Sight columnist TIM COSTELLO reflects on the nature of truth – and conspiracy theories…
On the last Sunday of 2020 I was asked to preach at a church in regional Victoria. I took the opportunity to reflect on the year that was coming to an end – the global pandemic that had engulfed us, questioning about God’s sovereignty, the impact of lockdown on the church and what these times mean for us as Christians.
It seemed to be a well-received message, if not a bit heavy for the festive season. As we left the service, my son stood and talked to a local farmer. This bloke proceeded to tell my son that he did not believe in COVID-19 as he had seen no evidence. He thought it was all a hoax.
I drove away somewhat dumbfounded. How much more evidence does one need than the daily growth of death tolls across the globe, the 909 fellow Australians whose lives have been lost and the ongoing rates of infection?
In this 14th May, 2020, file photo, a person wears a vest supporting QAnon at a protest rally in Olympia, Washington, against Governor Jay Inslee and Washington state stay-at-home orders made in efforts to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. PICTURE: AP Photo/Ted S Warren/File photo.
But no; evidence for this farmer, and so many others has not been ‘seen’. Or perhaps the truth is rather that alternate realities have been seen and heard. Conspiracy theories have worked their way into millions of homes via the internet. They have worked their way into undermining the reliance upon science, news reporting, and even the heartfelt stories coming from health-workers and the thousands of bereaved families across the globe. I have seen cars in Melbourne with the letters from the QAnon slogan plastered on the back windscreens – ‘WWG1WGA’ (“Where we go one we go all”). QAnon has caught up many right wing Christians and propagates a deep state conspiracy of Satan-worshipping paedophiles that include Democrats, Hillary Clinton and George Soros.
But conspiracy theories begin with an approach to truth. Truth has become totally subjective and now functions as an identity marker rather than being objective. It is a sweeping change which means I accept views as the truth when the group I belong to believes them. It is subjective and driven by insecurity; the need to belong. This gives me a circle of comrades who live in a bubble, view the world through our ‘truth lens’ and often reinforce our resentments and grievances about a threatening world.
“Conspiracy theories begin with an approach to truth. Truth has become totally subjective and now functions as an identity marker rather than being objective. It is a sweeping change…”
When challenged with ‘facts’ we emotionally claim we are being mocked, looked down on and then talk about “those elites and their alternative facts”. The advantage of this approach to truth is that we can retreat into a community that affirms us and protects our group identity. In this group, setting truth has become simply what the leader of my group says it is. If I am a Trumpist then neither the courts nor even Republican election officials can convince me that this was a fair election and that his presidency was not stolen. I trust the leader and belong to his version of truth. Not very different to belonging to a cult with a controlling leader.
But I recognise that there has always been a subjective belonging element to truth. Raised as Christian in a community that affirmed me I believe in a lot of non-scientifically provable things. I believe in the physical bodily resurrection of the crucified Jesus but I admit there are no neutral historical witnesses – neutral in the sense of witnesses who said ‘Yes, I saw the empty tomb’ or ‘He appeared to me’ and ‘No, I am not a believer or belong to the people of the Way’. And that is apart from the obstacle that scientific facts say the dead cannot rise. Is my belief just another, more orthodox form a conspiracy theory? The new atheists like the late Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins would say ‘Yes’.
I disagree because I think there are, in addition to subjective strands, also objective truth parts to my Christian belief. But, to be candid, as I think back on my youth I do see what might be called proto-conspiracy beliefs. As a devotee of Hal Lindsay’s The Late Great Planet Earth, I just knew that the EU was the beast/statue with ten toes prophesied in Daniel and I had pretty extreme apocalyptic beliefs. I remember the sense of security it gave me and others like me as we had inside knowledge on geo politics and where history was going, not to mention a keen inside lane on the timetables for the end. I know many others who look back on those days in our youth; many now with huge cynicism about not just the last days timetable, but the Christian faith in general.
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Over the last four years, I have followed the many Christian prophets endorsing Trump’s policies and prophetically equating the 45th President to the Cyrus figure of Isaiah, chapter 45. In 2020 I read many prophecies that President Trump would win. Now, after the 20th January inauguration of Joe President Biden, we will see if there is any prophetic accountability and repentance.
This apocalyptic Pentecostal/evangelical strain is particularly vulnerable to conspiracy thinking because it is so subjective: “The Holy Spirit has spoken to me and revealed to me…” It is fascinated by end times and wants to emphasise the distinction between believers who are discerning spiritual truths in the heavenlies and squeeze the world and its ‘historical facts’ into that framework.
As a Baptist, I am struck that Catholicism was always more grounded with “thy will be done on earth” (a non-apocalyptic speculation) and Papal encyclicals would appeal to “all people of good will” rather than to believers who have the inside track and spiritual eyes to see God’s purposes framed by signs of the end times. In fact, apocalyptic language in Scripture was coded language for persecuted believers to talk about these worldly matters and interpret God’s ways in their times of suffering.
I do wonder now how the farmer my son talked with is interpreting the events since that last Sunday in 2020. I hope there is room in his Christian community – and all others – to process the misinformation that has circulated, the lies that have been so strongly and authoritatively passed on, and the theories which have bound people into a frenzy of denial. We all need fresh eyes to see the evidence – and to accept that every position we take is provisional. God alone knows so we need humility, discernment and prayer to know His will.
