Why is it that Christians, who are so committed to truth, bite on Conspiracy theories so easily?

Bob Jones VI

Bob Jones VI

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I see it over and over. My friend, who is a respected member of the business community, and runs a large organization, takes them all up. The COVID conspiracy theories that wrield around. The "This person and that person are woke now" theories. I almost see it as him believing in the Illuminati.

Another friend, in my men's group,. Constantly promoting these wild political theories he reads on certain websites.

I could go on an on. And it is not just these two friends. I see it running rampant. What I perceive as well grounded Christians, the moment you mention anything remotely political, start foaming at the mouth.

Why are so many taken in by this garbage?
 
Bob Jones VI said:
I see it over and over. My friend, who is a respected member of the business community, and runs a large organization, takes them all up. The COVID conspiracy theories that wrield around. The "This person and that person are woke now" theories. I almost see it as him believing in the Illuminati.

Another friend, in my men's group,. Constantly promoting these wild political theories he reads on certain websites.

I could go on an on. And it is not just these two friends. I see it running rampant. What I perceive as well grounded Christians, the moment you mention anything remotely political, start foaming at the mouth.

Why are so many taken in by this garbage?
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Many of these "things" aren't garbage, but, then again, many are. I have a friend who believes the hurricane going up through Tennessee and North Carolina were part of a "cloud seeding" controlling of the weather...He also jumped on the huge fire a year or so ago in Hawaii. Yes, there were some coincidental contracts in North Carolina, but that was just a blatant bunch of idiocy on his part. I've had to totally block him, his wife, and his mother from my list of contacts as I was receiving on average of three articles a day. Christians fall into these things because they're so much in a hurry to get out of this world in a rapture than to live the life Christ told us to live and to be building the Kingdom.
 
Best explanation I've seen is that conspiracy theories mesh well with pop eschatology. Dispensationalism and the horde of prophecy "experts" it has spawned tell us that in the latter days, a one-world government will emerge, and that will give rise to a charismatic and evil world leader.

Conspiracy theory as a worldview claim that any number of shadowy figures and organizations--the Illuminati, the Bilderbergers, the Trilateral Commission, etc.--or even less shadowy ones like the UN or the Jews--are busy forming a global government, and our elites, such as the very wealthy, heads of state, and opinion leaders, are directly involved in this plan.

So prophecy, interpreted in a certain way, tells us what we should expect in the last days. Conspiracy theory tells us how it is being worked out, right now, before our eyes.
 
Bob Jones VI said:
I see it over and over. My friend, who is a respected member of the business community, and runs a large organization, takes them all up. The COVID conspiracy theories that wrield around. The "This person and that person are woke now" theories. I almost see it as him believing in the Illuminati.

Another friend, in my men's group,. Constantly promoting these wild political theories he reads on certain websites.

I could go on an on. And it is not just these two friends. I see it running rampant. What I perceive as well grounded Christians, the moment you mention anything remotely political, start foaming at the mouth.

Why are so many taken in by this garbage?
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Running a large organization, I would say your friend sees things everyday that you can't see, that could make no sense otherwise.

It's not just Christians. I don't think there's a living combat veteran who doesn't think something's afoot. And unless one has been walking through the first half of this decade with his eyes closed, that's kinda hard to deny.

I don't know about the so-called 'illuminati' or the 'Jewish' conspiracies, though there's no question the Jews believe they will inherit the earth and are by divine right entitled to it. Many Christians think that about the Jews too.

I think the main reason most conservative Christians believe in a global conspiracy is because they believe what they're told about god of this world, and his tireless campaign to recrucify Christ. The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, - Psalm 2:2

Basically, God has told us outright that there is a global conspiracy. Right now God is impeding it...somewhat. But one day, that impediment will be taken away.

And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth [will let], until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: - 2 Thessalonians 2:6-8​
 
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it could be because the arrest.. trial... and crucifixion of Christ was carried out due to a massive conspiracy perpetuated by the jewish religious leaders of the time... then carried out by roman officials - (co-conspirators)...who knew it wasn;t true - but acted on it anyway because they saw it as a means to help them keep the peace.. and thus maintain their power... ..... .... ..it all happened according to the will of God but that does not negate the fact that the people making the accusations and carrying all that out were conspirators .... ...

and that was at the beginning of christianity... .. looking back through history it can be argued that christians have been the targets of conspiracies ever since..... so you might say it;s in our dna to believe they are still out there.... ;)
 
Ransom said:
No, but the question posed was why conservative Christians buy into them.
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Why does anyone buy into a conspiracy? Because it supports their agenda. It's a lot more palatable than admitting that they could be wrong about their opponents.
 
