Christian Faith and Conspiracy Theories
by Joel Miles
A few years ago I was in my backyard with my upstairs neighbor, talking and watching our kids play. My neighbor was a highly educated man, who grew up Sikh, but no longer practiced any kind of religion. The subject turned to how I came to be a pastor, and for some reason, in my explanation, I mentioned my affinity for math in high school. This testimony stunned my neighbor. He looked at me and said, “So you like math?”
I said, “Yes.”
“So you appreciate logic?” He said quickly.
Again I said, “Yes.”
“Then how can you possibly be a man of faith?”
My neighbor was not being condescending. He was legitimately confused. He associated faith in the gospel with what is often referred to as “blind faith,” or believing something even when the evidence points in the opposite direction. As Mark Twain famously quipped, “Faith is believing what you know ain’t so.” My neighbor could not reconcile my appreciation for a discipline like math, and my deep belief that Jesus Christ died and rose again. He thought, as many modern people do, “Doesn’t all the evidence point in a different direction?”
No.
There are very good reasons for being a Christian. But the impression the wider culture often gets from Christians is that we are not reasonable in our beliefs. This impression is sometimes formed due to the content of the gospel itself. Many are just incredulous that someone actually rose from the dead! But right now, I fear that this impression is growing, not because of the gospel, but because of the prevalence of Christians believing and promoting conspiracy theories about the coronavirus.
Much has been written on this phenomena, including this helpful article by Ed Stetzer. My aim is not to rehash these insights, but rather to expand on an important point he makes: Stetzer claims this damages our witness as Christians. I completely agree. But I want to go further than he does in suggesting why that happens. Simply put, there is a contradiction between biblical faith and belief in most conspiracy theories. That is not to say that the theories themselves and the gospel contradict. Rather, the kinds of evidence we use for believing the gospel and conspiracy theories are at odds. One is built on credible witnesses, the other on fickle and highly uncertain conjecture. As a result, when someone proclaims both the gospel and a conspiracy theory, it suggests to our watching world that the reasons for believing the gospel are just as unfounded as these theories. But that is not true, and my hope here is to show the radical difference between faith in the gospel and belief in a conspiracy theory.
Just like my friend, even Christians believe the common misconception that our faith is “blind.” However, biblical faith is not based on wishful thinking or ignorance. Paul may say in 2 Corinthians 5:7 that “we walk by faith, not by sight,” but that does not mean that we have faith despite the evidence. Our faith comes from trust in eyewitness accounts. We believe that the disciples are telling the truth about what they saw. This, of course, does not mean that it is certain, but there is actually no truth outside of ourselves that is. Descarte may say he has certain knowledge because he declares: “I think therefore I am.” But that “truth” is still outside of ourselves and therefore open to doubt. We have to trust that Descarte is telling the truth, because we cannot verify his thoughts empirically. We take hold of the knowledge that Descarte is proposing by faith. We must trust his testimony.
This is how knowledge, especially of historical events, works. In order to know what happened, we must either trust or distrust testimony. The data cannot be tested. I know my birthday is April 8, by faith. There is no empirical verification possible. I have a birth certificate, and my parents have assured me that I was born on the eighth day of the fourth month, but I still have to trust those eyewitness accounts. I cannot verify it myself. Even concerning matters we can study empirically, the possibility of doubt remains. Albert Einstein once said, "As far as the propositions of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.”* Furthermore, most things we believe that are empirically verifiable, are not actually tested by us personally. For example, a number of years ago, a group of famous Basketball players started claiming to believe that the world is flat. It turned out to be a joke. But before they admitted this, many people, including me, had labeled this idea and these people crazy. But I have never done a single scientific test to verify the spherical nature of our planet. I may see pictures from space that look that way or know pilots who say they have seen the curvature of the earth while flying. But those images could be doctored, and those pilots could lie. This means that I actually “know” that the world is round based on the testimony of others! And I believe that testimony because it comes from credible sources.
