Last updated 07/18/2025
1. Young Earth creationism has been called a conspiracy theory. There's “debunking” of contradictory evidence, an insistence that scientists are intellectually dishonest, believers positioning themselves as the only ones telling the truth, and plenty more.
Uncritical examples
The Evolution Connection by Ken Ham | Answers In Genesis (July 2002)
Archived on Wayback Machine and Archive.today
Darwinism: Why I Went for a Second Ph.D. by Jonathan Wells | The Words of the Wells Family (oldest archive is from January 2000)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
Commentary
Evidence against a recent creation | Rational Wiki
Why creationism bears all the hallmarks of a conspiracy theory by Paul Braterman | Available on The Conversation and Snopes (February 2021)
Discovery Institute Tries to ”Swift-Boat” Judge Jones by Kevin Padian and Nick Matzke | National Center For Science Education (February 2016)
What's the Matter With Creationism? by Katha Pollit | The Nation (July 2012)
2. The Satanic Panic from the late 20th century is another example. Con-artists and preachers accused “Satanists” of ritually abusing and killing children in large numbers.
Uncritical examples
[video] 20/20: The Devil Worshippers Part 3 (uploaded by an unofficial source in July 2010, makes some claims of graphic and disgusting violence while also making excuses for the lack of physical proof)
Archived on Wayback Machine and Ghost Archive
Commentary
Satanic Panic in Colorado by Alejandro Hernández | Denver Public Library (December 2021)
Conviction of Things Not Seen: The Uniquely American Myth of Satanic Cults by Dan Shewan | Pacific Standard (September 2015)
Reading a Moral Panic as a Conservative Outlet for Deliverance by osteophage | Pillowfort (January 2023, also on Archive Of Our Own and Squidgeworld)
What's The Deal With Michelle Remembers? The Book That Started A Witch Hunt | springhole.net (originally posted November 2021)
Lauren Stratford, The Survivor Who Never Was | Not Peer Reviewed: By Laura Robinson (October 2024)
3. Many right-wing Christians believe global warming and man-made climate change don't exist.
See this list for examples
4. There is a concept in Christian culture called the End Times. As its name suggests, it has to do with the end of our entire physical reality, but it also has a list of supposed prophecies that will be fulfilled first. Christians who buy into this idea rely on a lot of conspiracy theory style methods.
Uncritical examples
Signs of the End of the Age Straight from Scripture | Millennium Ark (earliest archive is from March 2000, later versions pull a bunch of Bible verses from places that aren't even typically read as apocalyptic propechies and makes questionable claims about what they mean)
Commentary
Teaching Hal Lindsey to teenagers in the '80s was child abuse | slacktivist (January 2021)
TF: Tribulation baggers | slacktivist (June 2010)
Hal Lindsey is gone (the Late, Great Planet Earth is not) | slacktivist (November 2024)
5. Conservative Christians were responsible for a lot of COVID-19 misinformation that downplayed the harm the virus caused. Not surprisingly, several conservative Christian organizations saw outbreaks.
Uncritical examples
None yet
Commentary
Student sues Liberty University, demands refund over coronavirus response by David K. Li | NBC News (April 2020)
Sins of Omission by Paul Moses | Commonweal (March 2021)
YouTube Just Banned a Popular Anti-Abortion Channel for COVID Conspiracies by Carter Sherman | Vice (February 2021)
Culture Wars and COVID-19 Conduct: Christian Nationalism, Religiosity, and Americans' Behavior During the Coronavirus Pandemic by Samuel L. Perry, Joshua B. Grubbs, and Andrew L. Whitehead | Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (July 2020)
More about conspiracy theories in Christian spaces
The Satanic Panic of the '20s | slacktivist (January 2022)
Dinos and Demons and Swedes, Oh My! It May Be Cartoonish, but Evangelical Radicalism Isn't Just a Sideshow by Chrissy Stroop | Religion Dispatches (October 2019)
Evil In the Youth Group | Religion Prof (January 2021)
QAnon, Blood Libel, and the Satanic Panic by Tal Lavin | New Republic (September 2020)
When Creationism and Anti-Vaccine Activism Mesh | Debunking Denialism (March 2015)
The New World Order: The Historical Origins of a Dangerous Modern Conspiracy Theory by Myles Flores | Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (May 2022)
TF: The Illuminati | slacktivist (February 2010)
How the evangelical Christian right seeded the false, yet surprisingly resilient, theory that vaccines contain microchips by Tom Porter | Business Insider (September 2021, primarily about anti-vaxxers, also touches upon End Times beliefs)
How the secular humanist grinch didn't steal Christmas by Michelle Goldberg | Salon (November 2005)
Further information:
How Science Figured Out the Age of Earth by Paul S. Braterman | Scientific American (October 2013)
Why Halloween's 'Poison Candy' Myth Endures by Jennifer Byrne | Atlas Obscura (October 2023)