LA TIMES: ONLY NON-THINKERS BELIEVE IN RELIGION

[Geee]

Breitbart:

Leave it to the press to play up a deeply flawed study showing that only unthinking people believe in religion. According to the Los Angeles Times today, “Those who think more analytically are less inclined to be religious believers than are those who tend to follow a gut instinct, researchers conclude.” The journal Science published the study, which suggests that intuition tends toward religion, but that rational thought tends toward atheism.

How was this crucial study performed? Students were asked to perform “three thinking tasks,” one with an intuitive (wrong) answer, the other with an analytic (right) answer:

For example, students were asked this question: "A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1.00 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?" The intuitive answer — 10 cents — would be wrong. A little math on the fly reveals that the correct answer would be 5 cents.

After answering three of these questions, the students were asked to rate a series of statements on belief, including, "In my life I feel the presence of the Divine," and "I just don't understand religion." Students who answered the three questions correctly — and presumably did a better job of engaging their analytical skills — were more likely to score lower on the belief scales.

Why does being decent at math have to do with non-belief in God? It doesn’t. Correlation does not equal causation. And the researchers knew that. So they went a step further: they showed students a picture of Rodin’s The Thinker. Those who saw the picture tended to express less belief in God. This experiment had a grand total of 57 subjects.

[pollyannaish]

Oh good grief. Why do they care? What difference does it make if believers are smart or stupid? Believers are still going to believe, and non-believers are still going to think we're stupid.

 

This says more about the authors and their followers than it does about the rest of us.

 

And as a gut level thinker that is my analysis.

 

There is a place for gut level reaction. We are weak if we do not learn to run it through our brains.

There is a place for analysis. They are weak if they do not learn to run it through their gut.

[RandyM]

I would not expect anything less from a journal named "SCIENCE" nor a newspaper named "LA TIMES".

[Valin]

@Geee

 

“Those who think more analytically are less inclined to be religious believers than are those who tend to follow a gut instinct

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYfaOJATh_U

 

 

One of the things I have discovered over the years is most atheists/agnostics have not really thought about these questions, not in any deep meaningful way. The problem they have is something Camus said (yes even I a stupid uninformed Believer have read Camus)....I paraphrase....Something is there, when nothing should be.

[raygun]

Please keep praying for us

From 2ndDivisionVet | 04/27/2012 8:47:00 AM PDT new

 

FRiends,

We both thank you for your kind thoughts, prayers, suggestions, tips and everything else.

Recently, several people asked me for our Paypal address or whatever it’s called. By the time I got with my wife and found out what it was, I lost their messages. I’m sure you know how hard it is to find something in FReepmail if it happened more than a few days back.

Here it is:

deleted email

If it wasn’t you, I apologize. Feel free to disregard this if you wish.

Thanks!

Barbara and Fred

Edited April 28, 2012 by clearvision
delete email address as not sure it should be public

[raygun]

Cripplecreek!