A recent study, conducted at the University of British Columbia suggests that analytical thinking can decrease religious belief. Here is the brief summary:
A new study finds that analytic thinking can decrease religious belief, even in devout believers. The study finds that thinking analytically increases disbelief among believers and skeptics alike, shedding important new light on the psychology of religious belief.
If true this is consistent with other findings that among professional philosophers and world-class scientists—those trained in analysis—religious belief is practically non-existent. It also provides evidence for the main thesis of my recent article “Religion’s Smart-People Problem.”
The study, published in the April 27 issue of Science, found that the negative effect on religious belief caused by thinking analytically applied to both believers and skeptics. This doesn’t surprise me, as the philosophical basis for most religious beliefs is weak at best.
I’m a senior, and a short story writer. A lot of my stories deal with religion and the afterlife. I struggled for much of my life with religion, before I finally realized that being agnostic was the only logical way for me.
I have several very religious friends who revert to the Bible as their proof. Other than that they can only answer with “you must have faith” or “God works in mysterious ways”. What is the best answer to come back with??
@Ron. I suppose it will vary depending on audience but perhaps it can be productive to get to the root of the world views. You can either have faith that someone else has a plan for you and be as an invalid, or a dependent, or a child, with a parent figure making the best decisions on your behalf. It would be an understandable comfort for people who are losing their faculties. Or you can fight for your autonomy to the last second, both the freedom and the responsibility for your own actions, and do your best to craft your own future instead of leaving it to pure chance at best.
So as long as I can remember I have been scared shit less of dying and not just me dying but the people I love dying it always made me wonder why? Why is there a huge universe that we have no idea what goes beyond it? Why have we discovered more of that then planet earth’s ocean? The answer is obvious the human body is allowed to go only so far before it either explodes or implodes which to me means we are not meant to know. So what are we meant to know? I know I laugh my ass off to a good stand up comic I know I tear up like a little bitch when I watch the pursuit to happiness with Will Smith I know I get pissed off when the bad guy on ghost acts like he has nothing to do with Patrick Swayze’s murder. But I can’t help to think these feelings I have are superficial made by us humans, I mean imagine you were born with no human interaction other then to stay alive doing what you need to do.. Do you think any of these movies would make you feel the same way? I’m pretty sure the answer is no. Why? Because these feelings were created by us to release the same pleasure as if we were to find a rabbit that was just sitting for us to eat with no need to hunt. Now don’t get me wrong what we do and what we continue to do, evolution in other words “sorry Christians but it’s a fact” is good for the human mind it gives us purpose in this exsistance we will never understand. But there is one thing without any human made thing that happens to us and that is a Orgasmen, for some reason we have this incredible feeling that happens if you were a caveman or live in 2015. I guess in closing this is my statement. we are here to reproduce, for what? If we were meant to know we wouldn’t implode or explode when we try to find the answer. just do what makes you happy and I promise you will find out in the end. Remember nothing is certain in life other than death and taxes.
Sorry for the grammar
Clay.