We all know the characteristics of religion: blind faith, the inability to apply reason and logic, the rejection of evidence. But listening to other debates I hear the same things expressed.
I've participated in several arguments (discussions is too mild a term) about gun control, and you see exactly the same kind of tedious arguments from the gun-nuts as you do with religion - entrenched positions, an almost fanatical belief that their position is right, a disregard for the facts.
The same thing applies to conspiracy theories. No amount of proof will persuade them to abandon the nonsense.
It's the same in politics. I post on a British left-wing site where there is no reasoned discussion at all; they all welcomed the election of an extreme left-wing leader of the Labour Party who has zero chance of ever getting elected.
This must all be some evolutionary trend, helpful in the past but now past its use-by date.
Subscription Note:
Choosing to subscribe to this topic will automatically register you for email notifications for comments and updates on this thread.
Email notifications will be sent out daily by default unless specified otherwise on your account which you can edit by going to your userpage here and clicking on the subscriptions tab.
Yes it is.
If one studies it origin, it is basically political propaganda that started to earn enough power and money that became an institution of it's own.
Though i do not see the relation to "conspiracy theories", conspiracy theories are usually done by the few, religion is done by the many.
Complete opposite in every way, even the way they spread.
One is based on blind faith and rejects doubt of a higher authority(god/pope/priest), the other one builds on doubt itself(especially the authorities), in a way that you start seeing conspiracy everywhere, and get fascinated by it.
But yea politics and religion are basically the same thing, they build on propaganda.