What Christians Should Think About Conspiracy Theories

I didn’t want to write this post. Simply saying the words “conspiracy theory” is polarizing, and is enough to make some people stop up their ears. But that’s exactly why it’s necessary to address this. Please bear with me as I try to hit on a fairly large number of points in a single post.

What is a Conspiracy Theory?

Simply attempting to answer this seemingly basic question highlights the heart of the issue. What is a conspiracy theory?

To some people, it is what the words literally indicate: a theory that there is a conspiracy of some sort. To some, it’s a derogatory term for any unproven or “weird” take on an event or series of events. To many, it’s a combination accusation and easy way to shut down dialogue. How you define it probably depends on where you fall along the scale of believing ideas commonly referred to as “conspiracy theories.”

So what’s the problem?

Attitudes. The vitriole and mockery being slung back and forth right now is revealing things about Christians’ attitudes toward conspiracy theories — which really is attitudes toward ideas — and attitudes toward people.

So let’s talk about conspiracy theories and conspiracy theorists. Note that we’re talking about these things as overall concepts or principles, not about any particular theories (except by way of illustration).

Basic Principles

Two basic truths form the foundation of this discussion:

Conspiracies really happen.
Not all conspiracy theories are true.

So when a claim of a conspiracy (or something similar) is made, sometimes it’s true, and sometimes it’s false. We have to decide which ones to believe…or if it matters.

Why Does Evaluating Conspiracy Theories Matter…and When Does it Not?

TRUTH

There are a number of reasons it matters that we evaluate conspiracy theories. The most fundamental one is the pursuit of truth.

Christians, especially, should value truth. We should value it over comfort, over popularity, over pride, over the “need to be right.”

The pursuit of truth requires the willingness to hear both sides of a matter. “The first one to plead his cause seems right, until his neighbor comes and examines him.” (Proverbs 18:17) Discarding a claim out-of-hand, without giving it an honest hearing, is arrogant and foolish, and betrays a desire to seek confirmation bias over truth. “He who answers a matter before he hears it, it is folly and shame to him.” (Proverbs 18:13)

These are principles of biblical wisdom.

JUSTICE

We also have a moral obligation to do justly (Micah 6:8), to protect the weak and vulnerable, and to oppose the wicked.

Many — probably most — conspiracy theories, if true, involve the harm and/or oppression of innocent people, often by wicked men (occasionally out of ignorance): minorities being abused and experimented on, children being harmed in medical experiments, people being molested and/or raped, parents having their children removed without recourse, etc.

To ignore these claims without examination is to demonstrate a willingness to allow the ongoing harm of innocent people while we turn a blind eye. If the claims are true and we dismiss them by default, we may be choosing the side of the oppressor.

“How long will you defend the unjust
and show partiality to the wicked?
Defend the weak and the fatherless;
uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed.
Rescue the weak and the needy;
deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” (Psalm 82:2-4)

EXPOSING WICKEDNESS

It is not enough to simply not do what is evil; Scripture says we are also to expose what is evil. “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.” (Ephesians 5:11)

The quote from Desmond Tutu, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor,” accurately portrays the relationship between the previous section (protecting the vulnerable) and this one (exposing evil). The verse from Ephesians offers two alternatives: don’t do this; do that. There is no middle ground. As Jesus said, “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters.” (Luke 11:23)

IRRELEVANCE

While most conspiracy theories unavoidably house ethical dilemmas, the occasional theory has little moral relevance.

Take, for instance, the idea that the moon landing was faked. Apart from the potential for demonstrating a lack of trustworthiness on the part of NASA, what is the possible impact of believing the moon landing happened if it did not (or vice versa)? Does it really matter?

This type of theory requires far less consideration than most, since no one stands to be harmed by ignoring it, making it more of a curiosity than a practical concern.

How Do We Evaluate Ideas?

START WITH A BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW

This is a wide-reaching concept. It involves having a biblical view of whatever specific topics surround the ideas you’re trying to evaluate.

