The moon landing was fake! Sept. 11th was an inside job! The FBI is watching me through my camera! All of these are conspiracy theories people actually believe. Is cynicism to blame, or are there some truths to these absurd claims?

This is not to say that I do not believe in a few conspiracy theories. I have dabbled in seeking answers to seemingly normal things. The issue is when everything is put into a skeptical light.

Author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle once said, “once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.” So by eliminating the possibility that the earth could be a triangular prism, the theory that the earth is actually flat becomes all the more believable. But what really causes the need for deeper answers to simple questions?

According to Psychology Today, the desire for human understanding is a strong one. We want the truth so badly that when we are given a basic answer, we do not think it is really the answer; we want the answers that fit our worldview and our comfort zone. And then, while we seek out the answers that bring us comfort, the hard truths go ignored while the craziest answers bring us peace of mind.

Research also shows that believing conspiracy theories makes people feel more in control of their lives. For example, global warming being fake is a pretty big conspiracy, unfortunately. The climate temperatures rising because of human activity is a scary thought, but if we believe it is as fake as people say it is, we can go about our lives as we usually do.

However, some conspiracy theories do have a lot of evidence to back them up and can be proven. If a theory can be tested and proven to be true, and the evidence can be reciprocated by another tester, it is probably true. Like Facebook’s whole Cambridge Analytica scandal, or Canada’s ‘gaydar’ development in the ‘60s.

Whatever you believe, just know the truth is out there and the lizard-people who run the government can not keep it locked up forever.