because they think it is funny or something. I could see myself doing that. In fact, I spend a big chunk of my time at work making people think I'm an idiot.

I'm a chemist and whenever various big-wigs walk through our lab I point out the flux capacitor (our mas spectrometer) and the anti-matter chamber where we make our dilithium crystals (our scanning electron microscope). I point out how we ramp up the energy through our flux capacitor to 1.21 gigawatts and then make a up a bunch gibberish about antimatter, capacitor drives, etc. It's amazing that most people don't know that I'm just making up shit that I heard from various science fiction things I saw as a kid.

I also make up my own names for the elements. I'd assume that everyone knows Fe is iron, but I go on and call it feronium I call Ag aginium, Au is aunium, Si is silver, S is silicon, etc.

It's amazing how many people will believe anything/everything you say if you act like you know what you are talking about.

Anyways, if someone were to ask me if I thought the bubonic plague in the middle ages was actually an attempt by aliens to wipe out the human race on earth I'd probably say "sure, why not". Or if someone asked me if I though the earth was 6,000 years old I'd probably also say "sure" too.