Lectures on Tap - "QAnon: When Conspiracy Theory Becomes Faith Online"

📍 Location: Exact address given in confirmation email

🧠 Lecture: "QAnon: When Conspiracy Theory Becomes Faith Online"

🎤 Speaker: Matthew Zaro Fisher, PhD

Remember QAnon, the conspiracy theory that spread like wildfire during the pandemic? Join us for a compelling evening exploring how QAnon functions less like fringe politics and more like a new kind of digital religion.

Matthew Zaro Fisher will trace QAnon’s origins in anonymous online image boards and unpack its rapid rise and influence on American society from 2017–2022. He will examine how conspiracy theories tap into deep sociological and cognitive needs—offering meaning, belonging, and certainty in a technologically complex world—paralleling the roles traditionally played by religion.

Drawing on his research into technology, society, and religion, Fisher will argue that movements like QAnon show how religion doesn’t vanish with scientific and technological progress, but instead changes form. As new tools connect people and their interpretations of the world, new expressions of belief inevitably emerge.

Matthew Zaro Fisher teaches theology and philosophy of religion at Loyola High School of Los Angeles.

Get a drink, connect, and learn at Lectures on Tap! 🙌

Agenda

6:30 PM – Doors open: find a seat (open seating!), order food & drinks, and expect a bar line—arriving early is key.

6:55 PM – Host introduction

7:00 PM – Lecture begins

7:45 PM – Audience Q&A

8:00 PM – Have 1:1 time with the speaker, mingle with fellow guests, and order another round

8:30 PM – Wrap up.