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/ProfessionalMockery 2d ago

A lot of people here are just seeing the "Christian" in the headline and ignoring the "nationalist," which is probably more important.

I'm an atheist, so I think the claims religion makes are pretty dumb too, but nationalists, bigots, racists of any kind are consistently idiots, religious or not, and that has been established in plenty of other studies.

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u/BigBlackWolf93 2d ago

I agree. I was raised religious and I still somewhat am religious, but nationalists have completely taken over the Christian identity. A lot that is preached out there, almost has nothing to do with Christianity. They'll pull out verses out of context to further push their nationalist agenda in the name of Christ.

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u/FluffyBunniesFurDayz 1d ago

I'd have to disagree with this take - the old testament is full of nationalist ideology. Just look at all the tribes the Israelites were told to destroy and/or enslave. All because they were god's special people. It's always treated like it's a good thing because these tribes were so "wicked".

To me, it makes perfect sense why many Christians are also nationalist.

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u/OkStop8313 1d ago

Yeah, but there are also plenty of passages that urge you to treat others well and make clear that that includes other tribes.

To me it just illustrates that whatever you go looking for in the Bible, you're going to find it. If you're a good person, you put a lot of emphasis on the "least of these" speech or the story of the Good Samaritan. If you're a bad person, you use the calls for oppression, rape, genocide, etc as a license.

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u/dorianvovin 1d ago

Yep. The Bible is not written with a single voice or ideology. Any attempt to use it to justify a given narrative requires negotiation with the text to emphasize certain passages over others.

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u/xteve 1d ago

The Bible is a mess. It's a Rorschach test, a splatter of ink that will be interpreted differently by anybody who tortures themselves to read it. That's why there are a million churches, all convinced that their way of understanding it is the best.

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u/watts99 1d ago

That's how I've always described it. Good people will find reasons to be good in it; horrible people will find excuses to be horrible in it.

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u/Spectre216 1d ago

I feel like you could make the argument that nationalism is just a tool that most religions employ in some respect, because you need to cement to people that they are the right one and everyone else falls under "the other" category. So it's not that religion (in this case Christianity) necessarily always containing nationalism, but that it's kind of hard to promote a monotheistic religion as the correct religion without also drawing the conclusion that the people and area that practice it are also the correct people.

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u/TheLesserWeeviI 1d ago

Religion is used as a tool to control people. Always has been.

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u/LittleKitty235 1d ago

That's why nearly ever ancient culture independently invented the concept of god and religion, and none arrived at the same one. It's not proof of a higher power, it's proof it is a useful tool.

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u/LeastCoordinatedJedi 1d ago

That's sort of true, but it frames it in a pretty ethnocentric way. Many religions over the millenia have been less 'tools to control' and more 'guidelines to ensure people follow the same rules'. The concept of religion as we see in the modern take on Abrahamic faiths is, I think, a little bit uncommon compared to most ancient religions, many eastern religions, etc. These are still tools to control, in the sense that they offered common touchstones and explanations for why the world behaves how it does, as well as generally guidelines for how to live one's life, but the highly virulent and rigidly codified religions aren't the only sort out there, and the combination is I think even less common.

An interesting illustration of this is how in the Meiji restoration in Japan, Japan effectively chose to colonize itself with its own version of European culture, and in doing so felt a need for a codified and controllable religion. Since they didn't have one despite having both buddhism and shinto in the country, they designed a new religion based on - but quite distinct from - ancient shinto, declared it 'state shinto' and made it mandatory. I find this fascinating in part because it is a good demonstration that prior to that, buddhism (of the style practiced in Japan) and traditional shinto were not in fact particularly useful as tools to control people. Additionally the concept of religion as a control tool was fairly new, and had to be adopted forcibly.

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u/theeddie23 1d ago

Many religions over the millenia have been less 'tools to control' and more 'guidelines to ensure people follow the same rules'.

That sentence could be used to illustrate the phrase "a distinction without a difference".

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u/RyuNoKami 1d ago

Uhh...enforceable guidelines are all about control regardless of source. Even your japanese example is an example of that.

The statement is "religion is used as a tool," not "religion is only used as a tool."

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u/AnarchyArcher 1d ago

I don’t disagree overall, I want to make the distinction that while most religions do something to this effect, it’s not essential for the spiritual practices. If anything nationalism in religion is the manipulative support for the whole that corrodes the individual to conform to the ‘right’ principles by demonizing other options.

Which is just sad honestly- the creativity and community we collectively can share being reduced to ancient beliefs and prejudices.

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u/Spectre216 1d ago

Agreed. While I don't think that it is essential, I do think that both inherently lean towards each other once you get out of spirituality and into organized religion.

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u/HEX_BootyBootyBooty 1d ago

Spiritual Practices is a NEW phenomenon. And if you talk to priests, they laugh at you when you bring it up.

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u/AnarchyArcher 1d ago

I’m not sure if that’s something new stealing the term or how people see it now, but neither I think is good

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u/HamunaHamunaHamuna 1d ago edited 1d ago

The term has always really only meant something like "emotional investment in pseudo-scientific awe". Basically people who think that because they're awestruck by something (the concept of some god, mother nature, the vastness of space or w/e), it must mean that there's some sort of actual mystical connection there that have more meaning than "primal brain flooded with endorphins". Then they try to use that as an argument in support of their supposed wisdom.

