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Thinking Can Undermine Religious Faith, Study Finds
LA Times ^ | April 27, 2012 | Amina Khan

Posted on 04/26/2012 7:47:20 PM PDT by lbryce

Scientists have revealed one of the reasons why some folks are less religious than others: They think more analytically, rather than going with their gut. And thinking analytically can cause religious belief to wane — for skeptics and true believers alike.

The study, published in Friday's edition of the journal Science, indicates that belief may be a more malleable feature of the human psyche than those of strong faith may think.

The cognitive origins of belief — and disbelief — traditionally haven't been explored with academic rigor, said lead author Will Gervais, a social psychologist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: agnostic; athesim; god; religion
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With early Man's utter unfamiliarity with the concept of science, his limited capacity in understanding the fundamentals for the dynamics of the world all around him combined with his insatiable curiosity, thirst for knowledge, that the wondrous phenomena all around him was created by God was an elegant solution to satisfying Man's fundamental need to know, being intellectually fulfilled for as long as it held.

But with time, asking questions, probing deeper into the inner workings of the world that surrounded him, Man began to learn, understand that the world around him was not rooted in supernatural power but that of principles of natural phenomena unraveled, as such the power, the belief in a supernatural deity, a God,diminished over time and continues to do so, by those who ask questions, seek out the truth, answer questions that religion, the belief in a God simply finds itself much too inadequate to resolve.

1 posted on 04/26/2012 7:47:26 PM PDT by lbryce
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To: lbryce

Dunno about that. I wandered through agnosticism and atheism and it was thinking that finally led me to God. Science offered no answers that weren’t based on a high degree of faith, along with contradictory and constantly changing theories.


2 posted on 04/26/2012 7:53:27 PM PDT by Hootowl
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To: lbryce
Nonsense.
3 posted on 04/26/2012 7:53:38 PM PDT by what's up
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To: lbryce

I’m sure Isaac Newton and Johannes Kepler would disagree.


4 posted on 04/26/2012 7:56:52 PM PDT by Idaho_Cowboy (Fight because its right, not because the odds are on your side.)
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To: lbryce

And thusly the advocates of scientism have gone on to this day.

However they have only managed to shrivel and depersonalize the world with their presuppositions.

Rigorous, logical thinking does not play favorites when given the premises of theism. It works equally well with them as it does with the premises of atheism. Logic can’t furnish any premises any more than science can prove there isn’t a God. All the pretense of science to where theology had once been has done, is to cheapen the realm of knowledge, and reduce the view of man to that of some kind of automaton.


5 posted on 04/26/2012 7:56:57 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Sometimes progressives find their scripture in the penumbra of sacred bathroom stall writings (Tzar))
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To: lbryce

St. Thomas Aquinas would be so pleased.


6 posted on 04/26/2012 7:57:06 PM PDT by bunkerhill7 (Tomes for the Times?? Who knew?)
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To: lbryce

If this is true, then how come pretty much every atheist I’ve ever met was atheist of the “my kitty died when I was 5 years old, therefore God doesn’t exist” mold?


7 posted on 04/26/2012 7:58:04 PM PDT by Yashcheritsiy (Anybody but Obama and Romney)
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To: lbryce
Written by Amina Khan, Berkley Grad, wrote for Arianna Huffington, and lists no religion. (Her linkedin page)

My husband accuses me of being over analytical. Now I can tell him that just can't be true because I'm Catholic!

8 posted on 04/26/2012 8:00:05 PM PDT by MacMattico
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To: Hootowl

Here’s one to think about: they killed Christ and he came back. Now, how much thinking can overcome fact?


9 posted on 04/26/2012 8:00:43 PM PDT by Bowtie52
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To: lbryce

Good. Would someone please tell the Eastern orthodox Church this. I’m in the process of joining and most days the studying has my brain on life support.


