conspiracy theory

so i’ve spent the past couple of hours watching two shows on the conspiracy theories surrounding the john f. kennedy assassination and the 9/11 attacks.  no, this blog isn’t about if i believe or don’t believe in conspiracy theories in either situation.  if you want my opinion ask me about it sometime in person.  however, i noticed three symptoms of those who believe in conspiracy theories: 1) simplistic explanations are not good enough 2) the theories are endless 3) i’m right, everyone else is wrong.  ”there’s no way that one guy shot john f. kennedy.  that’s way too simple.”  ”there’s no way the japanese successfully attacked us.  that’s not possible.”  ”it would be impossible for some terrorists to attack us in new york city.  yeah right!”  this got me thinking about the greatest “conspiracy theory” of all time, sin.

wikipedia.com (the ultimate source of truth, outside of scripture) a “conspiracy attributes the ultimate cause of an event or chain of events (usually political, social or historical events), or the concealment of such causes from public knowledge, to a secret and often deceptive plot by a group of powerful or influential people or organizations. Many conspiracy theories state that major events in history have been dominated by conspirators who manipulate political happenings from behind the scenes.”

it may be a stretch (hence the quotation marks above) to describe sin as a “conspiracy theory,” but please bear with me.  genesis chapter 3 describes the fall of man.  there are three major role players in the first recorded disobedience man committed against god, eve, the serpent, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

the serpent comes before the woman questioning why she does not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  eve responds with a simple answer, “you will die (if you eat of that fruit).”  the serpent must have looked at her with utter shock, as if she said the most ridiculous thing ever.  ”you will not surely die…for god knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like god, knowing good and evil.”  what a conspiracy theory!  

i just picture the serpent before the woman like some of the conspiracy theorists i just watched.  ”are you kidding me?  you’re going to believe what god says?  yeah right!  you can’t trust the guy who’s in charge.  you can’t trust god.  he’s just hiding things from you.  he knows when you eat of this you’ll be like him!  he’s scared for you to know the truth!”

so what does the eve do?  (note: i don’t look down on women because of this, just paraphrasing the story as recorded in genesis chapter three.)  she eats of it.

that’s the conspiracy theory that caused eve to disobey.  the serpent, deceiver, devil, satan (whatever you want to call him) has spun conspiracy theory webs throughout history.  

“god?  please.  do you really think that a god exists?  does that even make sense at all?  doesn’t it make more sense that through this crazy, strange, random, and lucky order of events that we have the universe as it is?  do you really think a being could just make all of this?”

“a fetus is a human?  yeah right.  how can that simple celled ‘thing’ be declared as human?  i mean really.  does it really make sense that a cell that turns into a human is actually a human?  there’s no way it’s that simple.  it’s just like a skin cell that you brush off of your arms and legs everyday.”

“war is justified sometimes.  i mean come on, we’re killing people in order to stop the killing of people.  there’s nothing wrong with that.  sure god said do not murder, but it’s really not that simple.”

i picked a couple of provocative ideas to think about in abortion and war.  i selected them because i believe they both discuss one issue, pro-life or not, and also because they stand in political opposition of each other.  so i cannot be called a right-winged conservative or left-winged liberal, or any other “nice names” the opposing parties have for each other.  there are so many more “conspiracy theories” that the devil has ingrained in our communities, nations, and the world as a whole.  all the theories satan tells have similar characteristics to conspiracy theorists (and no that is not to say that conspiracy theorists are of satan): 1) it’s never simple 2) there are endless theories 3) i’m right, everyone else is wrong.