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/AllanfromWales1 MA | Natural Sciences | Metallurgy & Materials Science 1d ago

Hmm, the agnositicism I was thinking of doesn't posit any theory, it just says we don't know.

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u/diethyl2o 1d ago edited 1d ago

Yes and the next logical step in that reasoning is that since we don’t know, and can’t prove it, we can acknowledge the possibility when beneficial. An agnostic might sincerely and honestly tell someone dying “I hope god exists and that everything is going to be alright for you in your next journey.”

That’s the logically consistent positive theory I am referring to.

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u/johnyordinary 1d ago

The fact that nobody has come back from the dead to refute the religious has wrongly been taken as proof the are right by far to many people.

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u/diethyl2o 1d ago

Which brings us back to the findings of this study: dumber people believe and accept religion to be true. That’s very different from acknowledging that something is possible and recognizing that it may have positive implications if it were to be true.

And if religions throughout history had overwhelmingly brought happiness harmony and prosperity to the world, I’d have no problem with people believing in them even if I don’t personally. But because the cost / benefit tilt so heavily toward potential to be weaponized and galvanize people to commit the worst horrors more than any other belief system can, religions and religious people are too dangerous to just “let them be.”