It seems like we should respect people by assuming they don’t actionably believe many alarming things they say they do. To respect them is to charitably assume that their common humanity is more fundamental than some of what they say they believe.
Consider heated arguments. Someone you love says something alarming and dramatic. But you dismiss it as “breath in the wind”, something that he didn’t think over, that hasn’t percolated through his life and worldview. You love and respect him by charitably assuming he is incoherent. He is not fully consistent with the implications of his words.
This follows a positive ethic of, “Love your neighbor as yourself”, and a ‘negative’ ethic of, “Do not judge lest you be judged.” You want people to give you the benefit of doubt. To be gracious.
This gives us breathing room to talk out loud, to say tentative things and have them bandied about and put under scrutiny. To engage what someone says seriously, but with patient courtesy. This is what keeps us from being reactionary or hyper-vigilant or hyper-sensitive to offense, or overly worried about what someone will actually do.
It doesn’t make words any less irresponsible (especially reckless accusation or slander), or worldview any less a driving force for life, but it is a reason to slow down and be at peace. It also makes friendships and conversations with people very different than you (even ideological and religious enemies) much more fruitful and satisfying.
“To speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.” (Titus 3:2)
Like reducing Nebuchadnezzar to a beastly state of eating grass on hands and feet, God humbles Christian intellectuals to a desperately low state of singing lullabies and whimpering, “I don’t know, I don’t know. I will trust you.”
Oh Lord my heart is not lifted up
My eyes are not raised to high for Thee
I do not think on things to great or marvelous
Or matters too difficult for me
But I have calmed and quieted my soul
Like a weaned child is my soul within me
I have calmed and quieted my soul
Like a weaned child with its mother is my soul within me
O Israel trust in the Lord
From this time forth and forevermore
O Israel trust in the Lord
From this time forth and forevermore
Psalm 131 / Waterdeep lyrics
Added:
“Year of grace 1654, Monday 23 November, feast of St. Clement . . . from about half past ten at night to about half an hour after midnight, FIRE. God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of philosophers and scholars. Certitude, heartfelt joy, peace. God of Jesus Christ. God of Jesus Christ. ‘My God and your God.’ . . . Joy, Joy, Joy, tears of joy. . . Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. May I never be separated from him.” (Pascal)
By “conspiracy theory” I mean: an explanation that typically requires orchestration between multiple malicious parties and many involved parties keeping it a secret.
They are unlikely because of the high probability of a whistleblower and the low probability that evil takes the form of competent orchestration. They are tempting because they are thrilling, fascinating, fear-inducing, or useful for maligning those we oppose.
Reasons you should avoid conspiracy theories:
Paul warns against “evil suspicions” (1 Timothy 6:4)
Proverbs associates foolish fear with laziness: “A sluggard says, ‘There’s a lion in the road, a fierce lion roaming the streets!’” (Proverbs 26:13)
Paul associates idleness with gossip and foolish speech: “Besides that, they learn to be idlers, going about from house to house, and not only idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying what they should not.” (1 Timothy 5:13) Contrast: “Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands.” (1 Thessalonians 4:11)
As Mr. Rogers says, “You can grow ideas in the garden of your mind.” Conspiracy theories represent a poor use of time of gardening our minds. “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” (Colossians 3:2)
God warns against joining in on a worldly conspiracy mindset: “For the Lord spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying: Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread.” (Isaiah 8:11-12)
Conspiracy theories don’t seem to be communicated in the spirit of edifying, wholesome talk: “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” (Ephesians 4:29)
Conspiracy theories distract us from real spiritual warfare: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12)
People who believe in some conspiracy theories tend to believe in other conspiracy theories. In other words, it’s a mindset that is given over to conspiracy theories.
The mindset of conspiracy theories is a tax on the poor: a distracting, enslaving attitude that makes one ironically more of a tool of unjust power structures. Consider the lottery as an analogy: It titillates our imagination over what is possible, not over what is actionably probable. People end up wasting time, money, emotions, and imagination on it.
