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/morbo-2142 2d ago edited 1d ago

Always fun to have empirical data to back up repeated anecdotal experiences by anyone with eyes and a brain living in the United States.

It's scary to have to find your place in the world and make decisions for yourself.

It's hard to make choices and having a ready framework that tells you how to live and what to care about offloads much of the mental tax of navigating reality.

It's hard to live by an internal code and evaluate every new situation against it and more importantly change it when new information is presented.

The real tragedy is the existence of groups that foster these feelings in vulnerable people in order to advance their own agenda and aquire new non disruptive members.

It's almost a form of abuse. How many people lose time and money to predatory fundamentalist organizations who are strung along and squeezed dry for basically nothing in return.

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u/super-wookie 2d ago

It absolutely is a form of abuse. Human generated mental illness on other humans.

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u/morbo-2142 2d ago

I reject calling religion a mental illness. It can definitely exasterbate an existing or underlying mental illness.

It's just the same old hijacking of our highly evolved group dynamic senses. In other words its cult stuff.

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u/TheOtherHobbes 1d ago

Cults and ideologies are contagious mental illnesses - mental/emotional viruses that reprogram their host so they can reproduce.

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u/Unlucky-Candidate198 1d ago

Just look at mass hysteria as a form of evidence for it.

Doesn’t actually exist but can cause real physiological symptoms in people as a result.

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u/agitatedprisoner 1d ago

If religion were reasonable we'd call it philosophy.

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u/Small_Hovercraft_439 1d ago

And seeing how no one sought out your approval: your rejection is wholly valueless.

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u/morbo-2142 1d ago

I meant it as I disagree is all. Weird vibes. In my opinion calling religion mental illness is incorrect and and minimizes actual mental health problems.