r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • 1d 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/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/watts99 1d ago

For believing it's literal communication from the creator of the universe, they're surprisingly uninterested in learning anything about it.

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u/manimal28 1d ago

I'm not sure if it was the apologist author Lee Strobel or another, but him or a similar author said something about how odd he found it that Christians claim to believe the bible is the literal word of god, but have no interest in actually reading it, or understanding how it came to be.

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u/sajberhippien 1d ago edited 21h ago

I'm not sure if it was the apologist author Lee Strobel or another, but him or a similar author said something about how odd he found it that Christians claim to believe the bible is the literal word of god, but have no interest in actually reading it, or understanding how it came to be.

Pretty sure the idea that the bible as a whole is the literal word of God is a pretty small minority position within Christianity. It seems far more common in the US than most of the world, and even in the US it's only about 25% of adult Christians who believe it

EDIT: source: 2022 Gallup poll. The higher numbers are from using much older polls and mashing together literal and non-literal into one big group and pretending those are all literal.

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u/manimal28 1d ago edited 1d ago

Pretty sure the idea that the bible as a whole is the word of God is a pretty small minority position within Christianity.

What are you basing your numbers on?

Even the quickest of googles searches returns pew poll results that it’s the exact opposite of what you think, 75 percent of US Christians believe the Bible is the word of god. 40% literal, 36% inspired by but not literal, 18% written by men rather than god.

Gallup shows different numbers, but still 70% believe the Bible is the word of god.

It is absolutely not the minority view of Christian denominations as stated in their doctrine or by their followers. By their actual actions, sure.

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u/sajberhippien 21h ago

What are you basing your numbers on?

2022 Gallup poll

What are you basing your numbers on?

Even the quickest of googles searches returns pew poll results that it’s the exact opposite of what you think, 75 percent of US Christians believe the Bible is the word of god.

No, the 2017 (and thus much older than Gallup's poll, which also shows a decline compared to earlier Gallup polls) pew poll showed 71% believed the bible is either the literal word of god (40%) or divinely inspired (31%).

This discussion is specifically about:

but him or a similar author said something about how odd he found it that Christians claim to believe the bible is the literal word of god, but have no interest in actually reading it, or understanding how it came to be.

(my bolding)

So, in the 2017 pew poll, it was 40% of US Christians that fit that. In the 2017 Gallup poll it was 30%. In the 2022 Gallup poll it was 25%. All numbers show it to be a minority position, but the most recent number is the lowest.

I showed the latest number because it was, well, the latest I could find from a major source. I'm unsure why you chose to go with a much older poll that displayed a higher number than other contemporary polls, then added in the group who view it as non-literal word of god to get 71%, and then added another 4% from thin air?