The reason we have so many conspiracy theories

I've felt like posting this for a while now and I should say before I begin that it's only my opinion and I could certainly be wrong, this is merely a hypothesis.

I get the feeling that many conspiracy theories in the world today exist only through misconceptions, misinterpretation of information and a general lack of understanding of the universe as we know it. It is, in my opinion, a 'sign of the times' - that people have lost a lot of faith in the ability of science to explain the universe and better our society.

If anything I feel this is because of the advanced nature of the work we do today, let's take something like the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) in Geneva. This piece of technology has caused a lot of skepticism and conspiracy theories to erupt, theories that say it could be used for other purposes such as the destruction of the planet by an elite or whatever else you can think up. Heres a link to the LHC website and it's Wikipedia entry for those that don't know about it.

I myself have reservations about the program. Will it unlock some secrets of the fundamental nature of the universe or will creating a small black hole cause widespread destruction when it rapidly decays releasing 'Hawking radiation'? This is a debate for another thread, but it does show how the advanced nature of research today means it can be hard to have faith in something like science.

How do we know that what science tells us is true? We are so far beyond being able to test new theories and advancements in our backyard that we are forced to rely on good faith that science as a whole is doing the 'right' thing and not lying to us. This gets even harder to believe when you throw in commercial interest, with many companies (notably Biotech companies recently) acting in ways that are much less than ethical and sometimes simply hazardous to humans. However, if there are still profits to be made over the potential losses in lawsuits etc, then the work goes ahead and the companies can still be in the green. (See, there's another theory working itself in there ).

I hope people can see what I'm getting at. In many ways I feel like we're better off than we have ever been. There are a staggering number of problems with the world but many of us are extremely lucky and live in advanced societies. I myself have a huge amount of faith in science but even I feel like I am losing some of it to suspicions and a lack of greater understanding.

When all we have to go on is blind faith due to the advanced (and therefore mostly incomprehensible to the majority of people), heavily specialised nature of experiments and research today then it is easy to lose faith and suddenly we get conspiracy theories popping up everywhere.

How do we know the newest immunisation is good for us? We can't just check it out under a microscope and know. How do we know that our computers don't give us cancer? We can't check. How do we know that we really went to the moon? We can't confirm it with our own eyes, we can't see people walking on there or reach out and touch them and even if we could visually see them, I feel many people would still be suspicious without experiencing it themselves.

Anyway this thread is getting huge now. I thankyou if you have read through all of my thoughts on the matter but I really do feel that we're seeing an upsurge in suspicions and the following conspiracy theories because of the continuing advancement and specialisation of science and technology. If we can't test it ourselves, if all we have to rely on is faith then it is inevitable that our faith will wear thin.

Sadly I can't suggest a way to resolve the situation, if anything I feel it will continue to get worse in the coming years. Thanks again for reading and your thoughts are very welcome.



Edit: Fixed a few errors in grammar etc.

[edit on 3/12/07 by Duality]

[edit on 3/12/07 by Duality]