as these, but what about the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion?”

There are people out there today, hundreds of years later still believing it…I would think that would make this list.

By: sonofabeesh

sonofabeesh — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 22:13:06 +0000

what about my monster under my bed? lol
i have no cultrual literacy… so if you say, ur a dumbass.

By: Jorin

Jorin — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 21:11:32 +0000

A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift suggested the British use the children of poor families as a food source. The funny part is the British actually thought it might be a good idea and considered. Accidental hoax?

By: Doc

Doc — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 16:36:59 +0000

Couple of other notable hoaxes that endured for years before being debunked:

Piltdown Man – dunno who made it, but Sir Arthur Conan Doyle fell for it… but then again, he thought mediums were on the up & up until he started really looking into the charade.

Alien autopsy. ‘Nuff said.

By: asdir

asdir — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 15:46:50 +0000

As someone who reads a lot of academic journals: Hooray to Prof. Sokal!