Rainer on Leadership The Burge Report: Are Religious People More Prone to Conspiracy Theories?
Jun 30, 2025
32:14
Both prophets and conspiracy theorists cater to the human desire to make sense of chaos. This connection sparks compelling questions: Do religious belief and conspiracy thinking go hand in hand, as both involve leaps of imagination? Or does a strong religious framework offer enough structure, reducing the need for conspiracy theories? Ryan Burge joins the show to discuss what the hard data reveals.
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- Non-religious people are slightly less inclined toward conspiracy theories.
- Those who attend church weekly are also less inclined toward conspiracy theories.
- The quasi-religious (attending church occasionally) are more prone to conspiracy theories.
- Overall, being politically conservative had no impact at all on belief in conspiracy theories.
- However, for those who don’t have a strong religious belief, being more conservative drives up conspiratorial thinking.
- Holding to Christian Nationalist views drives up the belief in conspiracy theories.
- Political ideology is more influential on holding to conspiracy theories than religious beliefs.
Resources:
- “Leviathan” by Thomas Hobbes (affiliate link)
- “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again” by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson (affiliate link)
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