Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Progressive Christian
Trust me, truth is more fun than its opposite

Trust me, truth is more fun than its opposite

Last updated on: August 1, 2019 at 7:35 pm by Fred Clark

Trust me, truth is more fun than its opposite 2019-08-01T19:35:24-04:00 Fred Clark

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Before reading this post from perfectnumber, I was unfamiliar with the fandom sphere of the Pixar Theory — an elaborate attempt to map all of the animation studio’s movies onto a single timeline involving a single fictional universe. Considering the varied scope of Pixar’s output — from the Toy Story and Cars franchises to things like Up and Wall-E, Brave, Coco, and The Incredibles — this “theory” obviously involves a great deal of stretching and straining.

Perfectnumber links to this amusing video in which proponents of the idea ask “Could Onward Break the Pixar Theory?” Spoiler alert: No. No it won’t because it can’t. Onward will force the theory to stretch and strain even more to accommodate the suburban fantasy realm it portrays, but that’s OK because that stretching and straining is the whole point. It’s what makes this whimsical grand unified theory of Pixar fun to discuss and to play with as a kind of fragile, ever-more-complicated construct.

As John Carlin says in that video: “Let me let you in on a little secret: There is no disproving the Pixar theory. If you found a plot hole, good for you! That just means we all need to come up with a new way to explain it.”

It is, as perfectnumber says, a game. And that game is unfalsifiable for as long as anybody wants to keep playing. She compares this to the young-Earth creationism taught by Answers in Genesis. That’s apt, but there’s an element of this game-playing at work in every conspiracy theory. The same dynamic of play is part of what motivates flat-earthers and chemtrail enthusiasts, cyptozoologists, anti-vaxxers, and QAnon devotees. This is part of why they’re so eager to corner their co-workers and other acquaintances to confront them with this stuff — they’re hoping those poor folks will raise yet another objection that’ll give them something to play with for another round of the game.

Such games can be fun. They can involve delightful forms of creativity and puzzle-solving. This is part of the appeal that entices people to enlist in the weird funhouse-mirror worlds of conspiracy theories: You get to play a game. And the fun of the game is increased because it’s usually collaborative — because, on some level, embracing the world of a conspiracy theory involves being embraced by that world. It involves joining a conspiracy yourself, a conspiracy of game-play (among other things). We are, after all, social animals, neighbors, brothers’ keepers. We need community and conspiracy theories are one unfortunate place we sometimes find it.

Granted, the appeal of such games is diminished once you recognize the internal and external consequences that come from playing them. Those consequences include, for example, the real-world effects of things like how the anti-vaccination game results in real children really suffering and sometimes really dying from preventable diseases. And they include the voluntary moral and cognitive impairments you impose on yourself by choosing to prefer a game to reality.

Happily, the same game-playing delight can be had through the collaborative fun of debunking conspiracy theories. Deconstructing these elaborate houses of cards involves many of the same engaging and amusing forms of collaborative creativity and puzzle-solving that constructing them offers — and it does so without all those nasty side effects of harming real people or of choosing to stunt ourselves morally and intellectually. This is, again, one of the reasons I enjoy Joel Duff’s blog, where he dives deep into the hallucinogenic logic of “creation science” to dismantle it piece-by-piece, taking it seriously enough to demonstrate that it cannot survive even on its own terms. (See for example this recent post on the, um, evolution of creationism during recent decades: “Stranger Things — Creationist’ Views of Speciation and Natural Selection in the 1980s.”)

Libby Anne recently looked at an inadvertently revealing piece from an Answers in Genesis “scientist” that illustrates the role that game-playing and puzzle-solving fun plays in making both conspiracy theorizing and conspiracy debunking attractive. The AinG post involved a young-Earth creationist responding to what he saw as an alarming increase in the popularity of Flat-Earth conspiracy theories among his constituents of white-fundamentalist literalist anti-evolutionist Christians.

“Flat earthers, it turns out, have gained enough of a presence in fundamentalist Christianity that Answers in Genesis feels the need to counter their arguments,” Libby Anne writes. “Pot, meet kettle.”

It’s a fascinating, frustrating, Moebius-strip of a discussion. The Answers in Genesis guy is teetering on the brink of a liberating epiphany but somehow manages to just barely keep his balance. One has to hope that the skills he’s acquiring and practicing here to dismantle the elaborate anti-factual construct of Flat-Eartherism will nag at him until he realizes where else they might be directed. And I wonder if that’s more likely, in part, because he’s also learning that the game-playing delight in deconstructing conspiracy theories is a more rewarding substitute for the delight he’s sought to find in desperately patching and repairing the collapsing construct promoted by his employer.

Here’s where some dim troll will inevitably pop in to suggest that I’m in the same boat as this AinG guy because I “believe in talking snakes” and an “imaginary friend” etc. etc. I suspect such trolls are required to do this, somehow, to earn points for merit badges or because their religion requires it the way Jehovah’s Witnesses are required to go door-to-door. Or maybe they’re just desperate to demonstrate, once again, that they can’t grasp any difference between belief in something that can’t be proved and belief in something that can be disproved, and that they imagine the inability to understand that hugely obvious thing makes them especially clever. Or something.

Those trolls are not entirely wrong, however. They’re right to remind me that I have to be wary of the same semi-willful blindnesses and coping mechanisms that hobble this poor AinG dude’s ability to acknowledge what’s right there in front of him. We all have to be wary of that — jackwagon nihilist trolls included.

