Call Me Crazy: Is One Person's Faith Just Another's Delusion or Conspiracy Theory?

Don't know about you, but sometimes when it comes to religion or spirituality, I think we're all a little crazy. And it isn't just religion, but lately I'm hearing people I know promote all sorts of ideas and opinions about the world that seem just plain wacko. It's wearing me down, y'all, making me cynical, making me doubt my own sanity. Are you experiencing this, too?

I think it started just a few weeks ago with me feeling unmotivated to do my daily meditations. Plus, I was having difficulty feeling inspired in the weekly at-home personal ceremonies our Vodou house is doing since we can't meet in person. For those, we serve a different lwa each week. Overall, it's been a great way to learn and deepen my practice, but lately it's felt dry and empty. And honestly, it's felt like I'm just making all this up in my head--talking to spirits, trying to "listen" to their messages and lessons, forming relationships, etc. It all sounds a bit crazy.

Then I suddenly had a handful of friends posting or sending me all kinds of conspiracy theory info. You name it--George Soros and Bill Gates, aliens and government cabals, military secrets and anti-vaxxers, harmonic frequencies and multidimensional shifts. One of my sisters even asked me if I thought the coronavirus was a hoax (no, I don't).

While it's easy for me to write this stuff off as "crazy," I started wondering, is it, really? I mean, what about enlightenment or virgin births? What about flights to heaven, golden tablets, burning bushes or spirit possessions? What about sacred springs, bleeding statues or empty tombs? When I break it down, are conspiracy theories all that different from religious beliefs or spiritual concepts? It all helps us make sense of the world and our place in it. It helps explain things, or at least we think it does. These things give us hope. Don't believe me? How is praying to an unseen deity for help really any different from believing an alien race you can't see is secretly protecting the Earth from dark forces?

This article has some interesting points about why conspiracy theories are currently on the rise--but what it doesn't really address is the ability of the human race to believe in and accept all kinds of things without any evidence whatsoever or even in the face of evidence to the contrary. Atheists and humanists often point this out and resist any kind of supernatural or religious tendencies. I find myself leaning in these directions quite often--and yet, something always pulls me back to the spiritual side of things. Well, what else can I say? I'm feeling wobbly right now, a doubting Thomas, off-center--and, maybe, I'm just as crazy as everyone else.