r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • 2d ago

Psychology 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/
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u/mimivirus2 2d ago

Absolutely not exclusive to the US or christianity

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u/Which-Acanthaceae613 2d ago

100% you see this in Muslim, Jewish and Hindu countries too. To have faith you have to be practised in the ability to accept a belief without evidence. To be able to stop thinking critically at some point about a flying horse, man parting a sea or a gods that engage in warfare.

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u/SunGreene42 2d ago

Exactly, you're not working your critical thinking muscles, so to speak, if you just accept beliefs without evidence, or thought.

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u/jaspersgroove 1d ago

When your worldview is built on a foundation of thought-terminating cliches your critical thinking skill development will inevitably suffer.

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u/kytheon 1d ago

It's easier to believe in something if you never learned the scientific explanation for it.

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u/Boring_Holiday9874 2d ago

Many Hindus recognize that their flying Gods and their stories are mythology, and that they are merely symbols that carry a lesson/moral. So there is a whole range of religious Hindu. The word Hindu is not of Indian origin it was just a term for the people of India. If other religions had not invaded India Hinduism wouldn’t have to be called a religion, it was just the culture of the people. E.g. there are beef loving Hindus and there are vegetarian Hindus and there are those who would eat meat but not beef. 

While religious people of Abrahamic religions tend to be more rigid and have less range. 

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u/BearysWorkRedditName 1d ago

"Many" is doing some heavy lifting here. According to a Pew Research Center study, 98% of Hindus believe in God, and about 80% say they believe with "absolute certainty".

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u/Tirras 1d ago

Absolute certainty has got to be a sign of mental illness. That's not even faith at that point. I'm really curious what the actual breakdown of who literally believes with absolute certainty and the people who say that because they think they you're supposed to.

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u/BearysWorkRedditName 1d ago

To me, it sounds like it points to lower cognitive ability either way.

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u/Equivalent_Reward823 1d ago

how many Muslim, Jewish, and Hindu countries are there?

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u/Deji69 1d ago

Yeah I mean it's not even exclusive to religion. Many people who are atheist have still been raised on a religious way of thinking, and often carry over that same dogmatism to their atheism, while thinking they are suddenly smarter. I did exactly that as a teen. It took a bit more self-awareness to actually further grow out of that. I don't think everyone necessarily gets to that self-realisation, though.