Conspiracy Theories, Ethnicity, and the New Gnosticism

No matter who you are, you might be swayed these days by a new kind of Gnosticism.

Ancient Gnosticism was this whacko offshoot from Christianity that was all about secret knowing. At the base of all that Gnosticism taught was this idea that the world had a secret, underlying truth that only the knowers could know. And if you don’t know what the knowers know, you’re not participating in the divine. You’re like a non-playable character, a rube. Gnosticism had no evidence to base itself on. You just had to know. You just had to connect the invisible dots with even more invisible lines. Continue reading

10 Things The Plot Against Jesus Tells Us About Conspiracies

As far as conspiracies go, the plot to kill Jesus is as deep as they go, wrought with implications of intrigue, blame, and consequence. The death of Christ is a testimony, not only to himself, but also to human nature. Human beings conspire to do very evil things in this world. But the problem with conspiracies, however, is that sometimes theories about them are wrong. Proof of that is the circulating theory after his resurrection that his own followers had somehow…stolen the body. Continue reading