10 posted on 04/26/2012 8:01:32 PM PDT by bad company (There are no illegal guns, just undocumented firearms.)
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To: lbryce; betty boop; marron; Alamo-Girl; little jeremiah; metmom; xzins; GodGunsGuts; Fichori; ...
They're at it again beep.

Looks like another phishing "study"

11 posted on 04/26/2012 8:01:43 PM PDT by YHAOS (you betcha!)
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To: Yashcheritsiy
I have a neighbor that is an atheist. He did live through Nazi occupation. Therefore, for him, God doesn't exist.

100% emotional reaction of a child under horrible circumstances, and nothing rational or thoughtful about it.

It's common. I pray for them.

/johnny

12 posted on 04/26/2012 8:04:16 PM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: lbryce

Ridiculous!

As a Marine (which requires thinking), and a member of MENSA (which means I think quite a bit), I have never wavered in my Faith in God.

If, as they think they have answered, which came first, The Chicken or the Egg, the Chicken didn’t just crawl out of the protoplasm...it was, as I was, created.


13 posted on 04/26/2012 8:09:04 PM PDT by Shadowstrike (Be polite, Be professional, but have a plan to kill everyone you meet.)
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To: lbryce
I should have included to say that science does by no means pretend to have all the answers but at least atheists, agnostics will say so up front. I've never come across any religious discussion dealing with God in which 'I don't know' seems a viable response.

It's just that religious people do in fact discourage thinking, probing too deeply for fear of seeming intellectually inadequate. To scoff at questions of where the Universe came from, how does something emerge out of nothing, is easily applied to God. Where did God come from? How did God emerge out of nothingness?? Would love to hear some answers that don't border on the inane.

14 posted on 04/26/2012 8:10:32 PM PDT by lbryce
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To: JRandomFreeper

Perhaps because he was alive at the end of the Nazi occupation was because God does exist and was protecting him, giving him the will to survive, inspiring others to help him survive. Do you know if he has ever considered that?

And then there is the excellent book “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor Frankl


15 posted on 04/26/2012 8:12:42 PM PDT by GreyFriar (Spearhead - 3rd Armored Division 75-78 & 83-87)
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To: lbryce

God’s invisible nature is made plain through what has been made, so “unbelievers” are without excuse. The fact is, for all their hauteur, they suppress the truth. The entire universe was made through Jesus, so every “discovery” points to Him. It is a refusal to honor Him, not an innocent mistake.


16 posted on 04/26/2012 8:12:42 PM PDT by avenir (I'm pessimistic about man, but I'm optimistic about GOD!)
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To: lbryce

So violent gang members, drunk frat boys, and drug addicted prostitutes are examples of the enlighten state of having no religion?


17 posted on 04/26/2012 8:13:33 PM PDT by MNDude
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To: lbryce
This is a creation. You are a created being.

G_d loves you, otherwise he wouldn't have created you.

18 posted on 04/26/2012 8:15:20 PM PDT by rawcatslyentist ("Behold, I am against you, O arrogant one," Jeremiah 50:31)
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To: lbryce
As for whether this should alarm the layperson, Epley shrugged. "Even deeply religious people will point out they have had moments of doubt," he said.

which kinda undermines their premise in the first place...see Mother Teresa's life for both sides.
19 posted on 04/26/2012 8:16:32 PM PDT by stylin19a
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To: lbryce; Hootowl; 1000 silverlings; Alex Murphy; bkaycee; blue-duncan; boatbums; caww; ...
Thinking Can Undermine Religious Faith, Study Finds

Only if you don't know what you believe and why you believe it.

My husband, my kids, and I are VERY analytical thinking people and we ALL have strong faith.

Believing in God does not equate to kissing your brains goodbye.

Hootowl, you're right. Science depends way more on faith than most scientific types care to admit. The reason they don't acknowledge it is that for the most part, science is being used as an alternative to God for those who have issues over God that are NOT related to science or intellect. People turn to science for justification to reject Him.

20 posted on 04/26/2012 8:18:26 PM PDT by metmom ( For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore & do not submit again to a yoke of slavery)
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