Don't Talk about Religion on the Internet

There are a lot of things that you're "not supposed to talk about in public." Politics and religion are the two biggies, and things like racism, homophobia, and other such topic all tend to be known to stir up trouble. And while in person these topics may cause a rift between two people to form, on the internet it can cause a webpage to turn into a full-on war zone. Insults will be strewn about and swear words will fall from the sky like fire and brimstone and somebody will inevitably be compared to Hitler.


But we're not here to talk about Youtube commenters. We're here to talk about the Implicit Association Test.  (Greenwald et al., 1998) 


The Implicit Association Test (IAT) is a device used to measure Implicit Racism, or racism that functions unconsciously and without intent, but remains just as damaging as Explicit Racism, which is the type that is deliberately and intentionally enacted against one's fellow man and has declined greatly compared to the former. (Baron &Banaji, 2006; Dunham et al., 2008; Eberhardt et al., 2006)


The IAT works by having a participant press specific keys as fast as he/she can when posed with certain words affiliated with "good" and "bad."After a short preliminary trial, the participant is then posed with a concept such as religion or race or age and is asked to sort those by pressing the keys. And then comes the interesting part. The Participant is asked to sort BOTH a concept such as religion or race as well as words affiliated with good and bad. Through how fast these words are sorted and how mistakes are spotted between the concepts, one can get an idea of how the participant's unconscious mind works when dealing with various concepts like race, religion, weight, age, gender, and sexuality.


(Honestly, without copying the blurbs from the site, I SWEAR there is no easy way to describe these tests "in my own words" Just go do a few: https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/ here. They aren't hard and are actually kinda entertaining.)


The first test I took was a test about gender and how people associate it with science. I took this one because I have always considered myself a feminist and I wanted to see if my subconscious held up with my conscious beliefs. To my relief, they did. I got through that test and discovered that there was no association with me between gender and science. Both consciously and unconsciously I do indeed believe in equality between genders. This could easily have to do with the fact that my grandmother was a chemist and I've grown up among a greater number of women than men, or it could jut be because of all the intricate philosophies I've built up over the years. But yes, in this case I think it shows the "true me."


After that first test I decided to take the "Disability" test, where I would find out if I discriminate against people who have disabilities. Now I went into this honestly with no personal knowledge about the subject. Effectively, I really don't know much about disabled people beyond Oracle from DC Comics (who is a badass genius hacker and leader of the Birds of Prey, but I'm sure you don't know what I'm talking about). I have met only a few disabled people in my life and, while I don't believe I've ever shown any ill will towards disabled people, I wouldn't have been surprised if I ultimately had a slight bit of prejudice against them. To my surprise the results actually came out that I held the disabled in strong PREFERENCE over regular people. Honestly, while I'm glad I don't discriminate against the disabled, I find this hard to believe. I honestly think it messed up. It DID say that if you make too many mistakes that it will give an inaccurate score and I think that's what happened. I made a ton and a half of mistakes during that trial. I mean, I'm not upset that I got this score. Honestly, the disabled need somebody to sympathize with them, given how apparently things aren't in their favor usually, but... it just seems a little bit dubious...


...Unless my unconscious mind thinks all disabled people are like Oracle... then I WOULD prefer the Disabled over normal people...
...If that's the case my unconscious is an idiot...


But just in case I did the Disabled test wrong I went ahead and did a third trial. I did the "Religion" trial. And... unfortunately it confirmed what I've known all along. In a nutshell, I hate religion. Actually, Judaism and Christianity I only slightly discriminate against but Islam I apparently strongly discriminate against. I've known this for a while and it hasn't exactly been UNconscious, but I try not to let it affect my interactions with people. I try my best to just keep religion out of it.


The thing is, I'm agnostic. Very VERY firmly agnostic. I'm not going to say there ISN'T a god or anything, because let's face it, there's just as little evidence to prove against a god than for one. Until I get good, hard evidence either way, I'm not going to say anything about a "god."


However, I think ORGANIZED RELIGION is ultimately harmful to society. At it's core it isn't a bad idea. A bunch of people giving out moral lessons to the public. Okay, sounds good in THEORY, but in practice you actually end up with a ton of people spreading more hate and prejudice, even if they don't mean to, and you really end up only making things worse for people. Honestly, how many people have died at the hands of "God?" How many people have killed innocents because "Allah" says it's what they're supposed to do?


I probably shouldn't go much further on this matter... but suffice to say that religion is a very volatile button with me. I have trouble talking about it without pissing EVERYBODY in the room off.


Now of course, I understand that most people involved in organized religion don't act like this. Certainly not. Most are just looking for answers and comfort in the universe and I can certainly respect that but I do tend to have trouble putting aside the fact that they are ultimately attached to an organization that has resulted in millions upon millions of death throughout time.


Damn. I'm getting off topic and people are going to hate me next class period now... >_<


I've gone on long enough but suffice it to say, yes. I do tend to have a fair bit of prejudice against most religious folk. It's a fault of mine that I really should work on trying to get rid of since I consciously know that most of these people are good people that just want to find comfort and purpose.


Anyway... I should probably wrap this up. In summation, the IAT basically confirmed most of what I already knew about these topics, but I've no doubt that it would be useful in revealing Implicit racism in others. 




(P.S. - There was a fourth religion in that test: Buddhism. I actually strongly associated that religion with good things. I can tell you that yes, this is probably the only organized religion I like for numerous reasons. Mostly because it focuses more on achieving a personal enlightenment and spreading peace and harmony than it does shoving a strict set of rules down a persons throat and if you don't follow these rules then burn in hell you heretic. Also I don't think I've ever heard of anyone killing in the name of Buddhism. If I ever convert I think I know what it'll be to.)


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References - 

Baron, A., & Banaji, M. R. (2006). The Development of Implicit Attitudes: Evidence of Race Evaluations from Ages 6 and 10 and Adulthood.  Psychological Science, 17(1), 53-58. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2005.01664.x

Dunham, Y., Baron, A. S., & Banaji, M. R. (2008). The development of implicit intergroup cognition. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 12(7), 248-253. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2008.04.006

Eberhardt, J. L., Davies, P. G., Purdie-Vaughns, V. J., & Johnson, S. (2006). Looking Deathworthy: Perceived Stereotypicality of Black Defendants Predicts Capital-Sentencing Outcomes. Psychological Science, 17(5), 383-386. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01716.x

Greenwald, A. G., McGhee, D. E., & Schwartz, J. L. K. (1998). Measuring individual differences in implicit cognition: The implicit association test. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74,1464 - 1480.