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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: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 09 2017, @08:04PM (3 children)
At first glance, you might suppose that people would pick non-demanding religion, but this isn't the case.
The more you are doing, the more you have committed yourself. Spending time and money, or proclaiming a nonsensical belief, are forms of commitment. Public display, and a punishment for leaving, help to keep people in.
So, things found in a winning religion:
Multiple times per day, you must interrupt what you are doing. You might have to stop a factory production line. You must perform a strange ritual in a relatively public way. For example, you have to wash your feet and then get down on the floor.
You are required to ostracize or even kill the nonbelievers, particularly those who were formerly believers. You of course believe that your own family would do this to you if you were to leave, so you have to at least pretend to believe. Of course, if you pretend to believe, this encourages other people to believe and it also commits you via your time investment.
There is a command to produce children. There is a command to spread into other lands, and to convert or kill the non-believers. Polygamy can help by creating an excess of unsatisfied young males who can be sent off to fight. Additional motivation can be had by letting those young males take wives or sex slaves from the non-believers, or at least rape the non-believers. To defend against this tactic from other religions, it is essential to maintain tight control over women.
The religion must affect all aspects of life. There can be nothing untouched by it, because that would allow a temporary escape that might lead to greater escape. There can be no legal framework superior to the religion, and no government can be acknowledged as supreme. No education or discovery may be permitted to contradict the religion.
(Score: 4, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Friday November 10 2017, @01:18AM
Agreed, this is why I try to avoid Utah.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 10 2017, @06:47AM
They are the world's most successful chain letters. Bob broke the chain and suffered eternal punishment but Julie stayed faithful and lived happily ever after.
(Score: 2) by marcello_dl on Friday November 10 2017, @12:18PM
An interesting post. Of course it starts from the implicit premise that all religion is about social control, to conclude that all religion is about social control, through a post-facto analysis of a selected sample of popular religion based power structures, but there is something to be said nonetheless.
A big problem I see is "The religion must affect all aspects of life" spoken as if it were not a natural and inescapable result of being religious with no hypocrisy. Even if your religion is no-religion, your no-religion is about the meaning of your existence (random existence with no meaning, or adhering by choice to a system of values chosen according to your preferences), so everything you do should takes that into account.
It is funny you speak about no temporary escape because the atheist consumerist society with its 24/7 culture is the one which implements just that, while the most religion accepting culture, which has been pre christian Rome, had more holidays than work days.
Another big problem "No education or discovery may be permitted to contradict the religion" because if your religion is indeed about the supernatural creator, there is no way educations or discoveries can contradict it, given that no discovery can prove anything outside the domain where it has been defined and no education can discriminate between beliefs none of which is provable.