Our flesh, our base urges, our hunger for outrage or intrigue is tickled by conspiracy theories. “Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.” (Romans 13:14)
Conspiracy theories violate our Christian duty to give people the general benefit of the doubt. Paul says to “speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.” (Titus 3:2)
Conspiracy theories violate the high standard of credibility, fact-checking, truth-telling, and knowledge required by commands to show courtesy and avoid gossiping, slandering, reviling, and spreading false reports. “You shall not spread a false report” (Exodus 23:1) “They are gossips, slanderers…” (Romans 1:29) “Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark.” (James 3:5) “Put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth.” (Colossians 3:8)
Conspiracy theories often abuse plausible deniability: “I’m not saying this thing is true, I’m just saying it might be true!” Being suggestive avoids accountability one should own when spreading false reports.
Conspiracy theories often avoid the plain speech that Jesus commands in Matthew 5:37. They leave us asking, “OK, so what are you really saying?”
Conspiracy theories tend to be associated with bad influences, exploitative false teachers, junk science, and MLMs that make false promises of health.
Good, vetted, reliable, discerning, experienced, faithful teachers of the word are not prone to conspiracy theories.
Conspiracy theories are most commonly spread through sources and venues (the diarrhea of talk radio and social media) not known having a good reputation for reliability and truth.
Conspiracy theories don’t have a good track record of being proven true.
Conspiracy theories often evoke gnostic arrogance, a sense of special, privileged knowledge that an inner group has.
Conspiracy theories often involve a fascination with the secret sins of others.
Spreading or needlessly entertaining conspiracy theories causes Christians to lose credibility — to lose saltiness with people who otherwise have their curious ear turned toward people of the church, which is supposed to be “the pillar and foundation of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15).
Conspiracy theories pervert our ability to see human depravity clearly. When we demonize people we oversimplify or underestimate the subtlety of what makes people evil. Let me repeat: Demonizing people makes you less knowledgeable about the true nature of their depravity.
Conspiracy theories tend to under-appreciate God’s common grace to humanity. Both of these are probably true: Your neighbor is condemned by God and needs forgiveness. Your neighbor loves his kids and takes pride in his work.
Conspiracy theories tend to misunderstand subcultures of professions (scientists, doctors, teachers, programmers, civil servants, police officers, etc.)
Conspiracy theories consider the resurrection of Jesus Christ less plausible, entertaining the possibility that the apostles colluded and collectively lied about seeing the risen Christ.
Don’t waste your life on conspiracy theories.
Recognize your carnal flesh: it loves to demonize your neighbor, it loves “evil suspicions”, it is tickled by what is “possible”, it loves to be intellectually lazy, it delights in suggestive slander, it loves to be entertained by gossip, and it avoids accountability. No!
Invest yourself in dignifying work. Lead with risk-management that prioritizes probabilities over mere possibilities. Get “distracted” by far more worthy endeavors and causes and trains of thought.
Your time on earth is short. Your window of influence is temporary. Flex the muscle of your imagination on something glorious.
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2)
Addendum:
Four more arguments against conspiracy theories: (1) pro-life, (2) conservative, (3) repentance, and (4) pace.
1. One pro-life virtue is valuing humans even when distant. They could be small, or foreign, or “other”, but they are still humans, royal kings and queens in the image of God. Conspiracy theories often depend on distance. It’s easier to assume the worst of people when they are so far away. You don’t have to see them every week or play hockey with them or work alongside them. You don’t get to know about their kids or their medical problems. It isn’t personal. Conspiracy theorists don’t bat an eye when they accuse a thousand American civil servants of orchestrating the intentional cold-blooded murder of thousands of innocent American civilians on 9/11.
2. One traditional conservative virtue is local responsibility. We want local institutions to be strong. We want to mind our business, and take care of our own, and clean our own house. The sins of others usually isn’t our business. But we feel entitled to know everything and to have an opinion on everything. We check the news constantly while our kids beg for a bedtime story. We listen to gossip without objection. We read the leaked private communication between a mother and her daughter. Conspiracy theories distort our sense of privacy and locale and personal responsibility.
3. Repentance calls for a sensitive conscience to past error, a conscientiousness over failure. But conspiracy theorists don’t feel the need to repent over spreading false theories.
If 5% of parachutes made in a factory failed we would shut it down. But when a conspiracy theorist has a 5% batting average he presses forward with a determination and resolve. It’s lottery-logic: being right once, or even the possibility of being right once, is enough reason to repeat.