  • TRUTH!
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Many of the so called Covid theories were true.
That doesn’t help deter the conspiracy theories from propagating…or being believed.
 
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Tarheel Baptist said:
Many of the so called Covid theories were true.
That doesn’t help deter the conspiracy theories from propagating…or being believed.
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That is a given. But it seems to me that many conservative Christians tend to buy into just about every one that comes along. Of course, it's not every Conservative Christian. It is just something that I want to shake them and say,"Do you know what you sound like right now? You base everything in your faith system on truth, strongly helpd biblical dcotrines and teachings, and yet you take these shaky conspiracy theories that are way out in left field and get all fired up about them. Thank you all for the thinking on this.
 
name some of them...... ...what are some of the specific conspiracy theories that christians have fallen for?..... .....(and when i ask for that i mean the outlandish things thrown out there for which there was never any proof... and which were later proven false... ..... i;m not talking about the things called "conspiracy theories" by a majority trying to cover a lie... but which were later proven true).......... .... can anyone name the specific theories we are talking about?......
 
ALAYMAN said:
Pizzagate, much of QAnon, etc

A generally accurate reflection of the problem
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i know some people who bought into the q-anon thing..... but none of them are christian.... in fact the one who still believes it to this day is an atheist agnostic in his 80s... ... ...he;s also very anti-semetic.... i know many more ..mostly sailors and commerical divers... who became furious because q-anon stole a cherished maritime saying and turned it into their own motto.... and even worse they only learned about it after the damage was done........ .. ....but the pizzagate thing never made it out this far... .. i only heard about that long after it was over..... in fact.... i think i first heard about that through the forum.... i didn;t know christians were the ones that started that or kept it alive..... it was already being discussed as a hoax by the time i saw it....

in my opinion many christians falling for such things like that are the ones whose christian service consists of being spectators and commentators rather than actually getting out there themselves and working on the streets... ..if they were out there with those of us working to rescue trafficked teens and abused women and children they might see just how silly "theories" like pizzagate are......
 
aleshanee said:
name some of them...... ...what are some of the specific conspiracy theories that christians have fallen for?.....
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The medieval and Salem witch hunts are perhaps the most obvious example. Along with its more contemporary counterpart, the "Satanic panic" of the 1980s, or the aforementioned Pizzagate and QAnon. I don't think the Satanic panic ever really left us. I remember hearing a former FBI guy on the radio in the mid-90s talking about ritual Satanic sacrifices being conducted in daycares.

G. A. Riplinger and New Age Bible Versions transformed KJV-onlyism into a full-blown conspiracy theory, if it wasn't one already.

A lot of "prophecy" study amongst pop-Dispensationalists transmogrifies into New World Order conspiracy theories.

And of course plenty of Christians buy into the popular theories, like flat earthism, JFK conspiracies, or moon-landing denial.

I think some Christians latch onto fringe pseudoscience like flat-earth theory or geocentrism in a good-faith attempt to stay true to what they believe the Bible says about the world. But it devolves into conspiracy theory once they start claiming there's a massive effort by the scientific establishment to cover up the truth, as if a bunch of geologists stand to gain from pretending the earth is a sphere orbiting the sun.
 
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aleshanee said:
it could be because the arrest.. trial... and crucifixion of Christ was carried out due to a massive conspiracy perpetuated by the jewish religious leaders of the time...
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To clarify, the crucifixion was definitely a conspiracy. And no one denies that such events exist. Evil people collude to do evil things all the time.

Conspiracy theory, on the other hand, is more like a comprehensive worldview in which the evil men colluding to do evil things are the main thing driving history. There are no accidents in history, and major events must have major causes: there's no way a lone gunman could get close enough to the president to shoot him, or that 19 guys could sneak onto airplanes and kill thousands without inside help from the establishment, for its own purposes.

It's what psychologists call a monological belief system, in which the believers interpret new information and events in a way that reinforces their existing beliefs, or dismiss information that contradicts those beliefs. Which is a reason why ardent conspiratorialists don't generally believe in just one conspiracy theory.
 
Anyone remember Y2K? The conspiracies were pressed hard on churches. Tim Lahaye (Dispensationalist) and Gary North (Covenant) BOTH lead many Christians into dispair with their conspiracies.
 
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