Psychology Today Plus Flashcards
On Accepting the Truth About Our Own Species.
Even now, opponents of evolution cling desperately to the illusion that human beings — and, in some cases, living things generally — are so special that only a benevolent Creator could have produced them.
It is hard enough to adjust your opinion — think of how much easier it is to change your clothes than to change your mind — harder yet to relinquish a cherished perspective. Especially one that has the blessing of religious belief. As Jonathan Swift noted centuries ago in his essay, Seeking Wisdom, “You cannot reason a person out of a position he did not reason himself into in the first place.”
On the one hand, we have Max Planck’s famous quip, “A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.”
All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered,” wrote Galileo. “The point is to discover them.” Sometimes, the problem isn’t simply to discover truths, but to accept them, which is especially difficult when such acceptance requires overcoming the bias.
Do You Believe in Miracles?
Turning to divine intervention when facing serious medical illness.
Posted Dec 15, 2017
Physicians are encouraged to understand and recognize the importance of their patients’ spiritual and religious needs. For many, believing in miracles gives meaning to life, especially when their life is threatened.
Discovering that you or a loved one is seriously medically ill can be devastating, particularly if the prognosis is poor. Among the various responses to this type of news, such as experiencing disbelief, anguish, and worry, many people turn to spiritual support—including the hope for a miracle.
Believing in miracles is somewhat common. Holding these beliefs is not limited to certain age groups nor is it restricted to certain religious denominations or affiliations. In 2007, a survey of almost 36,000 Americans, age 18 to 70-plus, found that 78 percent of people under age 30 believed in miracles, and 79 percent among those older than 30 (Pew Research Center, 2010). With respect to religious affiliation, 83 percent of those who were affiliated believed in miracles in contrast to 55 percent of respondents who were unaffiliated. Although people from all religions believe in miracles, over 80 percent of those with Protestant and Catholic affiliations endorsed this belief.
Even physicians believe in miracles. A national poll of 1,100 physicians from different religious faiths asked whether they believed in miracles; 74 percent believed miracles occurred in the past and 73 percent held the belief that miracles occur today (Poll: Doctors Believe in Miracles, 2004). Moreover, 72 percent of the physicians believed that religion is a “reliable and necessary guide to life.”
Some people rely on religious or spiritual beliefs as a way to live their lives; however, many others turn to such beliefs in time of need. Relying on a powerful, beneficent, supernatural being (e.g., God, angels, guardians) to be present, and hopefully intervene, can help the afflicted cope with extremely difficult situations. In medical contexts, faith in God and/or the competency of their treating medical professionals can provide powerful psychological comfort. This is especially so when a patient believes God acts through physicians.
When a doctor predicts little to no chance for a patient’s recovery, it is not uncommon for the patient and/or family members to reject the prognosis. They may question the doctor’s predictive accuracy. Moreover, if they believe in divine intervention, the patient’s surrogate (usually a family member) may be more likely to request continuation of life support. In such cases, medical professionals who underestimate the importance of religious and spiritual beliefs may be undermining their patient’s medical care by creating conflicts and impaired bereavement (Widera, Rosenfeld, Fromme, Sulmasy, & Arnold 2011).
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Although the literature supports that medical professionals inquire about and address a patient’s religious and spiritual concerns, there is no consensus as to whether they should disclose their own beliefs to their patients. It appears that the appropriateness of this issue is determined individually.
There are many people whose spiritual and religious beliefs include the existence of miracles. To some, these beliefs may seem peculiar or even reflective of mental illness. We should not be so inclined to mistake this faith in the supernatural as a sign of a mental disorder. Doing so takes away the power of giving meaning to life, especially in the direst of circumstances when life is threatened. This vehicle of hope should not be underestimated or debased.
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Remarkably, individuals who were primed to think about their self-control were significantly less likely to believe in a controlling God afterward.
