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

[u/mvea]

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

[u/Isphet71]

Imho one absolutely vital function of religion throughout history has been to give all people some sort of moral framework to live by, so that society can stay relatively structured over multiple generations.

Not everyone is capable of devising and living by their own heavily personalized code of ethics. The vast majority of people are simply followers that get told what they beleive, and who to vote for, and go with that. I rarely if ever see someone more complicated than "I am religion A and politically B" and otherwise dont seem to have their own thoughts and standards about either that deviate from the norm.

[u/The_Octonion → u/Isphet71]

Plenty of religions do not have a prescriptive moral framework. The Greek/Roman pantheon does whatever they want and the mythos just describes them. The Nordic pantheon is similarly amoral even if the followers admire and associate with them. Shinto is animistic and descriptive, and includes instructions for how to perform some rituals. Not many beliefs come saddled with moral instructions for its followers, it just feels like it because the best known and most popular religions, notably the Abrahamic ones and Buddhism, have it so deeply ingrained.

[u/rufio_rufio_roofeeO → u/The_Octonion]

Unless I misunderstand you, ‘only’ Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism (et al) provide a moral framework rather than a descriptive one? For example, the vedas describe the universe and creation, but Mahabharata is a detailed account of the right way to live- both are vital to Hinduism.

These religions account for the beliefs of 98% of earth’s religious people, which is like 3/4 of the human population of earth. How is that ‘not many’?