Politics and Religion

I’ve read several fascinating studies recently that demonstrate the area of the brain where both religious and political beliefs reside.  Neuroscientists at USC were able to demonstrate via MRI that the same area of the brain went into defensive mode when either religious or political views were challenged.  Once such defenses are triggered, logic and reason are displaced by entrenchment.  (See https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/12/161223115757.htm).

So that explains it!  I have oft wondered why when discussing politics with friends of differing perspectives they are likely to become hostile, vindictive, name-calling, Trump sycophants.  For liberals and conservatives alike, deeply held beliefs are just that, deeply held and not subject to reason and rational thought.  I have suffered from the belief that once my position is explained as a logical, rational position given what I value most many will agree with me.  No amount of reason will convict an atheist to become a Christian, a conservative to become a liberal, or a bigot to support civil liberties and civil rights.  The attempt to change someone’s mind in either of these arenas are likely a waste of time.  “Never wrestle with a pig.  You get dirty and the pig likes it.”  George Bernard Shaw

So, as a human being capable of reason and logic, why do thoughts about politics and religion become so deeply ingrained?  Why do we become instantly irrational when discussing these beliefs?  If I believe an aspirin a day helps me avoid strokes, and then read that taking a nap does so even better, I am likely to abandon the aspirin for a nap.  I am not upset.  I do not feel the need to defend the aspirin I once believed in, but now I have new data and believe differently.  Such rational thought does not exist in religion or politics.  It may be because it is in those two areas, perhaps more, that we define ourselves.  If our personal definition is grounded in falsehood we do not want to know it and will deny to the point of creating falsehoods or maintain our delusion.  If I see myself as a Christian Conservative any effort that uses facts to persuade me of an error in my positioning is attacking my very self-image.  I cannot allow that to happen.  So we have seemingly rational people walking around believing that giving millionaires more money somehow economically helps poor people, or they believe that the earth is 6,000 years old.  Both of those beliefs have been clearly debunked by knowledge and reason and science.  And yet, for some a challenge to belief based on fact remains grounds for verbal war.  Or worse.

We cannot agree on the most simple of facts because our belief blinders stand in our way and we cannot see.  Clinton received almost 3 million more votes than Trump.  That is a fact.  That fact cannot be swept away because we do not want to believe that fact or that fact is not aligned with what I believe or worse that I engage in fantasy about fraudulent votes are the only way that can be true.  Of 58 Presidential elections, Trump ranks 46^th in the number of Electoral College votes received. Any way you slice it, 46 lies on the number line closer to 58 than to 1^st.  He did not receive the most electoral votes ever, he did not win by a landslide.  He enters office with only a 42% approval rating, the lowest ever recorded.  Those are facts.  

But they are facts that Trumpeters do not believe or are not willing to believe when a fact is a fact is a fact whether one believes it or not.  The same is true for the crowd attending the Trump inauguration.  Yes, it was less than Obama’s crowd and even less than the women’s march the next day.  But for the believer, those facts cannot be right, someone must be to blame, someone must be attacking us for some reason, or somehow these facts are tainted and not valid.  If we believe Trump was elected overwhelmingly and enters the White House with a mandate supported by the largest cheering crowd in history we are denying facts to bolster our belief.  And that is scary.  Because if we cannot deal with facts we cannot lead.  If we cannot take one on the chin, we cannot lead.  If we have to have it our way despite the data, then we cannot lead.  I would go so far to say even using the term “alternative facts” hits a serious delusional position wherein the belief system must, absolutely must win no matter what the facts say.  Such a person should not lead.  They should not teach.  They should not serve in law enforcement or the justice system, they should not be employed in a position that handles a lot of money, or is responsible for a lot of weapons.  They should not be high school referees.  The thought of such a person as President is beyond belief.

The most interesting point in all the above discussion is that it does not matter.  Trump won.  Trump is President.  The crowd size, electoral votes, the mandate, the approval rating are all just extraneous facts as opposed to alternative facts.  It does not matter.  Trump won.  What matters is civil liberties, tariffs, pipelines, Mexico, China, Europe, etc.  We are not spending nearly enough time on those issues.

It also matters what the personal characteristics are of this person now our President   Do we really want a President who cannot let go of his belief system even when handed the facts?  Do we want a President who will spend millions on commissions to determine if the facts as he sees them are better than the facts we have, the facts we know, the facts that have already been verified?  Do we want a President whose skin is so thin that he will attack members of the media if he thinks they are putting him in a bad light?  Do we want a President who is not willing to be honest with us about his income taxes whether you care about it or not?  Do we want a President who issues policy, opinion and belief system tenets via Twitter?  Do we want a President whose mantra of “America First” really means “Me First”?  Do we want a President who only knows how to be a top-down boss and does not have a clue how to be a public servant?

And after we honestly answer those questions perhaps we can have a rational conversation about free trade versus tariffs, walls for borders, registry of alternative religious belief systems, rejection of people based on their belief systems and country of origin, more oil pipelines, etc.  Perhaps we can talk about his appointments and the fact that they either know absolutely nothing about the area they are to lead, or are out and out hostile to the department they are to lead.  It is as though the Pope is appointing non-church going atheists as cardinals.

And at last, will my friends who are so quick to vilify and spill vitriol be willing to sit and talk about the America they want to see.  What is your vision?  Do we really want to be known as the nation that built a wall?  Do we really want to be known as the nation that began to register people based on their religious belief?  Do we really want to put ourselves first to the degree that we harm other members of the international family?  What shall we stand for?  What shall we be known for?  In my heart of hearts I truly hope it is to stand for what is right regarding the treatment of any other human being regardless of sex or religious belief, or race, or ethnicity, or handicapping condition, or wealth, or sexual preference or sexual identify.  We should show the world how well diversity can work, not show the world how we are striving to reduce the degree of diversity.  If planet earth, the United States, the 50 states, the cities and towns all devolve to a sense of “me first” we have returned to a new dark age where it is OK to compete with others, it is OK to lie to win, it is OK to persecute those who are different from us, it is OK to continue to allow the billionaires to ride the backs of the middle class.  That is not my view.  I can discuss it rationally. 

I cannot rationally discuss my deep love for human beings, my deep love for education, my deep love for the equal treatment of all, and my deep love of these United States as defenders of liberty including civil liberties.  Those beliefs are tied to my religious beliefs.  I have real difficulty being rational in those areas and am much more likely to become emotional.  How can I possibly say I love God if I hate or fear or persecute my fellow man?  No one born on planet earth, by definition, can be an alien.

Well, perhaps with the exception of Trump.