4. A liar will always outpace a truth-teller. He has faster legs. We appreciate reporters who pause to correct long-forgotten mistakes, even minutiae. We feel frustrated with a judicial process that methodically inches forward, but then appreciate its final verdict. But we feel overwhelmed by the rate of false claims that come the mouth of a demagogue or conspiracy theorist. It takes 10 seconds to tell a lie, but ten minutes, hours, or days to refute the lie. Meanwhile this same person has told more lies. Truth-tellers have a tendency to slow down and inspect, reflect, and debrief past claims.
Conspiracy theories are like epistemic lottery tickets: exhilarating for their possibilities and potential power, but poor investments.
“Rules for Good Conspiracies” from J. Warner Wallace’s Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels (http://amzn.com/B00A71Y7I8):
In my experience as a detective, I have investigated many conspiracies and multiple-suspect crimes. While successful conspiracies are the popular subject of many movies and novels, I’ve come to learn that they are (in reality) very difficult to pull off. Successful conspiracies share a number of common characteristics:
A SMALL NUMBER OF CONSPIRATORS
The smaller the number of conspirators, the more likely the conspiracy will be a success. This is easy to understand; lies are difficult to maintain, and the fewer the number of people who have to continue the lie, the better.
THOROUGH AND IMMEDIATE COMMUNICATION
This is key. When conspirators are unable to determine if their partners in crime have already given up the truth, they are far more likely to say something in an effort to save themselves from punishment. Without adequate and immediate communication, coconspirators simply cannot separate lies from the truth; they are easily deceived by investigators who can pit one conspirator against another.
A SHORT TIME SPAN
Lies are hard enough to tell once; they are even more difficult to repeat consistently over a long period of time. For this reason , the shorter the conspiracy, the better. The ideal conspiracy would involve only two conspirators, and one of the conspirators would kill the other right after the crime. That’s a conspiracy that would be awfully hard to break!
SIGNIFICANT RELATIONAL CONNECTIONS
When all the coconspirators are connected relationally in deep and meaningful ways, it’s much harder to convince one of them to “give up” the other. When all the conspirators are family members, for example, this task is nearly impossible. The greater the relational bond between all the conspirators, the greater the possibility of success.
LITTLE OR NO PRESSURE
Few suspects confess to the truth until they recognize the jeopardy of failing to do so. Unless pressured to confess, conspirators will continue lying. Pressure does not have to be physical in nature. When suspects fear incarceration or condemnation from their peers, they often respond in an effort to save face or save their own skin. This is multiplied as the number of coconspirators increases. The greater the pressure on coconspirators, the more likely the conspiracy is to fail.
Added July 27, 2018. From Kris Lundgaard’s The Enemy Within: Straight Talk About the Power and Defeat of Sin:
“”The imagination is the mind’s eye. With the imagination we paint and contemplate pictures of how things might be. You can imagine yourself doing things that aren’t (yet) real: getting a call from Ed McMahon that your $10,000,000 check is in the mail, catching a pass in the corner of the end-zone at the gun to win the Super Bowl, putting one boyfriend on hold because another boy is calling on the other line. The flesh wants to fix your imagination on something that will lead you into the clutches of sin…
“When you ‘harbor wicked thoughts’ (Jeremiah 4:14), the imagination becomes a pyromaniac dumping buckets of gasoline on the fire of your affections. They burn hotter and hotter, till the will melts like butter.”
Sometimes we use the language of conspiracy to describe what is really a convergence of interests. George Carlin:
“You don’t need a formal conspiracy when interests converge. These people went to the same universities, they’re on the same boards of directors, they’re in the same country clubs. They have like interests, they don’t need to call a meeting. They know what’s good for them.”
“Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.” – Simone Weil
Paul is optimistic that believers will, in the long run, converge in unity, mature, and see things clearly together:
“All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you.” (Philippians 3:15)
God is at work, shedding light and opening our eyes!
Protestantism’s “faith alone” is Paul’s “apart from works” (Romans 3:28) and “him who does not work” (4:5) and “not because of works” (Titus 3:5) and “not having a righteousness of my own” (Philippians 3:9).
James’ “not by faith alone” (2:24) is Paul’s “faith work[s] through love” (Galatians 5:6) and his description of Abraham’s life: “he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God.” Abraham’s faith blossomed.
