There’s been a lot of chatter about ‘fake news’ in recent years. Some stories, even though they have no basis in fact, are told so often, and with such conviction, that large numbers of people end up believing them anyway.
Some of these fake news stories even dupe legitimate political figures who repeat the story without realising it’s false. And once a mainstream political figure repeats a story, it becomes even more entrenched in the national psyche.
‘Fake news’ isn’t a new phenomenon, though. There’s quite a bit of fake news out there regarding the person of Jesus, the origins of the church, and the development of the Bible.
Even though such ‘news’ has no factual basis, it’s believed by an uncomfortably large number of people. Here’s a sampling of five leading stories.
1. Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene.
Perhaps there’s no conspiracy theory about early Christianity more sensational and captivating than the claim that Jesus was married and had children.
It’s not only fodder for bestsellers like The Da Vinci Code, but it seems to pop up again and again in the mainstream media. The problem, of course, is that this belief is patently false. There’s no evidence that Jesus was married.
