ABSTRACT
Conspiracy theories are widely deemed to be superstitious. The belief that conspiracy theories are somehow superstitious is itself a superstition. People with radically opposed ideologies can agree that conspiracy theories are appropriate when explaining social phenomena. For the non-conspiracy theories may be more complex. They may require an elaborate and unlikely sequence of coincidences or complicated social mechanisms which duplicate the appearance of conspiracy. Sir Karl Popper seems to suggest that according to The Conspiracy Theory, the explanation of an event consists solely in the discovery of a group of interested plotters. Popper’s own remarks reinforce this line of criticism. According to Popper, ‘The Conspiracy Theory’ is the secularized version of a religious belief. The idea that what goes on in the world is due to the machinations of the men of power is the secular successor to the view that events are controlled by the conspiracies of the gods.
