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Zeitgeist – The Responses II
Nov
16, 2007,
Wausau, Wi —
Interest and
discussion concerning Zeitgeist,
The Movie
and my three part review continues
to grow, so this week I thought I would address a point that recently
came up
in a couple of relies to my review. These replies started out by
agreeing with
my review. One
began, “this movie is
based on incorrect facts.”
Another said,
“I am a Christian and I realize Zeitgeist part one was a
complete total lie.”
But
after
agreeing, they went on to claim other grand conspiracies. The first writer went on to
claim that while
Zeitgeist was based on incorrect facts, the same could be said for the
Bible,
and religion was simply a means to control the masses and enslave them. The other writer said,
“I believe the rest of
the movie is true and that the US government had everything to do with
[911]”
and that “most Christians now believe 911 was an inside job,
Satan is in
control of our government.”
Both
of
these replies demonstrate in their own way the persistence of these
grand
conspiracy theories. Part
of this is
simply the flawed and often dishonest way in which they presented. We have a general, and
somewhat necessary,
view that people are honest. Even
people
who claim not to trust anyone still do a lot of trusting in their day
to day
lives. So when we hear someone telling something, there is a tendency
to accept
it unless we have a reason not to.
For
example, one of the reasons the Christian writer gave that Parts II and
III of
Zeitgeist should believed even though part one was flawed is that there
is a “video
of Larry Silverstein admitting he demoed building 7.” Now a
video of the building’s
owner admitting that he was the one responsible for bringing down the
building,
rather than the terrorist would be pretty powerful evidence. But the actual situation
is a good example of
how these grand conspiracy theories work.
Now
there
is video of the owner, but what he says is “pull
it.” The
conspiracy theorists claim “pull it” is jargon
which refers to bringing down a building by explosives, and thus their
claim
that the owner ordered the building brought down.
So even when those who do check out this
claim see the video, they will see just what the theorist have led them
to see,
Silverstein given the command to “pull it.”
While this is conclusive evidence for the conspiracy
theorists, and at
first blush seems at least plausible, the problem is that there are other,
and better, understandings of Silverstein’s statement.
Frankly
given that he was talking to the Fire Department commander and his
stated
purpose in the video was to not to risk further loss of life, I find
Silverstein’s own explanation that this
referred to stopping the effort to put out the fires to be far more
likely. After all
if the building were
to be demolished by explosives, it is extremely unlikely that the NYFD
would
have been in on any such conspiracy, given the number of firefighters
who
heroically gave their lives that day.
This
is
just one piece of evidence, and conspiracy theories are built upon a
seaming
endless stream of such claims. When people do take the time to refute
them,
they are often simply rejected, a part of the conspiracy. Thus when I pointed out
some of the refutations
of the 911 conspiracy to the Christian writer defending
them I was told that they were done by organizations that were
“all run by a
secret society called FREE MASONS.” Not only do these theory
slant evidence to
support them, they have a built in way of rejecting any evidence
against them
as part of the conspiracy.
Paul
tells
us that in the last days, people “will gather around them a
great number of
teachers, to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn
their
ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” (2 tim
4:3-4)
There
is a
very simply principle, that truth cannot be grounded in error. As we
try to
reach the world with the truth of the Gospel, we must be doubly careful
not mix
it with error. This
is not a new
problem. There is always a great temptation to having secret knowledge,
to know
what others do not; to be in on the secret.
During the time of the early church, this desire expressed
itself in the
form of Gnosticism, a religious movement based on secret knowledge that
competed with Christianity in the second century.
The
conspiracy theorists of today are the modern Gnostics. Laura Curtis
summarized
this nicely in her blog Suspending
Disbelief,
when she wrote “Like Gnostics, they are the Chosen Ones,
privy to information
the rest of us can’t comprehend. They’re special.
Part of an elite few. We
can’t handle the truth! They are the messiah, here to save us
from our own
dangerous ignorance.”
One
of the
worst aspects of these conspiracy theories is that there is real evil
in the
world and these theories only divert our attention away from it. One
does not
need to be a Bush supporter to believe that Islamic terrorism is both
real and
evil. It existed long before Bush, and will exist long after he is out
of
office.
As
Paul
said, “test everything. Hold on to the good.” (1
Thess 5:21-22)
This is Elgin Hushbeck, asking you to Consider Christianity: a Faith Based on Fact.
Review:
See www.consider.org for additional information.
The book and press materials are available upon request.
To schedule an interview or to have
Elgin Hushbeck, Jr. speak at your chruch or event
contact Aletheia at 715-849-8328