Paul agrees with James: “faith… accords with godliness.” (Titus 1:1)
And James agrees with Paul: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above… Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.” (James 1:17-18)
If you take the coherentism route, you’ll dip your toes in the acidic lake of postmodernism. Everything is relative, nothing is reliably foundational. Nothing can be known as truly true and really real. No one who preaches coherentism truly practices it.
If you take the foundationalism route you have to live with justifications like:
“I can’t not believe it.”
“I can’t explain it, but it helps explain other things.”
“Doubting it presupposes it.”
“I immediately perceive it.”
“What is knowledge?”
Knowledge is:
1) justified (warranted)
2) true (corresponding to reality)
3) belief
To avoid the Gettier problem, we perhaps need a fourth condition (if not already entailed by #1):
4) mental faculties and environment suitable for the acquisition of truth
“Does one have to claim knowledge to dispute a knowledge claim?”
Yes. It is hard to dispute the justification of any knowledge claim without operating with a model/structure of justification.
“Is warranted true belief always inferential?”
No. Inferential knowledge is dependent on non-inferential knowledge:
“If nothing is self-evident, nothing can be proved. Similarly if nothing is obligatory for its own sake, nothing is obligatory at all.” (C.S. Lewis)
“Can empirical science alone justify knowledge?”
No. I agree with the atheist Sam Harris:
“We must smuggle in an ‘unscientific prior’ to justify any branch of science.” (#)
“Do you take any ‘naked’ knowledge claims seriously?”
Yes. I would take seriously any person who says, “I know it’s evil to molest children and good to seek their well-being, but I can’t explain why. I can’t not believe it, I just know it, and it seems immediately clear to me. No argument is needed, however helpful supporting arguments may be.”
“Can you prove the non-existence of something?”
With a modest definition of proof — showing that something is more probable than not — you could make a good case that you in fact have X children, not X + 1.
You can also demonstrate that a concept is incoherent or self-defeating, and therefore implausible. There are no married bachelors in space.
What counts as “arbitrary” is measured against what is considered obvious or self-evident. This standard is often a smuggled epistemic good. Not everyone puts their epistemic cards on the table.
One helpful standard for what should count as non-arbitrary, I submit, would be explanatory power. This related list from William Lane Craig is helpful. But even that assumes truth will be coherent and cohesive and explanatory. You can’t avoid presuppositions.
“Do you consider belief in God to be ‘properly basic’?”
Yes. It belongs to a larger set of non-inferential knowledge, similar to other things based on immediate perception or intuition. Compare: morality, beauty, rules of logic, the uniformity of nature, existence of other minds, existence of the external world, the reality of the past, and the capacity of language to communicate real meaning.
Terrorism, e-mail scandals, and police shootings are cosmic theater.
When a terrorist kills a single citizen, it captivates an entire nation.
When a police officer kills a single innocent black man, it arrests us all.
This is out of proportion to crimes committed in private or local circumstances. People steal, lie, and murder in our own cities. Why are the public sins so captivating, even more than supernova or passing comets? Why do we feel so right to be *especially* outraged?
Maybe we’re really upset because if none of that matters, if public evil can’t be identified and condemned, then maybe goodness and justice and beauty aren’t real and don’t matter at all. It’s all meaningless star dust.
Maybe cosmic theater matters because God designed us to pay attention to epic stories of cosmic significance, and justice and righteousness matter more than exploding stars.
What’s on the inside eventually leaks out. Your heart eventually overflows like water, even if you try to contain it:
“You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil.” (Matthew 12:34-35)
Where there’s smoke there’s fire:
“Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.” (Matthew 15:19)
The evil of our persecutors will eventually be revealed:
“Nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.” (Matthew 10:26)
This one is terrifying: False converts who seem to have escaped spiritual bondage will fall back under worse bondage:
“When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first.” (Matthew 12:43–45)
There is a seed that is “proven unfruitful”:
“As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.” (Matthew 13:22)
Not even slick false prophets can hide their true nature. They become diseased trees:
“You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.” (Matthew 7:16-20)
The Pharisees were like, “We aren’t like that.” And God sends men to be killed to show that, yeah, “You’re like that.”
