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Devotional unity

Devotional Unity and Coalitional Division: How Religion plays both Jekyll and Hyde to Religious Tolerance. Predicts intolerance. Coalitional division. Devotional unity. Predicts tolerance. Ian Hansen. With thanks to. Ara Norenzayan Jeremy Ginges Sheldon Solomon John Rector

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Devotional unity

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  1. Devotional Unity and Coalitional Division: How Religion plays both Jekyll and Hyde to Religious Tolerance Predicts intolerance Coalitional division Devotional unity Predicts tolerance Ian Hansen

  2. With thanks to • Ara Norenzayan • Jeremy Ginges • Sheldon Solomon • John Rector • Ilan Dar-Nimrod • Hakwan Lau

  3. Religion is evil. Not only is it false, but it will make you religiously intolerant and violent

  4. Why religion is bad, in a nutshell • “Incompatible religious doctrines have balkanized our world into separate moral communities, and these divisions have become a continuous source of human conflict.” –Sam Harris, atheist, author of The End of Faith

  5. An example of violent religiously intolerant sentiment “We are at war with Islam… It is not merely that we are at war with an otherwise peaceful religion that has been ‘hijacked’ by extremists.  We are at war with precisely the vision of life that is prescribed to all Muslims in the Koran...” –Pat Robertson, of Christian Coalition infamy

  6. Oops, actually that wasn’t Pat Robertson. It was Sam Harris again More wit and wisdom from Sam: • “What will we do if an Islamist regime…acquires long-range nuclear weaponry? …In such a situation, the only thing likely to ensure our survival may be a nuclear first strike of our own.” BOOM!

  7. Joking aside, Pat Robertson is still scary • “Maybe we need a very small nuke thrown off on Foggy Bottom to shake things up” --Pat Robertson, on the 700 club

  8. Seeker’s dilemma: should you adopt a religious or non-religious worldview? Nuked if you do Nuked if you don’t

  9. What predicts intolerance? • Dogmatism, fundamentalism, exclusivity, authoritarianism--“coalitional rigidity” Coalitional rigidity +* *When controlling for religious devotion Religious intolerance

  10. What predicts coalitional rigidity? • Prayer, belief in God, devotion to the divine, devotion to one’s religious belief, intrinsic religiosity—“religious devotion” Coalitional rigidity + +* *When controlling for religious intolerance Religious devotion Religious intolerance

  11. Incomprehensible Triangle • Religious devotion has a NEGATIVE direct relationship to religious intolerance, although indirectly positively related Coalitional rigidity + + -* Religious devotion Religious intolerance *When controlling for coalitional rigidity

  12. Re-draw the triangle? • Devotion and rigidity: two faces of the same thing? • These inclinations are very highly correlated Coalitional rigidity + + Religious devotion - Religious intolerance

  13. The religious package is Janus-faced with regard to religious intolerance Religious Tolerance Religious intolerance Religious devotion Coalitional rigidity

  14. Janus-faced on Scapegoating

  15. Janus-faced on War and Oppression

  16. Janus-faced on Anti-Pluralism

  17. Janus-faced on intolerance generally

  18. Janus-faced even among Mormons Political intolerance for Multireligious people, Hindus, Muslims, Catholics, Jews and Atheists † p < .1 ** p < .01

  19. How is Janus-faced prediction possible? • The principle of transitivity objection • If A = B and B = C, then how can A = ~C? Answer: • The principle of transitivity applies only to “is exactly the same as”, not “independently predicts”

  20. What is the sound of one hand clapping? • Both processes complementary, but very different—and when examined independently of each other may predict very different things. Religious devotion Rising to all-embracing altruistic loving unity Religion! Coalitional rigidity Pragmatically pushing back limits of altruistic love to a manageable, quality- controlled ingroup

  21. Devotion and rigidity as two complementary yet opposing processes of adaptive ingroup favoritism • Religious devotion: aids the imaginative expansion of the boundary of moral inclusion • Coalitional rigidity: aids the pragmatic hardening of the boundary of moral exclusion

  22. What about experimental evidence?

  23. Terror Management evidence:What makes people hate others also makes them like God

  24. But it also makes them like Buddha Belief in Buddha among Christians

  25. and Shamanic Spirits

  26. And makes them more sanguine about Islam conquering the West Support for a Godly-Islam -will-overthrow-the- faithless-West essay N N

  27. Priming God-esteem increases preference for pacifism over warrior values

  28. Priming God-esteem decreases authoritarianism and political intolerance

  29. This mirrors Ginges et al (2007)

  30. Theoretical implications • Religion is not black and white WRONG! rigidity liberalism VS. + + + + + devotion intolerance atheism + tolerance

  31. Think of things more in terms of complementary colors Tolerance Intolerance

  32. Think of things more in terms of complementary colors Coalitional rigidity Liberal-mindedness

  33. Think of things more in terms of complementary colors Religious Devotion Irreligious non-devotion

  34. Think of things more in terms of complementary colors Tolerance Intolerance

  35. With Janus-faced adjustment… Religious package : Religious-devotion/coalitional-rigidity Religious tolerance and nonviolence Religious intolerance and violence Non-religious package : Liberal-mindedness/irreligious non-devotion

  36. Not all divides equally likely Mother Teresa vs. Christopher Hitchens Texas vs. Sweden Mohandas Gandhi vs. Winston Churchill Common Common Rare

  37. A very common—perhaps natural?—psychological divide (Religious) Right Left (Irreligious)

  38. Psych tip for the Pentagon How to get both Right and Left behind the “War of Civilizations” BOOM! BOOM! RIGID devoted ATHEIST liberal Pump up the Right with rigidity Pump up the Left with atheism

  39. Burning question:Aren’t some religions and ideologies more tolerant than others?

  40. Watch the Muslims Part 1 (Malaysia) Muslims most intolerant

  41. Watch the Muslims Part 2 (10 nations) Muslims least intolerant

  42. Review Does religion contribute to war, oppression and intolerance in the world? --Likely, but it can also contributes to peace, freedom and tolerance Do more religious religions have more potential for intolerance and violence? --Yes, but also more potential for tolerance and nonviolence Can religions be rank ordered by intolerance and support for violence? --Yes, but the rank ordering is very volatile and can be turned on its head from one measure of intolerance to the next, one country to the next, one period of history to the next.

  43. Chicken & Egg issues • Coalitional rigidity pragmatically shadows pro-social religious devotion? Or • Religious devotion gives people memorable content to be adaptively rigid about?

  44. Pleistocene accident or proximal psychological process? • Are devotion and rigidity separate processes that adaptively balance each other? or • Does proximal stimulation of devotion cause rigidity or vice versa?

  45. Sociology vs. Psychology • Even if religious devotion is psychologically related to tolerance for the individual, do sociological pressures ensure that rigidity will overshadow devotion?

  46. Conclusion

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