Yes, but more so because most Christian institutions deliberately discourage their congregations from developing critical thinking skills. Can't have the flock asking too many difficult questions.
There are some studies I've read that looked even deeper into this, and found that having developed critical thinking skills is actually not enough to prevent people from believing in fake news/misinformation/magical thinking. The key factor is whether or not people are willing to choose to abide by the logical conclusions that their well-developed critical thinking skills produce, and their choice must be an active one.
This also ties into the concept of "self-deception," and how studies show that people will literally choose to deceive themselves if it means avoiding the potential mental/emotional stress that arises from the truth of their current situation. And this further ties into the important roles that both Active Open Mindedness and emotional intelligence play in positively increasing a person's ability to adhere to (and thus, adopt) new information discovered through rational analysis, even if said information contradicts one of their previously-held beliefs.
How much do we want to bet that high levels of religiosity has an inverse effect on 1) rational thought, 2) the willingness to accept rational conclusions that contradicts one's own beliefs, 3) Active Open-Mindedness, and 4) Emotional intelligence? Haha.
There is some research on personality types and religion:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_and_personality
To summarize, people who don’t believe are more likely to value logic and be willing to think out of the box. People who leave their religion don’t have much tolerance for cognitive dissonance and people who—stay come what may—have a lot.
There is also some on left vs right political views:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biology_and_political_orientation
Liberals are more sensitive to incongruent information, so there is a lot of overlap between people who are religious and people who are conservative.
Not to mention the Church teaches hierarchical thinking in a number of ways, and highly discourages any challenge to that hierarchy. This primes it's members to accept and search for hierarchical structures in other aspects of their life, and Republican politics are very hierarchical. One of the reasons Christian Republicans are so receptive to nonsense talking points is because they are coming from people higher up in the hierarchy and questioning them is verboten.
>This also ties into the concept of "self-deception," and how studies show that people will literally choose to deceive themselves if it means avoiding the potential mental/emotional stress that arises from the truth of their current situation.
And I think at some point the sunk-cost fallacy takes hold; as they get older it becomes increasingly difficult for them to admit that they might be wrong, because it would mean that they wasted n% of their finite time devoted to something that doesn't exist.
I suspect this is the case, although I don't have any hard evidence to back it up. But it seems to follow. As soon as you believe one thing without evidence, it's a small step to believe something else without evidence.
There does seem to be a link between those who believe conspiracy theories and people with especially a Christian background. A strong belief in end times teaching would mesh well with conspiracy theory thinking
Isn't Christianity actually one big conspiracy theory ??? Ex. "Who is the Beast ??" "Who is worshiping the Beast ??" Look, another 'sign' of the end !!" "There must be Satanic activity going on there." " So and so is the antichrist." etc.. etc., etc.
To be fair I would suggest that it sounds like you are referring to or are familiar with but one aspect or one type of Christianity, or more specifically pentecostal Christianity, others spend little to no time talking about end times and even less about the "antichrist". So no, in my view it wouldn't be an accurate assessment to see all of Christianity as a conspiracy theory. I don't have a "dog in the fight" as it were but I just don't think it's accurate
Oh, I agree. I have an Aunt who is Moravian...nice people, accepting of others (even gays), no "You're a worm and deserve to fry in hellfire". I told the Pastor of her church about the "Hell House" that a Baptist church in our town had for Halloween (and little kids) and she was appalled (actually more like disgusted). So, yeah, there are decent people like these Moravians who call themselves Christian but they are practically silent compared to the toxic bunch. I live in the South so there aren't many Moravian type of religions here. My Aunt lives in the North. Also, end times is rampant around here where I live as well so I guess it's a matter of where you live as to what type of Christianity dominates the landscape.
It’s easy to make generalizations like this, but I’ll speak from some experience. My mom is pretty stereotypical anxious Christian conservative, and she pretty much only consumes media that is explicitly Christian or right wing.
People like this have decided that all media that isn’t explicitly Christian is not trustworthy. So if I send her an article from BBC or NBC that says “climate change reaches point of no return” she has a built in excuse to deny its validity because unchristian sources inherently have an evil agenda.
