Harvard professor Steven Pinker criticized Evangelical Christianity for its alleged role in sparking anti-lockdown protests.

Pinker originally posted a tweet supporting a theory that came from an opinion piece in the Washington Post which attacked Evangelical Christians.

“Belief in an afterlife is a malignant delusion, since it devalues actual lives and discourages action that would make them longer, safer, and happier. Exhibit A: What’s really behind Republicans wanting a swift reopening? Evangelicals,” he originally tweeted.

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Pinker’s subsequently deleted the post after considerable backlash. The article that Pinker shared was originally authored by Gary Abernathy. In it, Abernathy claimed that the anti-lockdown protests were spurred not just by support for President Donald Trump, but also a strong focus on the afterlife which allegedly made Christians not care much about the virus.

The article highlighted the following:

Christian fundamentalism is often fatalistic. As far as many evangelicals are concerned, life passes quickly, suffering is temporary, and worrying solves nothing. That’s not a view that comports well with long stretches of earthly time spent waiting out business closures or stay-at-home orders. It should be no surprise that a person’s deepest beliefs about the world influence how they measure the risks they’re willing to take.

Abernathy reached the following conclusion:

When ruminating over why there are millions of people who don’t seem to panic over a global pandemic or other life-threatening event, critics should remember that right or wrong, it often involves a belief in something even bigger than people named Trump, Hannity or Limbaugh.

Pinker’s tweeted received tremendous backlash from conservative commentators such as Dinesh D’Souza.

He tweeted:

Christopher Hitchens once described this pompous Harvard pedant as ‘educated beyond his intelligence.’ Pinker here proves Hitchens right. People want to get back to their jobs, their friends, their life, but Pinker insists their real motive is ‘belief in an afterlife.’

Pinker is a detached elite who has the luxury of having a cushy position at one of the country’s most prestigious institutions.

For him, the struggle of the middle class is foreign.

And like most elites, he can’t handle push back.

So it’s only natural that he delete his post after so much criticism.