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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 maxwell demon on Monday November 27 2017, @06:36AM
I agree to everything but one sentence in this comment:
Which reinforces my diagnosis that out disagreement is really only about the meaning of the word "believe". Belief just means that you are of the opinion that something is true, independent on how you have come to that opinion. You may have come to that opinion by analysing the available data, then it is knowledge. You may have come to that opinion by blindly accepting something an authority told you is true, then it is faith. But in both cases, it is belief.
Note also that both knowledge and faith are prone to be wrong, and both may be right. Your knowledge may be based on false data. And your faith may come from blindly believing someone who actually has knowledge. The difference is that knowledge has a much better chance to be right than faith.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.