This might seem tangential to the main conversation thread, but the power of “tribe” can also be used for good. I co-authored a paper in GSA Today (Geological Society of America journal) on a better way to get the religious public to engage with scientific evidence. Those interested in the topic may be interested in reading (and it’s short!).
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Not tangential at all, thanks for sharing. I think much in this thread echos this paragraph from your paper. In-group membership and trust are big deals:
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Well, that’s true to a certain point–but it was actually really kind agnostics and atheists who taught me geology and evolution that rocked my world, showing me that they were better than I and many other Christians and forcing me to take them seriously. I knew that their hearts were closer to God than mine, and I listened to their sincere interpretation as a result.
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A few thoughts on this huge topic, in no particular order:
Especially from the fourth century onward, Christianity in the Roman empire became a cultural identity associated with political and even military institutions as opposed to a path of discipleship radically outside of such institutions. Much of the faith has never recovered. Once Christianity becomes the civil religion of a nation it becomes what civil religions from Sumeria onward have always been, that is, a blend of spiritual devotion and nationalism with a strong authoritarian emphasis.
Self-identified evangelical believers in the US, for example, are more likely than the population at large to say that torture (yes, torture under its own name) is sometimes justified. (Find the survey at Barna, if I’m remembering correctly.) American Christians who profess a high view of Scripture, and of him who said, “put away the sword,” are among the strongest supporters of the military, a fact so obvious that I feel no need to document it.
When certain scientific findings become ciphers for counter-authoritarian political identity, their rejection by authoritarian-minded Christians is inevitable and probably irreversible. In that vein, I was disappointed when I received a video from Biologos that detoured into the issue of climate change. Not that I find evidence of anthropogenic climate change unpersuasive, just that to bring in yet another hot-button issue makes it doubly hard for most evangelicals to give the argument for evolution a chance. On the other hand, it probably makes little difference in the end.
I don’t say any of this with joy, since I am a believer myself with a high view of Scripture and a “conservative” (I use the word in a non-political sense, and still with hesitation) view of biblical ethics.
Then too, Jesus as the gospels present him had a difficult time getting his disciples to understand spiritual meaning as opposed to wooden literalism, from the identity of “Elijah” to the meaning of “the leaven of the Pharisees” and “what comes out of a person is what defiles them.” It’s no wonder now, I guess, that believers have trouble extracting spiritual meaning from Genesis as opposed to literalism that clashes with scientific evidence. Even without the blindness caused by culture war.
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Thanks Christy, I find this whole topic incredibly interesting.
This is the most difficult position to put yourself into, allowing someone with a competing view to challenge you, and take them seriously. It’s the tradition of criticism that fueled the enlightenment, but is still incredibly difficult to attain. Tribalism, or group identity, plays a much bigger part in our world view than we’d like to admit.
I recently read three books by Jonathan Haidt in quick succession and found them very helpful on this topic. There is no shortage of writing on cognitive biases and I’m sometimes tempted to consider it interesting but then move on. I’m only recently recognizing that group identity and associated cognitive biases play a tremendous (insurmountable if you are not aware of it) role in forming our worldview.
David Deutsch, one of my intellectual heroes, suggests that creativity evolved because it equipped individuals to better mirror the memes of their culture. In other words, the evolutionary usefulness of creativity was opposite of the use we value it for now. But when used to challenge our culture and its memes, creativity became a powerful vehicle for knowledge creation and progress.
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There is an emphasis here that only applies to USA tribalism.
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The study was on US political attitudes, yes. It’s my understanding that evolution/creation tribalism isn’t a thing in most other countries either.
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