Why do so many Christians believe in conspiracy theories?

It seems absurd at first. Christians? Do you fall for conspiracy theories? But in today’s world, where misinformation spreads faster than wildfire, believers – like everyone else – can find themselves spiraling into the Internet, where faith is turned into something dark and twisted.

From flat-earth theories to secret elite cabals to political interference, the appeal of conspiracy theories is no longer just the preserve of the tinfoil hat crowd. And somehow, the group you’d expect to be most distinctive—those rooted in spiritual truth—seems to be buying in faster than anyone else.

So, how did we get here? How did conspiracy culture worm its way into the pews?

FLAT LINING

In 2019, research website YouGov published the findings of a study compiled by data journalist Hoang Nguyen. Researchers asked participants, “Do you believe the world is round?” Most respondents (84 percent) said they have always believed in basic scientific fact, but surprisingly five percent said, “I used to think the world is round, but lately I’ve been skeptical/have doubts.”

That may seem like a high number, but skepticism about the shape of the Earth is increasing dramatically among millennials, with seven percent of 25-to-34-year-olds expressing doubts, and 10 percent of 25-to-34-year-olds saying they not. especially if it is flat or round.

The study also had another interesting outlier: the more religious a person is, the more likely he or she is to believe the Earth is flat.

According to the survey, 52 percent of flat-Earthers say they are “very religious” and 23 percent somewhat religious – a much higher number than non-religious flat-Earthers.

The flat-earth movement has grown so much in Christian circles that Answers in Genesis—a multimillion-dollar nonprofit organization that espouses “young-earth creationism”—has dedicated a large page on their website to combating flat-earthers .

We’re looking for answers, and a conspiracy theory finds a very good answer to what happened.

–Dan Jolley

The author of the piece, Dr. Danny Faulkner (who has multiple degrees in astronomy and physics), offers this anecdote about a surprising discussion with colleagues about meeting an apparently well-educated young Christian who believed the Earth is flat: “Within days of my conversation I had two more, but independent, conversations with people who had similar concerns about two other Christian youth… With three conversations in less than a week, I wondered, ‘Is there something going on out there?’”

To answer his question: Yes, something is going on.

Conspiracy theories are now a major part of the culture, and many share a common premise: a powerful group of elite individuals is withholding or distorting the truth. Many flat-earthers believe that NASA was created to deceive humanity about the true nature of reality so that only the elites can know how the world really works. Everyone else believes a lie. Flat-Earthers are out to expose the truth.

Sure, believing the Earth is flat seems pretty ridiculous, but why are Christians so prone to believing it and other “theories” that are way outside the mainstream? And what happens when conspiracy theories move from the realm of the ridiculous to something much darker and sinister?

I WANT TO BELIEVE

“We have a lot of biases in our minds to help us understand the complex world that is our world, and one of those biases is confirmation bias, where you only find information that supports your point of view,” explains Dr. Daniel Jolley out. a scholar who studies the psychology of conspiracy theories.

Experts believe that our tendency to fall into the trap of confirmation bias can lead some people down a rabbit hole of conspiracies. The problem is especially prominent in the Internet age, where people can find information that affirms the value they have, and ignore any information that does not.

For example, if someone believes that the mainstream media only produces ‘fake news’, they can simply ignore this and seek information from alternative sources.

“With one quick search you can find people who look like you, and there you are, stuck in that room,” he explains. “Because conspiracy theories are so powerful and so influential, they can change our beliefs without us realizing it. We can be in this room and realize that this conspiracy theory that we read on this blog or on Twitter has taken over our beliefs, and then we continue to support it. That shows the danger of conspiracy theories, and how potentially quite dangerous they are.”

The danger he is talking about is very real. Many modern conspiracy theories—from the flat-Earth movement to people who think terrorist attacks and mass shootings are actually “false flag” operations coordinated by the government to influence political opinions—operate just a few steps away from a singular , bigger idea: that a secretive global elite, whom some believe to be the “Illuminati,” is pulling the strings while simultaneously pulling a veil over everyone else’s eyes.

“If your central belief is that people are conspiring and you don’t trust the information they give you, you may subscribe to multiple conspiracy theories,” Jolley explains.

