[Intro]
[Low Bass Drone / Organ / Sparse Electric Guitar]
Think…
(Before you blink)
What makes us believe…
(You can conceive?)
Cognitive ability
(Showin’ off its fragility)
[Verse 1]
There’s a world of information
(Coming through the door)
But more information
(Doesn’t always mean more)
You can know the facts
(And still deny)
You can see the evidence
(And ask why?)
Simple little stories
(Can be easy to believe)
Complex little systems
(Are harder to perceive)
Feedback loops
(And probabilities)
Long-term trends
(And nonlinearities)
[Refrain]
Not simply ignorance
(Often it’s more)
Lacking any tolerance
(Preferring blood and gore)
Cognitive ability
(Lacking sensibility)
Christian nationalism
(Lacking humane vision)
[Verse 2]
A thermometer says one thing
(A politician says another)
A scientist shows the evidence
(Nature is our mother)
Trust becomes the battlefield
(Who do you believe?)
The institution gets rejected
(Because you don’t agree)
[Pre-Chorus]
If the story fits the identity
(The evidence can wait)
If the evidence threatens identity
(It becomes something to hate)
[Refrain]
Not simply ignorance
(Often it’s more)
Lacking any tolerance
(Preferring blood and gore)
Cognitive ability
(Lacking sensibility)
Christian nationalism
(Lacking humane vision)
[Bridge]
[Beat Drops / Distorted Organ / Whispered Vocals]
Less capacity…
(Complicates complexity)
Lacking cognition
(Void of any wisdom?)
[Instrumental]
[Fast Psychedelic Guitar / Bass Pulse / Drum Fills]
Think!
(Before you blink)
Question!
(Your education)
… or lack thereof
(And what about love?)
[Pre-Chorus]
And that’s where intuition
(Can lead you astray)
Because complicated systems
(Don’t always behave that way)
[Refrain]
Not simply ignorance
(Often it’s more)
Lacking any tolerance
(Preferring blood and gore)
Cognitive ability
(Lacking sensibility)
Christian nationalism
(Lacking humane vision)
[Breakdown]
[Half-Time / Spoken Vocal]
Cognition…
What can you process?
(More or less)
Recognition…
(Of what you possess)
Cognitive ability
(Showin’ off its fragility)
[Final Bridge]
[Band Builds / Crowd Vocals]
Think beyond the tribe!
(Think to what you proscribe!)
Think beyond the certainty
(… till you find clarity)
[Final Refrain]
Not simply ignorance
(Often it’s more)
Lacking any tolerance
(Preferring blood and gore)
Cognitive ability
(Lacking sensibility)
Christian nationalism
(Lacking humane vision)
[Outro]
Not simply ignorance
(If it’s on purpose)
Not simply intelligence
(If you choose to lose)
Cognitive ability
(Needs humility)
Reasoning without reflection
(Can become a weapon)
[Organ / Guitar Feedback / Fading Drum Beat]
Cognitive ability
(Showin’ off its fragility)
[Final Whisper]
Cognitive ability…
(Needs humane vision.)
Face-to-face reality
(Moral of the lesson)
About the Song
Cognitive Ability, Christian Nationalism & Climate Change Denial
A 2026 study by sociologist S. L. Perry finds a significant negative association between verbal cognitive ability and Christian nationalist beliefs in the United States.
That finding raises an important question:
What does cognition have to do with climate change denial?
Climate science is extraordinarily complex. Understanding it requires processing interconnected systems, probabilities, feedbacks, long-term trends, and evidence that cannot simply be evaluated through everyday experience.
This creates several pathways toward climate skepticism:
🧠 Intuitive thinking can favor simple narratives over complex scientific evidence.
✝️ Christian nationalist ideology can reinforce distrust of secular scientific and academic institutions.
🛡️ Motivated reasoning can allow people with substantial cognitive ability to construct sophisticated defenses of beliefs that are deeply connected to their political, religious, or cultural identity.
The result is a paradox: Less cognitive capacity can make complex science harder to process. Greater cognitive capacity can make existing beliefs harder to dislodge.
The problem is therefore not simply ignorance.
It is the interaction of cognition, ideology, identity, institutional trust, and reasoning.
Cognitive Ability, Christian Nationalism, and Climate Change Denial
From the album “Present Tense“