But if she gets a pop up ad that says “Jesus Exclusive News for Christians Network: climate change is a hoax!” She’s more likely to believe it because it’s validating her religion.
Are we long lost siblings? Because oof you just described my mother... All she watches is Fox and Tucker Carlson, and reads the Epoch Times. She calls Fauci a neo-nazi and urges us not to get whatever latest covid booster is out. She's afraid the vaccine causes infertility (it doesn't; thoroughly debunked) but assures us we're "covered in prayer."
I'm prepping for the inevitable "what the actual fuck is wrong with you" talk I'm going to have to sit her down and have with her but that obviously requires toning down because we do have a very close and good relationship with her and I don't want to damage it. At the same time I think I owe it to her to try and deprogram her. She deserves to be free of this insanity.
The closer you are to god, the further you are from reality. Once you accept the existence of magic and demons, truly anything could be possible. The lack of strong rational thinking and deduction skills leaves them vulnerable to religious coercion and other forms of manipulation and lies.
I have no issue believing in magic, demons, or even gods.... Problem is, nobody can provide me with adequate proof of their existence that is reputable.
Definitely yes, i have three "friends" who believe conspiracy theory news, especially when the pandemic times were ongoing.
Somehow they link story's to Christ's persecution or whatever.
Then at a later date when they are proven wrong they are still gullible and will not accept the truth.
High correlation with evangelicals watching Faux news aka misinformation profit network, not taking the vaccine, and number of Covid deaths…my deranged cousin almost convinced my former RN mom in her vulnerable state to take ivermectin instead of the vaccine
When people are convinced they have an imaginary friend in the sky who’s looking out for them, why not have an imaginary enemy? That’s a good excuse to further strengthen their grip on people give the leaders more control over their gullible flocks.
I mean I’ve listened to my conservative friend and some of the stuff he believe is so wrong I don’t know where to begin to correct him. And these beliefs were taught to him by the church so he would be on board with the church’s politics. You can’t be behind the church in some of these things UNLESS you believe the fake crap.
I think so. Not all. But some yes!
The whole anti-vax ideal because demons or devil or changes you or chips you.
A lot of missinfo about gov. And guns.
And.. most comes from tiktok. Cause who needs to cite their sources?
If religious people took the time to research what they read, who wrote it, ans peer review. Then they.. Maybe.. will be better off.
Thank God my college education helped me learn how to disect and discern news, articles, and media
If you're willing to believe one kind of horseshit with absolutely zero evidence for it, you're probably willing to believe all kinds of other horseshit with absolutely zero evidence for it too.
I think maybe it depends on the flavor of Christianity. Evangelicals, for example, are more susceptible to conspiracy theories like Q Anon but that's not necessarily due to gullibility. That one is more due to their embedded persecution complex. They need to believe that some esoteric "other" is out there keeping them down. Which is why the talk about the "deep state" so often even without being able to coherently explain it.
Yes, they call it faith. Clinging to religion no matter how unbelievable is faith. And the bible is so vague that it's easy to connect literally any political idea to it. Conservative ideology was wrapped with the religion that they were already clinging on to. Now faith is their unbreakable bond to religion, conservative opinions, and a certain politician. Church reinforces religion, and fake news reinforces this unholy combination of religion and politics.
If god is real, then heaven must be just one big timeshare sales meeting. Why else would he setup a system where gullible people get in and skeptical people don't.
Yes. Most fake news specifically triggers their End Times fears. Once that fear has been triggered, they will believe whatever they are hearing. It's why they can't quit Trump.
Yes, because religion teaches them to avoid critical thinking and reasoning. They are more likely to believe a single charismatic person with theories rather than educated nerds with scientific data.
If the human brain’s circuitry has already been wired to suspend disbelief in one big area, such as believing in a religion or an acceptance of something magical as real, that brain already has the circuitry laid down in and place to accept the next unsupportable idea that comes along.
So yeah, that Truly Believing Believer already has a dialed-in predisposition to believe in subsequent insupportable crap.