Many of these conspiracies date back to ideas from an ancient book known as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The book, which also contains strange-looking symbols, is said to be the minutes of a secret meeting of Jewish leaders and Freemasons, ‘The Elders of Zion’, who outlined their plan to conspire to slowly take over the world’s media and governments. to take. and banks in an attempt to destroy Christianity. However, the book is a hoax and was written with the sole intention of turning people against the Jews. It was used by Nazis and German teachers who taught it to students during the Holocaust.

Despite being exposed as fraud decades ago, some of the ideas in The Protocols have resurfaced in modern conspiracy theory circles. Alex Jones, perhaps pop culture’s most notorious conspiracy theorist, draws an audience of hundreds of millions to his site InfoWars, and has even met and interviewed powerful political figures – including President Donald Trump. (In 2015, Trump told him, “Your reputation is great” in a television interview.)

Jones professes to be a Christian and often talks about attacks on what he sees as “Christian” values. However, Jones has many extreme and dangerous ideas.

For example, he believes that billionaire George Soros is the head of a “Jewish mafia” that actually worked alongside Hitler. Recently, Jones was banned from major social media platforms after suggesting that the victims of mass shootings were actors.

Since then, many parents of children killed in shootings have been harassed by conspiracy theorists and fans of Alex Jones.

After the “Unite the Right” white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Jones speculated on the radio that many of the people there were “left-wing Jews” who were inciting violence to make the white supremacists look bad. He said, “I mean, honestly, I’ve been to these events, a lot of the KKK guys with their hats off look like they’re from the cast of Seinfeld. Literally they are just Jewish actors.”

But even if an Internet user doesn’t know the more insidious origins of the conspiracy theory they’ve come to investigate, the consequences of believing in it can be devastating.

The worst case

On December 4, 2016, a then 28-year-old man named Edgar Welch drove several hours from his home in North Carolina to a pizza restaurant in Washington, D.C. and stormed inside, armed with a loaded AR-15 and several other firearms. Welch believed the restaurant was actually a front for a child sex trafficking ring run by powerful political figures. He had come to save the children and blow wide open a conspiracy theory.

In addition to consuming InfoWars videos, Welch regularly posted about politics, the Bible, and his Christian faith on social media. It was there that he first heard about “Pizzagate,” a conspiracy later promoted by Jones that, combined with his faith and passion for saving children, inspired Welch to storm the restaurant.

As he soon discovered, there were indeed children at the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria, eating with their families and other customers. There was no human trafficking ring.

Welch has since been sentenced to four years in prison for endangering the lives of those in the restaurant that day. He later apologized, writing that he “came to DC with the intention of helping people who I believed were in dire need of help, and to end a corruption that I truly felt was harming innocent lives.”

They were beliefs that arose while learning about conspiracy theories on the internet.

Welch’s case is extreme. Most people who encounter—or even fully believe—conspiracy theories don’t take up arms and storm family restaurants. But such actions are becoming increasingly common.

Last fall, Soros, who supports the Democratic Party and is the subject of many anti-Semitic conspiracies, was among high-profile figures who had pipe bombs sent to their homes.

But it’s the more subtle behaviors of conspiracy theorists that worry people like Jolley. He points to people who reject science (more than just flat-Earthers) and whose behavior endangers the well-being of others.

“We usually find that if someone believes … that the climate scientists are influencing their data for funding, they are less likely to reduce their carbon footprint,” he says.

Notably, a 2015 Pew Research Center poll on the subject found that the group with the highest percentage of people who did not believe the Earth was warming because of human activity were white evangelical Christians. Only 28 percent believed it.

Along with climate change deniers, Jolley also points to people who reject scientific data on vaccinations and refuse to vaccinate their children, putting them at risk of deadly diseases.

But Jolley says that to really understand why people believe these ideas in the first place, you need to understand human psychology. What his team has discovered is that at the heart of these behaviors and tendencies is something very simple: the need to feel like you’re in control.

“When you imagine a major event happening – a plane goes missing or someone dies – people want to explain why it happened because it makes them feel uncomfortable and anxious, which are not good feelings,” he explains. “So we’re looking for answers, and a conspiracy theory finds a very good answer to what happened. That theory can ensure that you have more control, are less anxious and less insecure. You know what happened.”

Jolley is right; it’s only natural to look for answers in a confusing world. But Christians should resist the temptation to look to a conspiracy theory to make them feel safer or in control. After all, the Bible says, “Trust in the Lord…and lean not on your own understanding.”

Conspiracies provide easy answers, and that may be part of the problem.