I have an atheistic friend who jokes that, if he knew that he was imminently going to die, he’d offer up a prayer, just in case. Not that he would actually do this, but why would someone? When we lose control in our lives, we often turn to religion. When we have lots of personal control, we don’t.
Third would be the groups with which we identify. By this, I mean family, community, and the broader culture. Research based on nationally representative Gallup polls supports this point. For instance, when asked “Is religion an important part of your daily life?” over 99% of Egyptians say “yes.” Compare this with 66% of Americans and 16% of Swedes. As an American, though I tend to believe I have chosen my religious and spiritual beliefs and activities, the reality is that I’d probably believe and act quite differently if I had been raised in Egypt or Sweden.
My Christian faith also teaches that individuals have different inborn tendencies (“gifts”), need an anchor during turbulent times, and are influenced by their community.
MORE RELIGIOUS EQUALS LESS INTELLIGENCE
How religious are you? How intelligent are you? The study finds that the more you are one, the less likely you are the other. That’s right. The more religious you are (defined as “the degree of involvement in facets of religion…such as beliefs in supernatural agents, costly commitment to these agents like offering of property, using beliefs in those agents to lower existential anxieties such as anxiety over death, and communal rituals that validate and affirm religious beliefs”), the less intelligent you are likely to be. The more intelligent you are (defined as “the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly and learn from experience”) the less religious you are likely to be.
As intelligence increases, the role of religious beliefs in your life tends to decrease, and vice versa. But this study offers something new, a fresh explanation for this inverse relationship.
The standard explanations have always been something like; religious beliefs are irrational, not anchored in science, not testable and, therefore, rejected by intelligent people who are just too smart to be taken in by all that superstitious mumbo jumbo. Let’s call that the Richard Dawkins explanation. Another standard explanation has been; intelligent people are more independent thinkers, more likely to challenge the tribal creed of beliefs proscribed by the Leaders of the Pack. Intelligent thinkers are not pack thinkers. Call that the Galileo explanation.
The new explanation offered for why more intelligent people are less religious, is more sophisticated. Miron Zuckerman, Jordan Silberman and Judith A. Hall suggest that religion and intelligence both provide the same thing, in four important areas.
- “Compensatory control.” A chaotic world with no order or predictability is a scary world. Religious faith reassures us that the world is orderly and under the predictable control of a Supreme Force. Intelligence and faith in science does the same thing, providing the reassuring sense that the world is orderly and under the control…of physical laws.
- “Self-regulation.” Religious belief that good behavior is rewarded and bad behavior is punished is an external pressure that helps us moderate our behavior. Intelligence gives people the internal mental firepower necessary for the same self control.
- “Self enhancement.” Religiousness helps people feel better about themselves. “I am a better person than others because I am more religious.” Intelligence does too. “I am better person than others because I am smarter.”
- “Secure Attachment.” As social animals, we need to feel attached to others in order to feel safe. Religion helps us feel attached to others, and to a deity.
Further, the study suggests that intelligent people are more likely to be non-religious deity-denying atheists because atheists are non-conformists, too intelligent to be taken in by supernatural hocus pocus.
But the basic finding of this study seems pretty solid; a large majority of studies over the years looking at the relationship between intelligence and religion find a clear inverse relationship between how much we think for ourselves, and how much we let religion do the thinking for us.
Why Is Mississippi More Religious Than New Hampshire?
Religion thrives on misery—and chokes on prosperity.
Posted Oct 30, 2013
New Hampshire is the least religious state in the union and Mississippi is the most religious according to Gallup data. A minority of New Hampshire residents see religion as being important in their daily lives (46 percent) in contrast to a large majority of Mississippians (85 percent). How can such huge differences be explained?
The Gallup organization (who collect the data in phone surveys) notes on their website that state differences in religiosity are poorly understood, and they are correct. Astonishingly, researchers have never crunched the numbers in an effort to understand religious differences within the country. So I decided to be the first to do so.
