This is common knowledge right? Like, its obvious.

So is conservativism.

And water is wet.

The people who believe in imaginary beings aren't smart?

Sadly, many people born with perfectly functional brains are spending hours every day eroding their own cognitive abilities. The habit of taking in minimal information, making an instant value judgement and moving on to the next item, is shrinking attention spans and degrading decision-making skills.

I don't like to talk down but I lost two friends to the far-right. They mean well, to a certain extent, but they are not the brightest bulb. I think not being particularly smart have made them insecure as they were mocked. And insecure people are susceptible to extremism.

As much as this idea makes me feel good, pretending that the results of a vocabulary test are a reasonable measure of cognitive ability is the purest of pseudo-science.

As a community we shouldn't be spreading this kind of nonsense.

Does education really matter if they just pay for private schools to graduate without merit?

But which came first the chicken or the indoctrination?

This should surprise no one.

You can't fix stupid, and when stupid gets angry, it starts fights.

I'm sure if this test were applied to all fundamentalist Abrahamics, there would be similar results (I read one further study cited that had similar results with Judaism, but I did not see one for Islam, though I only read two of the studies).

I encourage all atheists to either read their respective tomes (skeptic's annotated Tanakh/Bible/Koran is great for finding vaguely remembered verses) and especially to listen to what they say today. Hasidic Jews, Nation of Islam, or Assembly of God are good examples.

There are many recordings of their teachers (much in English) all over youtube, you can hear it directly from their mouths to your ears, nothing third hand.

Even a half an hour of the 700 club (like Fundie Light) can be very revealing, just pick a topic that you're curious about and see what they say.

It's horrifying. You won't believe it if you don't research it yourself, if I told you, you'd think I am making things up. It's crazy I still have to go back to it from time to time to remind myself that it's real, because you want to deny it, it's too awful.

Is this a 1 to 1 ratio? The dumber you are the easier you'll fall victim to snake oil salesmen? Is that why the wrestler's wife is running the schools in the old usa?

US Christian = Islam radical

As a layman with no education, I am confident there is some kind of correlation to lead levels in the blood.

Religion is a nice fairy tale. Having a brush with death, twice, there's nothing. Sorry. My last words were, well shit...

I wonder when we can do something with this, except feel Superior.

It does what it says on the box. Imagine being so morally and ethically bankrupt that you need the threat of Hell not to kill steal murder and rape -- and even that doesn't work a lot of the time.

If you’re going to claim that Christian Nationalists are dumb as hell then I’ll agree with you.

However, if you’re going to claim to have a scientific method to measure “cognitive ability” then I’m going to call you full of shit.

So, let’s look at what the article says they actually measured:

lower scores on a vocabulary test commonly used to measure cognitive ability

A vocabulary test… they did worse on a vocabulary test.

So like I said; calling this a measure of cognitive ability is bull shit.

linked to stronger religious affiliation and susceptibility to propaganda

FTFY. ☝🏼

Shocking. People who have no critical thinking skills and believe everything happens according to some divine plan have a lower cognitive ability? Throw in some astrology and crystals and it isn’t any different.

So… Christian’s are dipshits. It like we didn’t know this already. Wait, do they think we’re Christians?

Underestimating your enemy is never a good strategy.

Post like these are just opium to keep you passive.

Not sure how strong this study is but the idea makes sense. Religion requires a lot of faith and lacks a lot of concrete proof.