There are broader worldview matters, too, though, that affect everything. We have to recognize, for instance, that fallen man’s default state is evil. People are not “basically good.” “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9) The wisdom of the world is foolishness. (1 Corinthians 1:20; 3:19) We know that there are spiritual forces at work behind the scenes (Ephesians 6:10-18), and that these may influence people’s choices and actions (John 8:44).

All the other matters we already covered are also relevant — the responsibility to pursue truth, the fact that one side of a story often sounds right until you hear the other side, and so on.

EVALUATE THE WORLDVIEW OF THE KEY PLAYERS

Don’t fall into a genetic fallacy here — discarding an idea (or, for that matter, embracing an idea) purely because of its source, rather than based on its own merit. But one important part of evaluating ideas is recognizing the worldview of the people they’re coming from, because the way they present things cannot help but be filtered through that worldview.

Do they acknowledge God as God? Do they believe that God created the world? That He created man in His own image and charged him with filling the earth and taking dominion over it? That all that God made was “very good”? (Genesis 1) That all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory? (Romans 3:23) That God is the source of authority? (Romans 13:1-4)

Do they believe the truths in the previous section, like that the wisdom of the world is not true wisdom? Do they have a biblical view of the specific issues about which they speak?

Are the proponents of a particular view all of a shared worldview, or do they cover a spectrum? What about the original sources of the ideas?

LOOK FOR TRUSTWORTHINESS

Look beyond the reputation someone does have for the reputation he should have — the one he’s earned. (These might be the same but they might not.)

Does the person have the background, experience, or knowledge to speak intelligently on the matter at hand? (Be careful of confusing money or titles for knowledge and competence.)

Does he have a history of honesty, transparency, and integrity?

Or does he have a history of lying, obfuscation, fraud, and/or incompetence?

WATCH FOR LOGICAL FALLACIES

The ability to think critically is decreasingly common — which makes logical fallacies unfortunately common. What kind of arguments are being used to support an idea? Do they rely on logical fallacies like appeals to authority, appeals to popularity/common belief, treating correlation as proof of causation, genetic fallacies, composition fallacies, end-justifies-the-means fallacies, etc.?

No one is perfect and anyone can unwittingly engage in a fallacious argument. Just because someone is well-meaning and honest doesn’t mean you should accept his bad argument! (Point out the fallacy and ask for a better argument.)

But if an entire movement or idea is relying heavily on fallacies to prop itself up, that’s a red flag that it might not have sufficiently valid arguments in its favor. It’s wise to be skeptical and dig deeper.

The Fallacy Detective: Thirty-Eight Lessons on How to Recognize Bad Reasoning Naming the Elephant: Worldview as a Concept Thinking Like a Christian: Understanding and Living a Biblical Worldview

SEEK OUT FACTS

It isn’t always easy to find the raw facts. Even technically correct data can sometimes be grossly misleading in the absence of appropriate context.

But as much as possible, it’s essential to look beyond the “spin” and pull out the hard facts so they can be evaluated in light of all the other factors.

This is where transparency can be a major factor. With all else being equal, if there are strong accountability measures in place, you can probably trust the resultant facts more than you can if there’s a “closed system” or a “fox guarding the hen house”-type situation.

Watch for other opportunities for facts to be perverted, too. How likely is it that a photo was edited (or an unrelated photo was used in a misleading way), that the definition used for a statistic broadens or narrows it misleadingly, that a quote is altered by lack of context, etc.?

As an example, I spoke to someone the other day who said a certain doctor “said he was signing death certificates” — a point she found disturbing, since this didn’t seem to fit with his position. But the quote was actually a quote of a quote. This doctor said, “They say, ‘You know, it’s interesting. When I’m writing up my death report…'” (emphasis added) Those two additional words of context completely changed the facts she (thought she) walked away with.

So in other words, seek out facts, but keep your eyes wide open for ways that facts can be skewed, for better or for worse. Try your best to strip away all the confounding noise.

Pro-Conspiracy and No-Conspiracy Within the Church: Ethical Issues

This brings us back around to where we started — with the mudslinging and polarization. Having talked about why conspiracies matter and how to evaluate ideas, let’s address a few final points related to how we interact with other believers who disagree with our spot on the “scale.” In particular, there seems to be a lot of mockery lobbed by the “no-conspiracy” crowd at the “pro-conspiracy” crowd. Is it warranted?

