This sixth episode we are going to talk with Daniël Bos. He is currently in The Netherlands, Groningen. He studies Theology on the University of Groningen. We will talk about conspiracy theories and modern tribalism. We start by discussing what conspiracy theories are and what sides society has. It can provide a structure but it can also be tyrannical. According to Daniël we all have our own agendas and thereby conflicting with each other’s desires. He points out that humans just have a capacity for evil and can thereby create chaos. I mention specific case of conspiracy like the Gulf of Tonkin. The reason why we chose this subject is because I becomes more and more popular with unforeseen effects this has on our society. Some of the conspiracies are based upon beliefs. I mention the flat earth theory as an example of this. An important point is that there should be a relevancy on what we are discussing. How does change our every day life. Daniël mentions an important point that we haven’t learnt to talk to each other. There is a need for sharing common values. This is a reason why Daniël got involved in becoming a Theologian.
We don’t have a lot of time on our hands so we give away our power to institutions or other people to think for us on these matters like our own psychology. We look for people who are like minded and share our beliefs, but why don’t question our own beliefs? A crucial step is getting out of your comfort zone and find people that share a different view, but still have an engaging conversation with. We should first know eachother before talking on bigger matters. And so Daniël shows us how he got involved in becoming a Christian. This has some benefits of having like minded people that can provide support, but finding the balance in guidance and self-exploration is crucial. We should listen to authority, but to the right ones. Our quest is to find the right one for us.
In the second part we going into Gnosticism. There were different streams of Gnosticism like the Cathars, Bogomils and gnostic sects in Egypt. I am during this Podcast episode in the south of France where the Cathars were situated. I visited the town of Minerve. The gnostics shared a lot of similar views that conspiracy researchers share. Christianity started very diverse and included a lot of different gnostic views. We are going to look at what those views are. Such as dualism, gnosis, archons and the demiurge. It draws a lot of it views from other older roots like Manicism coming the Zoroastrians in ancient Persia. The start of the Gnostic beginnings is in the 3rd century. This is also the same time period where the Nag Hammadi scriptures originate from. In this time period Christianity was still taking shape.