The same is true for Christian faith. I trust the testimony of the most credible sources--the testimony of those who were there. I believe that they are telling the truth. And I believe that this makes the most sense of the surrounding evidence. Of course, it is possible to disbelieve the testimony of the disciples. But this requires an explanation that makes sense of the remarkable historical events that took place after the first Easter Sunday. Why did these disciples say they saw what they saw? How were they able to convince so many others of their testimony? And how were they able to hold on to this testimony even unto death? Well, you could argue that the disciples were lying. It could be that they were having spiritual visions of Jesus coming back from the grave, rather than actually physically seeing him and touching him as they explicitly claimed to have done. Or you could argue that Jesus did not truly die on the cross, rather the Roman soldiers thought he was dead, and so buried him in the garden tomb alive. The so-called “resurrection” was just Jesus getting better. Many have made these arguments and will continue to do so. However, these theories are not based on solid evidence. They are rather necessary theories to explain a preconceived notion that it is not possible that Jesus rose from the dead. Belief in these explanations, therefore, is akin to believing conspiracy theories about Jesus, rather than trusting those who were there. This is exactly why the tendency of Christians to believe modern day conspiracy theories hurts our witness so much.
When we believe and spread these theories, we are being inconsistent with biblical faith in Christ. Our faith in Christ is based on trusting eye witness accounts. We believe the most credible sources for what happened on Good Friday and Easter Sunday are those that were there. Belief in the various theories being spread by Christians right now concerning the coronavirus, the economy, and the election is founded upon the opposite kind of evidence. These theories are based on hunches, circumstantial evidence, amateur analysis, discredited scientists, and often implicit bias. Thus, when we promote these theories, we are doing much more than just that. When a Christian propagates these theories, it is far more harmful than just passing along information or ideas. It is serving to cement in our culture what they already want to believe about us: that we are willing to believe something even when the evidence points to the contrary. The message of Jesus Christ can thus be ignored, not because someone is rejecting the message itself, but because we have made it appear to be built on sand.
Why would someone believe us when we tell them that they can trust the biblical witness concerning Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, if we also tell them that they can trust a scientist who has been discredited, arrested for stealing lab books, and caught lying about the reason for that arrest in the documentary “Plandemic”? Why would someone believe our proclamation that Jesus really did rise from the dead, if we just as passionately make the baseless proclamation that COVID-19 is being blown out of proportion so that Trump can’t hold rallies? We are revealing ourselves as witnesses without grounds, and so making it appear that the gospel relies on reasoning that is just as faulty.
The disciples have the best credentials, by far, for telling us about the death and resurrection of Jesus. They were there. They saw him. And they are very clear about what they think happened. The accounts may vary, but they all agree that Jesus was killed on Good Friday, and rose on Easter morning. They all claim it was physical. And they all claim that this means that Jesus is Lord and Savior. To say, 2000 years later, that we are now able to discern that the disciples actually saw visions, despite the clear wording of the text, or to say that they were lying, because they were seeking power, is an option. But it is a belief built upon sand. This is actually the very definition of “blind faith”—belief when all of the evidence points to the contrary, just like the conspiracy theories many Christians hold today.
It is possible to believe these conspiracy theories, but when their reasoning and evidence is not built on a solid foundation, we should resist affirming them, let alone expanding their reach. Not only is it bearing false testimony, but it hurts our witness concerning the gospel of Jesus Christ. It appears to show that we are the kind of people who believe without grounds or even in spite of evidence. But biblical faith is not blind. It is faith in a historical event proclaimed and interpreted clearly by those who were there. We don’t hold on to that testimony for no reason. Let us not hurt that witness by holding onto theories for far less.
*Quoted in Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, Eerdmans: Grand Rapids, 1989, pg. 29.
Joel Miles is an Associate Pastor of Holy Trinity Church, where he has served for 6 years. He lives on the West Side of Chicago with his wife, Anna, and four children.