FAULTY ASSUMPTIONS

This mockery often seems to begin with a set of faulty assumptions. An article I read the other day said that Christians who believe conspiracy theories do so for one of four reasons: 1. They believe they’re morally and intellectually superior to everyone else, 2. They demand certainty, 3. They’re lazy, and/or 4. They’re bored.

While I’m sure some of these are true for some people, they don’t describe most of the Christians I know who embrace ideas typically considered “conspiracy theories.” And, ironically, they do apply to some who automatically reject all such theories.

Another source said that conspiracy theorizing is “a form of gnosticism” and implied that Christians who believe conspiracy theories lack trust in God’s sovereignty.

It seems that none of these writers have bothered to ask “Christian conspiracy theorists” about their motivations. They are not acting according to the biblical description of wisdom; they’re acting like fools. Answering a matter before they hear it. Quick to speak, slow to listen. (James 1:19)

Hopefully it was well-established in the first part of this article that there are good and godly reasons people might believe in alternatives to the accepted narrative. Christians can be motivated by a love for Truth, a love for justice, a love for people…in short, by a general desire to honor God by following the instructions He’s given us in His Word to the best of our abilities.

Nobody’s perfect, but there’s a pretty wide gap between doing something out of laziness and doing it out of an earnest desire to live a righteous life!

And “it’s gnostic” sounds like a cop-out for “I don’t want to do the work of thinking about something I can’t know with certainty.”

People can absolutely believe in conspiracy theories for all the wrong reasons. But just because something can be done for the wrong reasons doesn’t necessarily mean everyone who does that thing does it for the wrong reasons.

BEARING FALSE WITNESS

One of the most common complaints I hear from “No-Conspiracists” is that conspiracy theories are “bearing false witness.”

Well…maybe. There are right ways and wrong ways to go about things.

If your mail carrier broke into your house to put your letters on your dining room table, that would be a pretty big problem, right? But it wouldn’t prove that delivering mail is bad. It would only exemplify a very wrong way to do it!

If you’re going around definitively claiming, without proof, that “Celebrity X molested children,” that’s bearing false witness. That’s a really bad way to handle “conspiracy theories.” But gathering facts, and then formulating theories — as theories — to try to explain how those facts fit together, is not bearing false witness.

Theories are not “false witness,” because they are not “witness” at all. They are, by nature, tentative, not certain.

However, falsely accusing brothers and sisters of acting out of fear, laziness, etc. or of bearing false witness when they are not, is bearing false witness.

The tentative nature of theorizing also means it’s not gnosticism. It’s critical thinking. Understanding how facts fit together is a natural part of thoughtfully evaluating ideas.

DISCERNMENT

The thoughtful evaluation of ideas brings us to what is probably the deepest roots of this debate between “Pro-Conspiracists” and “No-Conspiracists”: discernment.

There are definitely some Pro-Conspiracists who lack discernment. There are those who jump onto every new theory without the slightest bit of discrimination. They are the caricature that forms the straw man the No-Conspiracists shoot down as supposedly-representative of everyone outside the mainstream. Don’t be this person. If you are prone to naivete and gullibility, find someone you know to be spiritually mature and discerning and seek their counsel.

What many don’t realize is that there are No-Conspiracists who are just as lacking in discernment. Because their bias is a common one, it’s easy to overlook as a bias. But these people buy into every official narrative just as fully as others buy into every new conspiracy theory, and with equal lack of discrimination. Don’t be this person, either.

Remember the reality: conspiracies actually happen, and not all conspiracy theories are true.

“And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.” (1 Corinthians 2:4-6)

“He who walks with wise men will be wise, But the companion of fools will be destroyed.” (Proverbs 13:20)

“…in the multitude of counselors there is safety.” (Proverbs 11:14b; 24:6)

“But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” (Hebrews 5:14)

“Jesus said to him, ‘I am…the Truth…'” (John 14:6a)

Whatever specific conclusions we come to, may we all pursue truth, justice, and righteousness in godly wisdom. Let this be our prayer: