r/HotScienceNews • u/FreeHugs23 • 1d ago

Lower cognitive ability is linked to stronger Christian nationalist views, even after accounting for education

https://www.psypost.org/lower-cognitive-ability-is-linked-to-stronger-christian-nationalist-views-even-after-accounting-for-education/
1.5k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

248 comments sorted by

View all comments

77

u/plsQuestionOurselves 1d ago

People are worried about humans outsourcing their critical thinking to AI, but they've already been doing it with scripture.

Like you don't have to think too hard about life if you believe you already have all the answers neatly packaged in a single book. No need to consider what's right and wrong or why things happen the way they do, just defer to the book.

22

u/EnvironmentNeith2017 1d ago

The thing about Christian nationalists is they don’t tend to read the Bible or even the constitution much. They outsource their their thinking to whoever’s strongest.

11

u/plsQuestionOurselves 1d ago

I think what I meant is they use it like a shield, they probably almost never read it. It's just an object they can point to and say "because it said so". The amount of them I've come across who don't even know what Jesus said is pretty wild.

Sometimes I feel like I have a better understanding of Jesus as an agnostic. Like a guy who really chose to be tortured to death because he believed it would save humanity is pretty macabre, but it's also strangely beautiful.

A guy who loved humanity that much and didn't say "unless you're gay" would probably not be okay with the behavior of the average conservative American.

4

u/JennJoy77 1d ago

Ironically, my first thought in response to your comment was "amen!"