Quality of life
Various researchers report that religion declines as the quality of life improves. Evidently, religion acts as a form of emotion-focused coping in the jargon of clinical psychology. This means that miserable living conditions drive people into churches.
The quality of life in Mississippi was close to the bottom on the human development index and that in New Hampshire was close to the top. So the pattern for U.S. states confirms that found by comparing different countries. Religion thrives on misery and chokes on prosperity.
Ethnic group differences
African Americans are more religious than the rest of the population. So it is hardly surprising that states having a greater proportion of African Americans are significantly more religious.
This raised the further question of why African Americans are so much more religious than the rest of the population. Sociologists would argue that the African American church served as a bastion against racism and the stress of living in a society where African Americans still have fewer opportunities despite representation in the highest political office of the presidency.
The Real Reason Atheists Have Higher IQs
Is atheism a sign of intelligence?
Posted May 04, 2010
Atheists are probably more intelligent than religious people because they benefit from many social conditions that happen to be correlated with loss of religious belief. When one looks at this phenomenon from the point of view of comparisons between countries, it is not hard to figure out possible reasons that more intelligent countries have more atheists.
Here are some. Highly religious countries (Barber, 2012):
Are poorer.
They are less urbanized.
Have lower levels of education.
They have less exposure to electronic media that increase intelligence (Barber, 2006).
Experience a heavier load of infectious diseases that impair brain function.
Suffer more from low birth weights.
Have worse child nutrition.
Do a poor job of controlling environmental pollutants such as lead that reduce IQ.
Given that each of these factors are recognized causes of low IQ scores (Barber 2005), there is little mystery about why religious countries score lower on IQ tests. Of course, the same phenomena are relevant to comparisons within a country, although within-country differences in these factors are generally smaller. Even so, the wealthier individuals in a country experience life differently than the poorer ones, developing higher IQ scores and greater religious skepticism.
The CATHOLIC church con job. (MN)
- Church built St. Peter’s square from the sales of indulgences! Buy an indulgence and you or a loved one would get out of purgatory much earlier. What a crock! Hell and purgatory don’t even exist but the church sold millions of phony deals.
- Catholic excommunication. If you challenged the church, you were excommunicated and denied the sacraments, meaning you burn in hell forever! Another crock of shit. The sacraments have absolutely no validity because Gods, saviors and everything the church sold or took by force are complete make believe, and do not even exist.
- Today the Christian church is a 60 billion dollar a year business, and its all a total brainwashing con! Imagine a business selling imaginary paradise, hell, savior, genie in a bottle anything I pray for I will get!
If America were not religious, churches would be against the law for conning the multitudes of millions and millions of people. Especially the Catholic church offering less time in purgatory and lighting a prayer candle for a safe journey!
Phil Zuckerman Ph.D.
The Secular Life
Why Americans Hate Atheists
Understanding secularphobia.
Posted Jun 23, 2014
Last week, the Pew Research Center released the results of a new survey concerning who Americans would want — or rather, wouldn’t want — for an in-law. Nearly 50 percent of Americans said that they’d be unhappy if a family member married an atheist.
This finding comes as no surprise. Social science has long revealed high rates of secularphobia — the irrational dislike, distrust, fear, or hatred of nonreligious people — within American society. And a Gallup poll from 2012 found that 43 percent of Americans said that they would not vote for an atheist for president.
Additionally, psychology professor Adrian Furnham found that people give lower priority to patients with atheist or agnostic views than to Christian patients when asked to rank them on a waiting list to receive a kidney,** and legal scholar Eugene Volokh has documented the degree to which **atheist parents have been denied custody rights in the wake of a divorce.
Consider further evidence of secularphobia in America: It is illegal for an atheist to hold public office in seven states; atheists aren’t allowed in the Boy Scouts, the American Legion, or the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
The church was the ONLY source of knowledge until the 18th Century! All books in science were forbidden and locked up behind the altar in the Cathedrals.
RELIGION STIFLES CRITICAL THINKING!
