QAnon, Chaos and the Cross: Christianity and Conspiracy Theories with Dr. Michael Austin and Dr. Gregory Bock

Cult Conversations: The Influence Continuum with Dr. Steve Hassan

Dr. Steven Hassan

Self-improvement, Society & Culture, Education

4.8 • 684 Ratings

🗓️ 5 June 2023

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Dr. Austin and Dr. Bock are accomplished Christian scholars with extensive experience in ethics and philosophy. Although I am Jewish by faith, I support the principles of Christianity and all major religions that promote truth, peace, love, and forgiveness. Their collaborative work, QAnon, Chaos, and the Cross, is a compendium of essays exploring the rise of conspiracies like QAnon, an online conspiracy group I wrote about in my book, The Cult of Trump. Their book raises awareness about the allures and pitfalls of conspiracy theories and draws upon Christian principles for discerning truth from misinformation and fostering productive dialogues. Anger and fear are potent emotions that tend to override our critical thinking and common sense, sometimes leading to falling out with loved ones who have an opposing view to our own. Accepting a conspiracy theory as fact does not make a person weak, stupid, or gullible. This is an extremely important interview that I believe everyone would benefit from listening to. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Dr. Stephen Hassan with another episode of the influence continuum.
0:09.0	And I have two special guests with me today.
0:14.0	I'm very excited.
0:15.0	I've been looking forward to interviewing these two scholars who have edited a very important new book coming out called
0:26.3	QAnon Chaos and the Cross, Christianity and Conspiracy theories. And I'm going to just
0:34.9	introduce you both. And then I would love to just read all of the different
0:41.6	chapter headings because it gives really the art of the book, and then we can open it up and
0:48.2	get into it. So Michael W. Austin, PhD, University of Colorado Boulder, is a foundation professor of philosophy
0:57.8	at Eastern Kentucky University, senior fellow of the Dietrich Bonhofer Institute, and current
1:04.1	president of the Evangelical Philosophical Society.
1:08.9	His research is focused on ethics and applied ethics. Boy, do we need you
1:13.8	more than ever, especially issues related to the cultivation of character and connections between character
1:21.7	and the common good. You've published 13 books, including humilityility and Human Flourishing, Oxford University Press.
1:31.8	And boy, I respect you for that because I did a chapter for Oxford University Press,
1:36.4	and it was the most difficult editorial experience I've ever had.
1:40.7	We did one on lone actor terrorism for them.
1:43.9	In any case, you also did God and Guns in America, and this is your latest book that you
1:51.1	helped to edit, QAnon Chaos and the Cross Christianity and Conspiracy Theory is co-edited
1:57.3	with our next guest, Gregory L. Bach is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religion,
2:04.5	director of Center for Ethics at the University of Texas at Tyler.
2:09.3	I assume you're a Ph.D., Greg?
2:11.2	I am.
	...

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