The origin of myth

There are many conspiracy theories about September 11^th. Some argue that Jews or even the US Government itself planned for the attacks. Dr.Mahathir, who recently claimed in his blog that 911 is not a work by muslims, seems to subscribe to similar conspiracy theories.

Dr.Mahathir argued that muslims are not capable of planning and executing such sophisticated operation, which requires great precision. One plane maybe, but 4 planes?

While Dr.Mahathir is right to cast some doubts, his argument is far from solid to conclude that muslim is not behind the attack, especially when the entire world has seen the video of Bin Laden talking proudly about how they planned the plane crash, and how he was the most optimistic among the comrades to predict a total collapse of the twin towers.

Well, I suppose Dr.Mathair would dismiss such video as another artificial work, no different from AVATAR.

To understand why Dr.M's behaves in such a manner, one only needs to read the following paragraph.

What a man believes upon grossly insufficient evidence is an index into his desires -- desires of which he himself is often unconscious. If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way. ~~~  Bertrand Russell.

To be fair, Dr.Mahathir certainly is not alone in having this syndrome. U.S government behaved similarly in 2003, when they wanted to launch a war against Iraq. Based on some sketchy satellite photos or some overhead phone conversations, they were convinced that were weapons of mass destruction and jumped into the war, because this is in line with their instincts, and that's what Bush wanted.