Saturday 24 August 2013

Conspiracy theories are satanic

The recent network crashes of the Nasdaq stock exchange systems have prompted some to see conspiracies at work; shadowy cabals causing the breakdowns to further their malevolent agendas, and so on.

Scary stuff.  But isn't it scarier to think that nobody is actually in control and everyone is flying blind?  That these crashes really are the result of technical apparatuses that are too complex to be controlled or maintained?

Conspiracy theories are actually reassuring because they suggest that there is some uber-intelligence orchestrating everything - it might be easier to believe in an evil Plan than to face up to telos-less nothingness.

Conspiracy theorists are satanists in the sense that they believe that God exists and that He's evil.

A theo-political atheist must acknowledge that there are conspiracies, cabals and so on in this world but realise, furthermore, that they too are struggling against randomness, contingency and surprise - they just happen to be rather good at it.