Over the past few days I have been bombarded with information from the most unlikely sources regarding alternative causes of the COVID-19 pandemic. I have always found conspiracy theories interesting and done my own fair bit to study the validity of a handful of them, most prominent to me of all being UFO spheres and their relation to events that happened during world war II (don’t get me started), but growing up in a Christian home will expose you to the more incredulous ones, like the coming of the anti-christ through technology and globalization(yes, I do regard it as a conspiracy theory) or the presence of the Illuminati as a secret society whose goal is world domination.
Understandably, it is fairly normal to become uneasy when you begin to see the advancements in technology and global integration. It’s easy to get swept up in the paranoid belief that what is happening is some new progression in prophetic scripture. What will come as a surprise though is how a bit more extensive reading will reveal that the Roman Empire was somewhat at the apex of its powers and was leading a formidable campaign to consolidate rule over the known civilized world at the time. Most of what was written were directed at the Roman Empire and was inspired by the desire to see its downfall, in other words, defiance. The same thing happened with Daniel when the Persians conquered and ruled over much of the world.
In 2020, COVID-19 has brought about a new type of uncertainty the world hasn’t experienced in most people’s lifetimes so it is understandable people will seek answers from familiar sources and sometimes from less reliable sources because of simple reasons as the assurance that the will be hearing what they want to hear. This has given space for the conspiracy theorists to come out of the woodworks. The fallout is disappointing, to put it mildly, people one would believe should know better are caught up in pushing these unbelievable theories and narratives, without ever receiving empirical or scientific evidence. It has now become a race of whose theory can be pushed the furthest until people start to experience fatigue in keeping up with multiple news streams and headlines.
In these obscure narratives, the belief is the scientific and political elite are all collaborating one way or the other to achieve some sort of elaborate plan to obtain or maintain world domination. Some of these theories seem to stem from outright paranoia and distrust for the government while others are inspired by Endtime scripture and prophecy. The common trend about these theories is conjecture, or the drawing of links between loosely connected events to create a narrative which hardly sticks together when critically scrutinized. Here in Nigeria there is this belief in some quarters that the reason lockdowns are in place is to keep people away from interfering with the installation of 5G infrastructure and cables, meanwhile, 5G technology is still quite a long way from being a reality in Nigeria.
What really places me at loggerheads with these conspiracy theorists is how they seem to revel as being simply voices of doom and gloom. In no way do they help those who are genuinely in need of assistance. A well known national preacher is at the forefront of the parroting of these conspiracy theories and he seems to have fully gotten his followers on the same page. The religious ones seem to believe there is a ploy to stop them from gathering in their places of worship and have predictably brought forward scripture that describes the struggles the early apostles experienced when trying to congregate. This line of argument completely falls on its face, flat without much scrutiny even when one vigorously presents the argument of the promise of God’s protection & healing. Most of those who were infected are not non-religious. In truth a quick search of patient 31 in Korea will make for good reading that regard.
If you are of the conspiracy theory school which is mostly spearheaded by the enigmatic David Icke I really can’t say much to you when the person you are listening to is adamant that the world we live in is ruled by an alien race of reptilian beings who feed off of the negative energies we give off. What I can say is you ought to ask yourself the following questions when you feel the urge to send out questionable information that has been passed on to you;
- Is the information I am sending outgoing to put the recipient at ease?
- Has it been verified by official authorities or does it have scientific backing that can easily be referenced?
- What does the information add to the overall public mood should I share it across multiple channels to multiple parties?
- What is my current state of mind? Can I trust myself to make a fair and objective assessment of the information I am being fed?
Stay safe and be well.