That’s why I recommend this fascinating interview with Åsa Wikforss, a philosopher from Stockholm University who leads an interdisciplinary project on “Knowledge Resistance: Causes, Consequences and Cures.” Wikforss begins by describing the problem:

Ignorance involves having a false belief, or no belief at all, on a topic. This can be the result of a simple lack of information. In that case, as soon as we read up on the topic we have knowledge. What distinguishes knowledge resistance, by contrast, is that it cannot be fixed by supplying information. It is, as it were, a type of ignorance that is not easily cured.

Knowledge resistance is a matter of believing what one wants to believe rather than what one has evidence to believe – it is a matter of resisting information, rather than taking it in. This happens to all of us, from time to time, and it has a variety of psychological causes. It may be that I hold a cherished belief about being an excellent driver (most people do) even though the evidence points the other way. …

A common cause of knowledge resistance is identity protection. This happens when we hold a belief that is central to our cultural or ideological identity. For instance, there is a lot of evidence that when it comes to factual questions that have become politically charged (such as about crime rates or immigration) we are quite adept at finding ways of resisting the evidence. In general, knowledge resistance is not simply a blunt emotional reaction but involves reasoning of a certain sort – skewed reasoning used to protect the cherished belief.

The mechanisms of knowledge resistance are, she says, “complex” — often involving stuff that lies “under the surface, not really conscious and not really the output of any vices.” This is why Wikforss says “I hesitate to make knowledge resistance a moral question.”

But just because it’s not entirely a moral question doesn’t mean moral choices, vices and virtues, don’t play a role here. The “cures” Wikforss commends, after all, involve cultivating habits and we cannot speak of habits without speaking of choices and practices and virtue and vice, which is to say morality. Self-deception is, after all, still a form of deception — a form of bearing false witness. (This is where, again, I end up shaking my head and muttering like Digory Kirke, “It’s all in Niebuhr, all in Niebuhr; bless me, what do they teach them at these schools?”)

I’m not inclined to emphasize the moral dynamic here because I’m a moralizing religious scold — well, at least not only because of that. I think it’s particularly important because it’s the simplest (not easiest, but simplest) step available to us. It is one aspect of this that we can control, one area in which we can choose and act and thereby change. (Here we’ll elude the inevitable detour into Calvinist/Augustinian skepticism about our capacity for such choosing by just noting that we all more or less agree that grace is available and awaiting and that grace affords that capacity, so let’s not get bogged down in trying to parse exactly how that functions.)

The moral element may not be sufficient for overcoming knowledge resistance, but I believe it is necessary — that it cannot be overcome without it. As Wikforss notes, knowledge resistance is distinct from simple ignorance. And therefore, as Douglass said, “It is not light that is needed, but fire.”

My favorite part of this interview is probably this section, wherein Wikforss discusses the all-important role of trust and distrust:

A central component in knowledge resistance is trust, or rather, the lack of trust. Most of the things we know we do not know on the basis of direct experience, but on the basis of “testimony” from others who know more. The current crisis of knowledge, I believe, is largely a crisis of trust. Distrust yields doubt, which is sufficient to undermine knowledge. For instance, the number one argument employed among climate deniers is a conspiracy argument about the climate experts. Since trust is not an intellectual virtue, but an emotional one, I think that the focus on intellectual virtues and vices is not very helpful in this regard.

… We are all connected through a complicated net of trust. It is not as if there is a group of people, the non-experts, who have to trust the experts and the experts do not have to trust anyone. Everyone needs to trust others since human knowledge is a joint effort. The most poisonous effects of social media may not be the spread of disinformation per se but the undermining of trust that comes from anger and division. It is well known that low levels of trust in a society leads to corruption and conflict, but it is easy to forget the very central role that trust plays for knowledge. And knowledge, of course, is essential to the democratic society. As the historian Timothy Snyder has said, post-truth is pre-fascism.

Trust is also, I think, inextricably bound up with morality. It is shaped by the moral choices we make ourselves — as in the sin of pride that Niebuhr describes so well, which tempts us not to trust anyone but ourselves and therefore cuts us off from the joint effort of human knowledge. But even more it’s shaped by the moral choices made by others — and by still others who allow them to get away with those choices.

Distrust is, after all, a rational and often necessary defense mechanism in a world in which the wicked prosper. We are, save for the luckiest of us, “once bitten, twice shy.” Our trust is something that others can and will prey on, so we know that some level of distrust is necessary for our survival. But where and how should we direct that distrust?

That, I think, is another large part of the appeal of conspiracy theories — an appeal shaped by fear rather than by fun. We know that some things can be trusted and others can’t, but we don’t know who or what to trust to help us know which is which. Conspiracy theories settle the matter with the false promise of telling us where to direct our distrust.

I’ve found it (somewhat) helpful when responding to conspiracy-enchanted friends to start by acknowledging and commending their suspicion and skepticism, and then, after that, encouraging them to redirect that skepticism and suspicion — channeling some of it toward the conspiracy theory itself in just the way that poor AinG guy desperately needs to do.

There’s always a tension, in X-Files terms, between the cautious prudence of “Trust no one” and the motivating idealism of “The truth is out there.” The latter is, after all, a statement of faith — an expression of trust that something, somewhere, is trustworthy and worth seeking out. But we’ll never be able to find or accept that trustworthy truth if all we have is the distrust we’ve cultivated and trained ourselves to apply to everything.

So I suppose what I’m saying here, 2,000 words in, is nothing more than what it says there at the top of the page: “Test everything. Hold on to the good.” Both of those.

Oh, and have fun.

Previous Post

July 31, 2019

The church of Larry Nassar

Next Post

August 2, 2019 LBCF, No. 243: 'Morality and sex and all of that'

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category class warfare evangelicals Iraq Left Behind Mammon music Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which book of the Bible is written as a song of love between a bride and groom?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Psalms Song of Songs Ecclesiastes Proverbs