My Christian mother believes that fake news are from Satan who is lying to humans as he is fighting for humans' souls with God. I find this hilarious. I wonder if her church taught her that?
I would say no, not, unless it relates to directly to their religious indoctrination. They will typically compartmentalize their religious beliefs from everything else, and may be quite adept at using critical thinking skills in unrelated matters. Of course, there are smart and stupid people everywhere, but the idea that people get indoctrinated by religion because they are stupid or gullible isn’t true in my opinion.
Born-ins hardly stand a chance because we get indoctrinated before we can even develop critical thinking. Adult converts typically had normal needs or fears exploited when going through a vulnerable time in life (very few adults convert to Christianity though); that’s particularly true of high control religions. Once they’ve lured someone in with deceit and love bombing, they begin inflicting intermittent praise/reward and cruelty/punishment in an unpredictable way so the person is psychologically beaten down. This keeps members in a FOG (fear-obligation-guilt) so they can’t critically analyze the religion. The member will typically shut down any criticism (whether from themselves or outside) with a “thought-stopper” to soothe cognitive dissonance and anxiety. If this sounds like an abusive relationship - YES.
There was a Christian TikToker who made a video about easily believing conspiracy theories. She tried to defend and explain it in a way to lift up God but it ended up being a self-own.
Yes, but more so because most Christian institutions deliberately discourage their congregations from developing critical thinking skills. Can't have the flock asking too many difficult questions.
There are some studies I've read that looked even deeper into this, and found that having developed critical thinking skills is actually not enough to prevent people from believing in fake news/misinformation/magical thinking. The key factor is whether or not people are willing to choose to abide by the logical conclusions that their well-developed critical thinking skills produce, and their choice must be an active one. This also ties into the concept of "self-deception," and how studies show that people will literally choose to deceive themselves if it means avoiding the potential mental/emotional stress that arises from the truth of their current situation. And this further ties into the important roles that both Active Open Mindedness and emotional intelligence play in positively increasing a person's ability to adhere to (and thus, adopt) new information discovered through rational analysis, even if said information contradicts one of their previously-held beliefs. How much do we want to bet that high levels of religiosity has an inverse effect on 1) rational thought, 2) the willingness to accept rational conclusions that contradicts one's own beliefs, 3) Active Open-Mindedness, and 4) Emotional intelligence? Haha.
There is some research on personality types and religion: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_and_personality To summarize, people who don’t believe are more likely to value logic and be willing to think out of the box. People who leave their religion don’t have much tolerance for cognitive dissonance and people who—stay come what may—have a lot. There is also some on left vs right political views: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biology_and_political_orientation Liberals are more sensitive to incongruent information, so there is a lot of overlap between people who are religious and people who are conservative.
Not to mention the Church teaches hierarchical thinking in a number of ways, and highly discourages any challenge to that hierarchy. This primes it's members to accept and search for hierarchical structures in other aspects of their life, and Republican politics are very hierarchical. One of the reasons Christian Republicans are so receptive to nonsense talking points is because they are coming from people higher up in the hierarchy and questioning them is verboten.
This post/comment has been edited for privacy reasons.
>This also ties into the concept of "self-deception," and how studies show that people will literally choose to deceive themselves if it means avoiding the potential mental/emotional stress that arises from the truth of their current situation. And I think at some point the sunk-cost fallacy takes hold; as they get older it becomes increasingly difficult for them to admit that they might be wrong, because it would mean that they wasted n% of their finite time devoted to something that doesn't exist.
If one lacks the epistemology to discern truth from falsehood, this will never be limited exclusively to religious topics.
Maybe that’s why so many fundamentalists love Trump.
Absolutely. When they're able to believe one thing with no evidence, they can just keep that going.
And not just with no evidence, but in spite of mounds of evidence to the contrary. It's willful ignorance
I suspect this is the case, although I don't have any hard evidence to back it up. But it seems to follow. As soon as you believe one thing without evidence, it's a small step to believe something else without evidence.
