When Religion and Conspiracies Mix

As someone who grew up surrounded by religion, this topic hits home. This topic is also very sensitive to some people, which is totally understandable. This blog is not trying to discount religion or anyone religious, I’m simply exploring conspiracies that come out of religion.

When thinking about religious conspiracy theories, one that has made waves in society is the Da Vinci Code.

This conspiracy came from the book titled “The Da Vinci Code” by Dan Brown, released in 2003. Even though this theory is not the only conspiracy when religion is brought into question, this is one of the most popular ones. After Brown published the book, a movie was released in 2006 featuring Paul Bettany and Tom Hanks.

This blog post won’t go into detail about the theory, because I released a podcast episode with Dr. Melissa Tingle going in depth about the conspiracy. However, I want to discuss how religious conspiracies can affect society.

Regardless of the religion being discussed, any doubt coming into play about a person’s beliefs will yield lots of backlash. While the Da Vinci Code is one of the more popular religious conspiracies because of the popularity of the book and movie, some consider religions themselves as conspiracies.

While there is a history behind most religions, there is also some sort of history behind most conspiracy theories as well. At this point, history cannot be used as an excuse for the truth. Just because there is a history behind conspiracy theories does not mean they’re true. The same can be said about religion, and while I am not discounting any religion, there is a healthy amount of doubt that strengthens faith. It’s okay to question your faith and its history.

This can also be said about any sort of conspiracy. They’re fun to think about, but it’s healthy to see both sides of the story with most things. While people claim to see aliens, how realistic is it that they have seen aliens, once in their lifetime? Similarly, how realistic is it that someone was risen from the dead after three days, once in history?

People can believe whatever they want to believe. As I mentioned, I’m not trying to discount anything or anyone’s beliefs. That’s also not me saying that I believe religions are conspiracy theories, but there are some similarities between the two.

What are your thoughts? Are there some similarities between religion and conspiracy theories? Do you think it’s healthy to have some sort of doubt in religion, or are you being hypocritical if you follow a religion but have doubt? Let me know what you think.