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Comment by legitster | Hacker News Reader

So, there are actual geopolitical ramifications of this metric.

A lot of US protestant theology is rooted in a concept called "dispensationalism" that was introduced in the mid 1800s. It's a heady concept to explain, but essentially it comes down to a few linked core concepts:

- The secret, sudden arrival of Jesus to "rapture" believers away

- The world is getting worse, not better. There is limited use in improving society.

- Strict literalist interpretation of all scripture (where convenient, obv)

- An individual's ability to discern scripture as well as the state of the world

- Obsession with Israel as a nation-state

https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/dispe...

By tracking this number, you have a good proxy for the current fervor of a lot of intertwined political concepts in the US.

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- The world is getting worse, not better. There is limited use in improving society.

That sounds like 19th century fire and brimstone revivalism. Most Christians are not that nihilistic. The sects that survive and flourish tend to be those that don't impose a fatalistic view of the world.

I agree with the sentiment, but in this specific case, the "nihilism" is more of a green card to do whatever to better your own life, as there is no point improving anyone else's, just focus on yourself and survive.

So here it could be seen as an excuse to not only exploit existing systems, but also to avoid attempts at fixing them.

So in a way, holders of such fatalistic believes are ironically flourishing

Is that religion or that just a popular social sentiment held by religious individuals and communities? I understand how it might be hard to tell the difference with heavily fractured Christian sects. Are pastors writing theological treatise on this, are they addressing it in sermons or is this just a shared attitude reinforced by other small town attitudes?

Very good question and I'm not sure, we should investigate it further

but what I'll push back a bit on is that not all fatalistic convictions result in the death or collapse of the sect holding them, and sometimes it could be the main driver of their success

Interesting but US isn't the only country that does this. There's an entire religion that was imported out of virtue signaling politics that rose out of the economic comforts afforded by this "protestant theology" that defeated a major superpower.

Fast forward to today, that foreign religion has multiplied (largely due to religious customs) while the local population has dwindled and lost much of its power owing to a political ideology overriding theology.

I see this foreign religion not being compatible with the host country's religion or value system and that many are rallying behind a sort of pan-Western theology to counter the many social issues throughout.

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