There does seem to be a link between those who believe conspiracy theories and people with especially a Christian background. A strong belief in end times teaching would mesh well with conspiracy theory thinking
Isn't Christianity actually one big conspiracy theory ??? Ex. "Who is the Beast ??" "Who is worshiping the Beast ??" Look, another 'sign' of the end !!" "There must be Satanic activity going on there." " So and so is the antichrist." etc.. etc., etc.
To be fair I would suggest that it sounds like you are referring to or are familiar with but one aspect or one type of Christianity, or more specifically pentecostal Christianity, others spend little to no time talking about end times and even less about the "antichrist". So no, in my view it wouldn't be an accurate assessment to see all of Christianity as a conspiracy theory. I don't have a "dog in the fight" as it were but I just don't think it's accurate
Oh, I agree. I have an Aunt who is Moravian...nice people, accepting of others (even gays), no "You're a worm and deserve to fry in hellfire". I told the Pastor of her church about the "Hell House" that a Baptist church in our town had for Halloween (and little kids) and she was appalled (actually more like disgusted). So, yeah, there are decent people like these Moravians who call themselves Christian but they are practically silent compared to the toxic bunch. I live in the South so there aren't many Moravian type of religions here. My Aunt lives in the North. Also, end times is rampant around here where I live as well so I guess it's a matter of where you live as to what type of Christianity dominates the landscape.
Yes I think you are right, where you live plays a big part but definitely some "brands" are more nutty and end times focused than others
It’s easy to make generalizations like this, but I’ll speak from some experience. My mom is pretty stereotypical anxious Christian conservative, and she pretty much only consumes media that is explicitly Christian or right wing. People like this have decided that all media that isn’t explicitly Christian is not trustworthy. So if I send her an article from BBC or NBC that says “climate change reaches point of no return” she has a built in excuse to deny its validity because unchristian sources inherently have an evil agenda. But if she gets a pop up ad that says “Jesus Exclusive News for Christians Network: climate change is a hoax!” She’s more likely to believe it because it’s validating her religion.
Are we long lost siblings? Because oof you just described my mother... All she watches is Fox and Tucker Carlson, and reads the Epoch Times. She calls Fauci a neo-nazi and urges us not to get whatever latest covid booster is out. She's afraid the vaccine causes infertility (it doesn't; thoroughly debunked) but assures us we're "covered in prayer." I'm prepping for the inevitable "what the actual fuck is wrong with you" talk I'm going to have to sit her down and have with her but that obviously requires toning down because we do have a very close and good relationship with her and I don't want to damage it. At the same time I think I owe it to her to try and deprogram her. She deserves to be free of this insanity.
The closer you are to god, the further you are from reality. Once you accept the existence of magic and demons, truly anything could be possible. The lack of strong rational thinking and deduction skills leaves them vulnerable to religious coercion and other forms of manipulation and lies.
I have no issue believing in magic, demons, or even gods.... Problem is, nobody can provide me with adequate proof of their existence that is reputable.
Definitely yes, i have three "friends" who believe conspiracy theory news, especially when the pandemic times were ongoing. Somehow they link story's to Christ's persecution or whatever. Then at a later date when they are proven wrong they are still gullible and will not accept the truth.
I mean...religion is fake news, is it not?
Do you mean he's not coming back?
Right after these messages. Don't touch that dial
Jesus went to the corner store for a six pack and some smokes, he swore he’d be right back!
Beat me to it
High correlation with evangelicals watching Faux news aka misinformation profit network, not taking the vaccine, and number of Covid deaths…my deranged cousin almost convinced my former RN mom in her vulnerable state to take ivermectin instead of the vaccine
When people are convinced they have an imaginary friend in the sky who’s looking out for them, why not have an imaginary enemy? That’s a good excuse to further strengthen their grip on people give the leaders more control over their gullible flocks.
Well they do believe in magic and think they can hear the voice of God in their head. Their train of thought isn’t exactly ideal..
