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from the "number-of-the-beast"-is-natural,-whole,-rational,-real,-AND-imaginary dept.
Religious beliefs are not linked to intuition or rational thinking, according to new research by the universities of Coventry and Oxford. Previous studies have suggested people who hold strong religious beliefs are more intuitive and less analytical, and when they think more analytically their religious beliefs decrease.
But new research, by academics from Coventry University's Centre for Advances in Behavioural Science and neuroscientists and philosophers at Oxford University, suggests that is not the case, and that people are not 'born believers'. The study -- which included tests on pilgrims taking part in the famous Camino de Santiago and a brain stimulation experiment -- found no link between intuitive/analytical thinking, or cognitive inhibition (an ability to suppress unwanted thoughts and actions), and supernatural beliefs.
Instead, the academics conclude that other factors, such as upbringing and socio-cultural processes, are more likely to play a greater role in religious beliefs.
[Abstract]: Supernatural Belief Is Not Modulated by Intuitive Thinking Style or Cognitive Inhibition
Would you agree with this conclusion or do you believe that there is something else that influences people's religious beliefs ?
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday November 09 2017, @09:34PM (4 children)
Yet another reprise in a timeless debate that hasn't grown any less futile. You either believe in God, or you don't. "Believe" is the operative word in that statement. You can't scientifically proved there is a God, but you also can't scientifically prove there isn't.
Plenty of atheists and anti-theists have chimed in on this thread, but not really any people have faith have, so I will. I am a person of faith. I know God is real.
I did not start that way. I despised religion. I mocked blind faith. My cynicism saw through everything. I am intelligent and highly educated and knew better.
Then too much happened to in my life in such a way to get me through the long dark stretches when I was destitute and broken to chalk it all up to random chance. Since then I have received every blessing, save one, that I ever hoped for. Every boon I ever prayed for, save one, I have been granted. And none of it was through my own efforts, great though they were; I know that because every stratagem I tried, failed. Success always came from unexpected quarters, from people I didn't know, through serendipity I hadn't earned or didn't deserve. That's the scale of what it took to bring me to faith, to have learned so much and thought so hard and strived so endlessly only to be leveled by utter failure, and then to nevertheless receive what I had hoped for as a complete gift.
The thing of it is, that is my path and mine alone. It won't work for anyone else in the same way. Anyone who hasn't walked a path like it won't understand, or may even recoil. I'm sure that there are legions ready to spring forward and prove how wrong or deluded I am. That's fine. They're welcome to their perspectives, all of which are as thoroughly examined and thoughtfully laid out as my own.
At most I feel sorry for how bitterly alone those folks will feel when their friends have deserted them, when family turns away, when their own strength has failed, and when they're at their wits' end. I know that's how I felt, bitterly alone. I wasn't.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by takyon on Thursday November 09 2017, @09:49PM (2 children)
I know that you don't know, but that you do believe.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Friday November 10 2017, @03:57AM
But he believes he knows.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by etherscythe on Friday November 10 2017, @06:33PM
Nothing is true. Everything is permitted.
"Fake News: anything reported outside of my own personally chosen echo chamber"
(Score: 5, Insightful) by fyngyrz on Thursday November 09 2017, @09:57PM
A minor reprise:
See how that sounds when it's filled in by a different imaginary friend? To the point: How would one go about "proving" there is no Easter Bunny? It's 100% handwaving. Now, if there was an Easter Bunny, one would just bring the little hopper to the table, have him crap out some chocolate eggs, jelly beans, and filaments of green plastic basket lining, and chant "nyah nyah" while enjoying the (Cadbury) egg on the doubter's faces.
The foregoing demonstrates a perfect truth: You can never prove something does not exist; you can only prove it does.
There's no case to be made for anyone having to disprove something there has been no evidence presented in support of. If you wish to make the case that whatever it is that you believe in is a real thing, the obligation is 100% on you to prove your case by bringing actual evidence (repeatable, consensually experiential, testable) to the table: not on others to disprove it. If you're not up for that, fine, but don't go expecting expect critical thinkers to take you seriously, because that way, I absolutely assure you, lies only disappointment.
These things do not balance. Presenting them as you did is not valid, and creates no worthy argument to ride forth brandishing on your charger of faith.