FAITH IN THINGS THAT THERE IS NO PROOF OF
I have been puzzling for a week about the difference between a conspiracy threory, a cult and an established religion such as Christianity and end up being unable to figure out even what my issue is.
The thing that has struck me is that while conspiracy theories seem to make stuff up in order to demonize the people the conspiracist feels threatened by, such as accusing the liberal elites of being bloodthirsty pedophiles, an accusation that any calm rational person would know is nonsense, just a wild projection, standard religions have no more proof of the existence of god or gods than do conspiracy theorists of their wild claims. In each case people have a deep emotional faith in something that can’t be shown to exist. And in a cult people seem to give up their own judgment in order to have faith in the charismatic cult leader, often a con man, who promises them fullness of life. In each case the dominant faith is in a deep emotion, either or fear and loathing or acceptance that brings joy.
My missionary upbringing finds this attitude toward standard religion to be offensive, even sacreligious. But it seems to me that all three of these intense emotional responses is to something dreamed up or projected, something with no objective proof of existence. There seems to be something in human nature, in our DNA, that leads us to believe in things that are very significant to us which don’t actually exist. I am simply puzzled.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 