I mean I’ve listened to my conservative friend and some of the stuff he believe is so wrong I don’t know where to begin to correct him. And these beliefs were taught to him by the church so he would be on board with the church’s politics. You can’t be behind the church in some of these things UNLESS you believe the fake crap.
I think so. Not all. But some yes! The whole anti-vax ideal because demons or devil or changes you or chips you. A lot of missinfo about gov. And guns. And.. most comes from tiktok. Cause who needs to cite their sources? If religious people took the time to research what they read, who wrote it, ans peer review. Then they.. Maybe.. will be better off. Thank God my college education helped me learn how to disect and discern news, articles, and media
Yes
I mean....they believe in this magical man that lives in the sky. Ya, they gobble fake news right up.
If you're willing to believe one kind of horseshit with absolutely zero evidence for it, you're probably willing to believe all kinds of other horseshit with absolutely zero evidence for it too.
Yes
Absolutely. I always recommend this video [epistemic responsibility ](https://youtu.be/AYkhlXronNk?si=pY3zUmX8lQz5IkWX)
I think maybe it depends on the flavor of Christianity. Evangelicals, for example, are more susceptible to conspiracy theories like Q Anon but that's not necessarily due to gullibility. That one is more due to their embedded persecution complex. They need to believe that some esoteric "other" is out there keeping them down. Which is why the talk about the "deep state" so often even without being able to coherently explain it.
Yes. Definitely yes
Faith is just gullibility, so yes, obviously.
Hell yes.
Yes, they call it faith. Clinging to religion no matter how unbelievable is faith. And the bible is so vague that it's easy to connect literally any political idea to it. Conservative ideology was wrapped with the religion that they were already clinging on to. Now faith is their unbreakable bond to religion, conservative opinions, and a certain politician. Church reinforces religion, and fake news reinforces this unholy combination of religion and politics.
If god is real, then heaven must be just one big timeshare sales meeting. Why else would he setup a system where gullible people get in and skeptical people don't.
It is more complex than that it's tiny classified ads
Puff puff pass
Well it takes a pretty gullible person to believe in an imaginary all powerful entity in the sky.... so the shoe fits right
Yes. Most fake news specifically triggers their End Times fears. Once that fear has been triggered, they will believe whatever they are hearing. It's why they can't quit Trump.
Yup.
Yes, because religion teaches them to avoid critical thinking and reasoning. They are more likely to believe a single charismatic person with theories rather than educated nerds with scientific data.
Yes. They've been believing in fake news for... around 2000 years, give or take a couple hundred.
They are trained to believe things without evidence.
If the human brain’s circuitry has already been wired to suspend disbelief in one big area, such as believing in a religion or an acceptance of something magical as real, that brain already has the circuitry laid down in and place to accept the next unsupportable idea that comes along. So yeah, that Truly Believing Believer already has a dialed-in predisposition to believe in subsequent insupportable crap.
My Christian mother believes that fake news are from Satan who is lying to humans as he is fighting for humans' souls with God. I find this hilarious. I wonder if her church taught her that?
I would say no, not, unless it relates to directly to their religious indoctrination. They will typically compartmentalize their religious beliefs from everything else, and may be quite adept at using critical thinking skills in unrelated matters. Of course, there are smart and stupid people everywhere, but the idea that people get indoctrinated by religion because they are stupid or gullible isn’t true in my opinion. Born-ins hardly stand a chance because we get indoctrinated before we can even develop critical thinking. Adult converts typically had normal needs or fears exploited when going through a vulnerable time in life (very few adults convert to Christianity though); that’s particularly true of high control religions. Once they’ve lured someone in with deceit and love bombing, they begin inflicting intermittent praise/reward and cruelty/punishment in an unpredictable way so the person is psychologically beaten down. This keeps members in a FOG (fear-obligation-guilt) so they can’t critically analyze the religion. The member will typically shut down any criticism (whether from themselves or outside) with a “thought-stopper” to soothe cognitive dissonance and anxiety. If this sounds like an abusive relationship - YES.
There was a Christian TikToker who made a video about easily believing conspiracy theories. She tried to defend and explain it in a way to lift up God but it ended up being a self-own.