“You build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.” (Matthew 23:29-35)
The apostle Paul on this same topic (summarizing this whole topic well):
“The sins of some people are conspicuous, going before them to judgment, but the sins of others appear later. So also good works are conspicuous, and even those that are not cannot remain hidden.” (1 Timothy 5:24-25)
Your secret gorging on darkness makes your whole soul dark:
“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” (Matthew 6:22-23)
Jesus teaches that cleaning the inside results in an eventually clean outside:
“First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.” (Matthew 23:26)
It’s no wonder that Jesus teaches us to give in secret (Matthew 6:2-4), pray in secret (6:5-6), and fast in secret (6:16-18). He teaches against anxiety of the heart (6:25-34).And his beatitudes are inward-oriented, a matter of hungering and thirsting (5:2-11). Jesus would have us cultivate an interior, secret life of righteousness, and let that leak out on its own.
Public figures who speak recklessly warrant strong denunciation and a call to repentance, not soft or euphemistic critique.
By voting for for an immoral fool we lose the right to say, “Character counts.”
Advocating for a fool stains a person’s conscience and credibility.
A Trump presidency (not to mention candidacy) does great long-term multi-generational harm to conservatism and Christianity.
A reckless fool for a president is evidence of God’s judgment.
Never vote for someone who would be a bad role model for your children.
We are not morally responsible for the outcome of an election between two fundamentally disqualified candidates, neither of which we voted for.
Voting signals a significant degree of individual approval.
We should be optimistic about God’s miraculous intervention and judgment and redemption.
“It is true that all leaders, being sinners, will act foolishly on occasion. What we are looking for is consistent, characteristic fruit, not anomalies. If you find characteristic fruit of foolishness, do not be deceived by words or fear or any form of pressure. Do not elect a fool to a ruling position.” (Jon Bloom)
“If we back the man who is proud, sexist, racist, libertine, a lover a money, then we will lose the right to say ‘character counts’ forever.” (John Mark Reynolds)
“The Trump-supporting religious conservatives are right that he’s God’s instrument, but they don’t get that he’s the Babylonians.” (Ross Douthat)
“God is the God of the impossible. He shows Himself in situations when all human possibilities have been exhausted. So when it appears that we find ourselves at the edge of the Red Sea, so to speak, with Pharaoh’s army on one side and an impenetrable barrier of water on the other – in such impossible circumstances – God is showing us that we cannot trust in ourselves to resolve the problem and instead would have us seek His face by humbling ourselves in prayer, not just asking for wisdom, but for His intervention. Perhaps He will be merciful and do something that none of us suspected.” (John Hyndryx)
The typical Christian church in the Salt Lake Valley teaches the inevitability of a morally changed life for those who believe in Jesus. The forgiven are transformed.
Christians believe in the resurrection of the body. The standard, historic, orthodox Christian teaching is that the body is important and will be resurrected.
The New Testament has been reliably preserved and is faithfully translated from the original Greek. You can pick up any major modern English translation and trust what you’re reading. If there are any significant “textual variants”, they are typically noted in footnotes.
Most Christians in the Salt Lake Valley simply identify as Christians. Our denomination isn’t our religion, and we consider Christians in other denominations a part of the same broad Christian family. Many Christians aren’t even aware of the denominational affiliation of their church (hah!). Our global unity isn’t in an organization. It is a shared trust in a person: Jesus.
Feelings and spiritual experiences are important to us. We get emotional and filled with the Spirit over songs, prayers, scriptures, and special experiences. Our feelings are fallible, but they are still important.
While Paul himself sometimes paid his own way, he otherwise insisted that Christians pay their local pastor-teacher (1 Timothy 5:17-18, 1 Corinthians 9:9, Galatians 6:6). Most pastors are underpaid and live on a tight budget. They are busy studying the Bible, counseling people, and dealing with needs in the congregation.
The Council of Nicea did not debate over whether the Godhead is three separate deities. It was about the divinity of Jesus. The Trinitarians held that Jesus was fully divine. The Arians instead held that Jesus was a created, inferior being.
The Trinity does not teach the Father, Son, and Spirit are one person. It affirms that they are three persons. For a Trinitarian it is therefore no surprise that Jesus prayed to the Father.
We really do love you. There is a grassroots movement of Christians to make an impact on Utah. Christians are literally moving to Utah just to be a positive influence on the state. We are theologically motivated — with a belief-shaped purpose. There is no sinister financial motive. It is not malicious. You are not under special persecution. We really do love you.
I Am Aaron Shafovaloff 