Let's see a critique;
Langan
styles himself as a misunderstood genius; indeed, Filmmaker Errol Morris directed a short documentary on Langan titled
The Smartest Man in the World. However, his pet theory, the "Cognitive-Theoretic Model of the Universe," appears to the casual observer to be a steaming mound of
incoherent babbling, and Langan has reportedly used
ad hominem attacks against those asking him to explain it further, which does not bode well for his "misunderstood genius" claims.
Langan accepts the
theory of evolution, but believes it could not be responsible for the
specified complexity of the
biodiversity that we see today. He believes on various levels that intelligence is responsible for the evolution of life, the ultimate level being "GOD" or the Global Operator Definor (or Designer), which is compatible with the
monotheism found in the
God of the
Bible. He even believes there is a
logico-
mathematical explanation for the phenomenon of a "
messiah", which suggests
Jesus wasn't the only one; however, he describes his personal approach as "logical theology"
Langan's support of
conspiracy theories, including the
9/11 Truther movement and the
white genocide conspiracy theory, and his opposition to mixed-race relationships, have contributed to him amassing a following among members of the
alt-right. Langan not only claimed that 9/11 was carried out by George W. Bush, but that the motive was to prevent the world from learning about his theory, the CTMU.
[6] In 2018, Langan wrote an obituary on Facebook for
Koko the gorilla
, in which he argued that the Western world should be admitting gorillas as immigrants instead of Somalis, claiming that gorillas are more intelligent.
[7][6]Critics point out this model is kind of a semantic game. In an interview
[10], Langan was asked if nonconsciousness exists, and if that question is the same as the nonsensical question: "Does nonexistence exist?" Chris Langan answered, "Consciousness is a stratified predicate. Everything partakes of global consciousness, but on the local level, incoherence results from stratification. So the answer is yes and no. Regarding existence, it is defined on its complement, namely "nonexistence". So if one exists, both exist." What is missing is a distinction between conceptual and material existence. Just because something exists materially, does not mean it can also not exist in the material world. An example is the
Earth's
sun in the year 2005. We know it materially exists in the year 2005. Conceptually we can imagine it not existing in that year.
In an ID forum Langan and his partner Genie LoSasso threatened critics and engaged in relentless character assassination. Even non-critics who innocently say they don't understand his ideas are often accused by Langan of lying by pretending not to understand.
[12] He began his essay on the explanatory debts of scientific naturalism with the Hegelian dictum thesis + antithesis = synthesis, in which he attempts to show how natural selection and teleological selection are compatible explanations for evolution, not only on the biological but cosmic scale. However rather than "design" Langan uses terms like "self-determinacy" and "self-design", which are closer to the autopoietic nature of his ideas.
https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Christopher_Langan
