What is a conspiracy theory?

A conspiracy theory is a belief about an event, situation, or phenomenon, which suggests certain groups or individuals, for sinister reasons, are deceiving the public into accepting an "alternative" narrative. There are two wrong attitudes to conspiracy theories:

1. Believe them without question.
2. Don't believe them under any circumstances.

As a society, we have been conditioned to associate the phrase "conspiracy theory" with the purest form of nuttiness, and have been trained to label that which we disagree with a "conspiracy theory" in an attempt to discredit it. In reality, conspiracy theories are not always false, or even especially crazy. For example, in 2006, the tobacco industry was found guilty of conspiracy for suppressing research that proved a link between smoking and lung cancer.

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Sadly, while conspiracy theories can be true, a lot of them, and in particular the most famous ones, are quite crazy. On this site, I have no intention of addressing many of these in great depth. However, their prominence in the world make them something Christians may well have to deal with. Some conspiracy theories even involve the Christian faith, either blaming Christianity for having been involved in, or responsible for, some grand conspiracy. There are even strange conspiracy theories about the origins of the faith itself.

This section will take a Biblical approach to conspiracy theories, both from a spiritual point of view (how should Christians view them), and an apologetics point of view (defending the faith from conspiratorial claims).