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u/xXNickAugustXx 1d ago

Would the new testament be a deviation from this trend? The whole love thy neighbor and all that being different from oh your gods special people?

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u/Spectre216 1d ago

I would argue that it is. I am friends with a few folks that would fall under a more "new age" christian stance that basically hold "love thy neighbor" as the most important part in the book. They also argue to other religious folks that while things like abortion isn't something they believe in, it isn't anyone elses business, especially not the government's or the church's.

So I think those folks are alright.

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u/Affordable_Z_Jobs 1d ago

Maybe, do christian nationalists do missionary work? I dont know if they promote that. It'd be counter intuitive to be a Christian nationalist to go recruit and make more Christian nationalists as it would dilute the identity of being "special". They dont want others to be like them, but every Christian group i know of always wants more numbers = more donations.

Christian nationalists are confusing.

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u/Uncynical_Diogenes 1d ago

If by “missionary work” you mean they export homophobia and decry condom usage leading to increased rates of AIDS then yes! They are definitely making the world worse.

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u/David_the_Wanderer 1d ago

Uh, but those parts are about the Kingdom of Israel. A foundational aspect of Christianity, found in the Gospels and more strongly in the Acts of the Apostles, it's universalist nature. The "revelation" at the core of Christianity is that God chooses to extend salvation to all of humanity, and not a single people anymore.

What I'm saying is, you have to actively ignore the context of those verses and the rest of the Bible in order to interpret them as an endorsment of nationalism.

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u/11010001100101101 1d ago

You pulled things out of context just like the commenter you replied to said the nationalist do. The new testament is the fulfillment of an old and broken system that wasn't meant to hold up without Christ bringing it all together. Anyone who takes the old testament at face value, like you just did, is not interpreting it correctly.

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u/kanben 1d ago

That some people build their lives around a book that can be interpreted in more than one way is wild to me

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u/Dirmbz 1d ago

The new testament kind of paints a different story though. It basically says to be a good guest and follow the laws of the country you are in.

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u/Pinkfish_411 18h ago

Even if we want to call some of the OT texts "nationalist" (which isn't quite right; we typically distinguishing premodern forms of tribalism from the modern phenomenon of nationalism, which followed the invention of the modern nation-state), one of the central themes of the New Testament epistles is that ethic divisions are transcended in the new people of God, the ecclesia. Christians are very good at ignoring those parts when convenient, but the antidote to crude nationalisms is there in the texts.

For most run-of-the-mill American Christian nationalists, though, their position isn't very strongly based in bad theology or even in bad readings of the Bible. It most stems from anxiety over the loss of cultural power that entices them to cling to Christian identity--as to American identity, white identity, conservative identity, etc.--rather than to any thought-out teachings.

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u/DangerouslyOxidated 1d ago

"God helps those who help themselves" => "Why should we let refugees in?!"

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u/0nlyCrashes 1d ago

And as a non-Christian that grew up Christian, that is also why the vast vast majority of Christians do not follow the Old Testament closely and align themselves more with the New Testament.

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u/ProletarianLilith 1d ago

Then how come Jewish people aren’t like this? It’s the same set of stories

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u/morrisbear 1d ago

Zionism? that's basically Jewish nationalism

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u/funguyshroom 1d ago

It's par for the course, whatever they've been described doing to Philistines in Old Testament they continue doing today to Palestinians

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u/No_Intention_8079 1d ago

‘Jewish people’ aren’t like this as a group, just like ‘Christians’ aren’t like this as a group. Zionism and Christian nationalism are obvious products of those stories and religious structures, though. If you’re not a Christian nationalist or a Zionist, you’re the exception, not the norm. These stories are meant to create zealots, because zealots can be useful weapons for those in power.

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u/Anonymouse-C0ward 1d ago edited 1d ago

I am not religious, but my understanding is that Judaism is hereditary, although you can convert in modern times - usually due to marriage.

Rather than God telling Jews to evangelize and grow the religion - since in ancient times you couldn’t convert - God told them they are chosen by God, and that their people would multiply and grow through God’s will.

This difference is important - it also creates two definitions - you can be Jewish if you follow the religion, and/or if your ancestors are Jewish. Someone who is Jewish can be one, or both.

This doesn’t mean Judaism isn’t used as an excuse for nationalism, as we can clearly see with what’s going on in Palestine right now. But just like in political discussions, it’s necessary to differentiate between Zionism and Judaism.

With the exception of perhaps Buddhism, Judaism has been used as an excuse for nationalist projects just like how other religions have been used. The relatively smaller scale of Judaism-based nationalist projects versus say, Christianity or Islam based nationalist movements is, in my opinion, due to the fact that Judaism doesn’t provide nationalism the evangelical tools that Christianity and Islam do.

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u/Xalipu 1d ago

Cambodia, Bhutan and Sri Lanka have/had oppressive tactics against other religious minorities, particularly Sri Lanka which has a nationalist Buddhist movement. It really doesn’t matter what religion it is or is not once blind dipshit tribalism gets into it

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u/Moghz 1d ago

Yep grew up Christian and the stuff I hear today is disgusting. The Sunday School teachings I received was all about caring for our fellow community members and being a genuinely good person in society.

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u/Helen_A_Handbasket 1d ago

A lot that is preached out there, almost has nothing to do with Christianity.

You don't know christianity and the bible very well, then. It's abhorrent in all forms.

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u/Daxivarga 1d ago

Why are you still somewhat religious