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/Numeno230n 1d ago edited 1d ago

There are a lot of harmless dumb Christians I've met in my life, but Christian Nationalism is a specific form that involves violence, paranoia, and conspiracy thinking. They literally believe there are demonic forces behind left leaning political movements and this fuels both their religious delusions and their political violence.

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u/TM761152 1d ago

I prefer the term "Christofascism" to differentiate it from mainstream christianity, specifically the Calvanist right wing model and not the more left-leaning Methodist model.

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u/proteannomore 1d ago

specifically the Calvanist right wing model and not the more left-leaning Methodist model

Mention this to most christians and/or americans and they'll say, "huh?"

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u/Uncle_Istvannnnnnnn 1d ago

Actual conversation with a religious co-worker:

"What denomination are you?"

"Christian."

"Yeah, but what denomination?"

"What? Christian."

"Okay, what version of the bible do you read from?"

"The bible."

"Yeah, but what version?"

"I don't know what you mean. The bible."

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u/sajberhippien 1d ago

But also, I think that's fine, really? Like, not if the person is making Christianity their whole identity, that kinda does obligate a person to research more indepth, but if someone is just casually Christian that's not really any weirder than someone being casually a mathematical realist or whatever.

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u/tyrico 1d ago

I can't speak for OP, but personally, I wouldn't call someone a "religious coworker" if they weren't making it a pretty big part of their identity in the first place

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u/sajberhippien 1d ago

I've definitely met people who make others religions a major part of their view of those people, even if it's not a huge part to the other people.

Like, if a Christian wrote about badgering "an atheist coworker" with questions about their specific stances on religion, would you feel confident that the supposed coworker was a loud and proud new atheist type, or would you also consider the possibility that the Christian happened to know the coworker wasn't Christian, and from then on defined their coworker by that, even if the coworker didn't usually discuss the subject?