Response to conspiracy theory

[Megwalters2288]

My SDA family has been nonchalantly dropping minor hints and bringing up topics in regards to the Pope that I think maybe to steer me back towards the SDA faith that I am not sure how to respond to. I have just been keeping my mouth shut and letting them speak. And they haven’t been malicious about it. But, they think that the meeting Pope Francis was suppose to have in May, which I believe is now changed to October, about climate change is the Catholic Church’s attempt at world domination and bringing about a Sunday law of worship. That the corona virus is some how linked in with this and will be used as a way to push the agenda of the Church by saying corona virus was created due to issues related to global warming and they will use this. I guess they think the Pope is a part of an elite group and was a part of creating the virus in an attempt to gain control. I know this sounds out in left field but, I have no idea what to say when they bring these things up. Please give me some helpful tips.

 

[Genesis315]

Ummm, if allegedly creating the coronavirus was a ploy to create a Sunday worship law, it has failed spectacularly, seeing as it has closed churches, seven days a week, including Sunday. It is also doing immense financial harm to Catholic dioceses, which is also not so great for world domination.

 

[ImJustPro]

climate change is the Catholic Church’s attempt at world domination

This is silly. I think Pope Francis’ proposals offered to mitigate climate change are misguided but I don’t think there’s any malicious reasons behind it.

 

[KMC]

My SDA family has been nonchalantly dropping minor hints and bringing up topics in regards to the Pope that I think maybe to steer me back towards the SDA faith that I am not sure how to respond to. I have just been keeping my mouth shut and letting them speak. And they haven’t been malicious about it. But, they think that the meeting Pope Francis was suppose to have in May, which I believe is now changed to October, about climate change is the Catholic Church’s attempt at world domination and bringing about a Sunday law of worship. That the corona virus is some how linked in with this and will be used as a way to push the agenda of the Church by saying corona virus was created due to issues related to global warming and they will use this. I guess they think the Pope is a part of an elite group and was a part of creating the virus in an attempt to gain control. I know this sounds out in left field but, I have no idea what to say when they bring these things up. Please give me some helpful tips.

1a) Founder of SDA: Ellen White, James White, JN Andrews, Joseph Bates
1b) Founder of CC: Jesus
2a) Date of founding of SDA: 1863
2b) Date of founding of CC: 33
3a) Founders of SDA NOT in succession to the Apostles
3b) Every Bishop of CC can trace their ordination lineage back to the apostles. The Pope can trace his ordination lineage back to Peter

If SDA is true, and the CC became corrupt and only the true understanding of Christianity started in 1863, then Jesus is a liar. He said, “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bound on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loosed on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Mt 16:18-19)

• He founded His Church on Peter (not Ellen White)
• He gave Peter the “keys” - reflective of Isaiah 22. Every 1st century Jew would know the holder of the keys speaks for the King in his absence. AND, they would also know the keys belong to the office and stay with the office (there is succession). Jesus gave Peter (and with the keys, his successors) authority to bind and loose.
• If this became corrupt and the true church somehow disappeared for 1800 years and reappeared with a Ellen White, the the gates of Hades did prevail, and Jesus gave Peter an empty promise

Regarding the coronavirus and climate change. I did a brief google on SDA…seems their track record of predictions is not the greatest…

 

[Genesis315]

SDA’s see Sunday worship as the mark of the beast and the Pope as the antichrist based on the prophecies or writings of Ellen Gould White. It makes sense based on that they would see everything Catholics or the Pope doing through some sinister lens. It’s their premises that need to be refuted. None of it has any basis in reality.

As an aside, did you know, the Roman numerals in the name Ellen Gould White add up to 666, the number of the beast?

ELLEN GOULD WHITE
ELLEN = 100
GOVLD = 555
VVHITE = 11

Add 'em up and you get 666.

 

[Megwalters2288]

That is funny to me because members of the SDA church believe the Pope has the number 666 hidden underneath his mitre. Somehow there is a picture circulating through the church of it, which no one believes it was just altered by a computer. It is like war of the worlds between the two faiths sometimes. I know this all sounds crazy but, the level of paranoia in that church is very hard to break through.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I know this sounds out in left field but, I have no idea what to say when they bring these things up. Please give me some helpful tips.

I’d just nod, smile, and change the subject to something like the weather, sports, or how good Mom’s fried chicken is.

I wouldn’t be able to sit through these kinds of conversations with a straight face, honestly, even if I were an atheist.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

SDA’s see Sunday worship as the mark of the beast and the Pope as the antichrist based on the prophecies or writings of Ellen Gould White. It makes sense based on that they would see everything Catholics or the Pope doing through some sinister lens. It’s their premises that need to be refuted. None of it has any basis in reality.

They sent an insane, raving book to my home by mail years ago full of vile insults and crazy-sounding garbage on this topic. It was called “National Sunday Law”. It turned off pretty much everybody in town who got one. The current head of the SDA church in my town, which is a tiny congregation compared with the Catholic churches (of which we have 3) and the several mainline Protestant churches, has posted whole websites apologizing for that book and claiming her congregation doesn’t believe in it, but it’s quite apparent SDAs do believe in that stuff and are lying and trying to pretend they are friendly. Nope, not buying it.

 

[Megwalters2288]

This is what happened to me. When I was first joining I heard little to nothing about Ellen White. About a year after joining I started a bible study with a group of long time members and started to get more involved in the church and all the Ellen White teachings and conspiracy theories started to come out. And the teaching about the Catholic church always bothered me. I always thought it just didnt make sense on any level.

 

[adamhovey1988]

allegedly creating the coronavirus was a ploy to create a Sunday worship law, it has failed spectacularly

Yeah, I mean not being able to go Mass for a couple of months, I think that they did a pretty bad job

 

[IWantGod]

I guess they think the Pope is a part of an elite group and was a part of creating the virus in an attempt to gain control.

This is not reasonable thinking. They might get the runner up prize for best paranoid delusion, but they will never convince me that it’s true.

 

[Megwalters2288]

Oh it gets even crazier. I couldn’t listen to the conspiracy theories any more when they said Pope Francis and Bill Gates have joined together apparently to use microscopic microchips inside the corona virus vaccine and will use the 5G network to control us. At that point I had enough and we had to leave the vicinity. It is just crazy any more and I regret fully even getting involved with that church.

 

[niceatheist]

I’ve found there’s a level of delusion so extreme that there’s no way to convince the adherent otherwise. I worked for a fellow who was a conspiracy theorist, who, in the lead up to Y2K, was certain that the UN would seize control of the United States and put an end to democracy. He was a member of an online forum that clearly had some truly disturbed individuals, and at times their posts were absolutely hysterical (and not in the “ha ha” sense of the word). He was a nice guy, I liked him a lot, but you could be having a conversation about the weather, or your favorite pizza toppings, and somehow, within a few minutes he’d be going on about the secret plot to create the New World Order. When we got through Y2K, and there appeared to be no New World Order, he just said the cabal had secretly taken over.

The one thing I learned about conspiracy theorists is that they cannot be swayed by facts. Any fact against the conspiracy theory is turned on its head and becomes evidence for the conspiracy theory. The cognitive dissonance in such individuals is unassailable.