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Why are
you a believer? |
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Religion has survival value. It's good for
you. That's why you 'believe'. |
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Intelligent people 'less likely to
believe in God'
People with higher IQs are less likely to believe in God,
according to a new study.
The Telegraph
13/06/2008
Professor Richard Lynn, emeritus professor of psychology at Ulster
University, said many more members of the "intellectual elite" considered
themselves atheists than the national average.
A decline in religious observance over the last century was directly linked
to a rise in average intelligence, he claimed.
But the conclusions - in a paper for the academic journal Intelligence -
have been branded "simplistic" by critics.
Professor Lynn, who has provoked controversy in the past with research
linking intelligence to race and sex, said university academics were less
likely to believe in God than almost anyone else.
A survey of Royal Society fellows found that only 3.3 per cent believed in
God - at a time when 68.5 per cent of the general UK population described
themselves as believers.
A separate poll in the 90s found only seven per cent of members of the
American National Academy of Sciences believed in God.
Professor Lynn said most primary school children believed in God, but as
they entered adolescence - and their intelligence increased - many started
to have doubts.
He told Times Higher Education magazine: "Why should fewer academics believe
in God than the general population? I believe it is simply a matter of the
IQ. Academics have higher IQs than the general population. Several Gallup
poll studies of the general population have shown that those with higher IQs
tend not to believe in God."
He said religious belief had declined across 137 developed nations in the
20th century at the same time as people became more intelligent.
But Professor Gordon Lynch, director of the Centre for Religion and
Contemporary Society at Birkbeck College, London, said it failed to take
account of a complex range of social, economic and historical factors.
"Linking religious belief and intelligence in this way could reflect a
dangerous trend, developing a simplistic characterisation of religion as
primitive, which - while we are trying to deal with very complex issues of
religious and cultural pluralism - is perhaps not the most helpful
response," he said.
Dr Alistair McFadyen, senior lecturer in Christian theology at Leeds
University, said the conclusion had "a slight tinge of Western cultural
imperialism as well as an anti-religious sentiment".
Dr David Hardman, principal lecturer in learning development at London
Metropolitan University, said: "It is very difficult to conduct true
experiments that would explicate a causal relationship between IQ and
religious belief. Nonetheless, there is evidence from other domains that
higher levels of intelligence are associated with a greater ability - or
perhaps willingness - to question and overturn strongly felt institutions."
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Genes contribute to religious inclination
Genes may help determine how religious a person is, suggests a new study of
US twins. And the effects of a religious upbringing may fade with time.
March 2005
NewScientist.com news service
Maggie McKee
Until about 25 years ago, scientists assumed that religious behaviour was
simply the product of a person's socialisation - or "nurture". But more
recent studies, including those on adult twins who were raised apart,
suggest genes contribute about 40% of the variability in a person's
religiousness.
But it is not clear how that contribution changes with age. A few studies on
children and teenagers - with biological or adoptive parents - show the
children tend to mirror the religious beliefs and behaviours of the parents
with whom they live. That suggests genes play a small role in religiousness
at that age.
Now, researchers led by Laura Koenig, a psychology graduate student at the
University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, US, have tried to tease apart how
the effects of nature and nurture vary with time. Their study suggests that
as adolescents grow into adults, genetic factors become more important in
determining how religious a person is, while environmental factors wane.
Religious discussions
The team gave questionnaires to 169 pairs of identical twins - 100%
genetically identical - and 104 pairs of fraternal twins - 50% genetically
identical - born in Minnesota.
The twins, all male and in their early 30s, were asked how often they
currently went to religious services, prayed, and discussed religious
teachings. This was compared with when they were growing up and living with
their families. Then, each participant answered the same questions regarding
their mother, father, and their twin.
The twins believed that when they were younger, all of their family members
- including themselves - shared similar religious behaviour. But in
adulthood, however, only the identical twins reported maintaining that
similarity. In contrast, fraternal twins were about a third less similar
than they were as children.
"That would suggest genetic factors are becoming more important and growing
up together less important," says team member Matt McGue, a psychologist at
the University of Minnesota.
Empty nests
Michael McCullough, a psychologist at the University of Miami in Coral
Gables, Florida, US, agrees. "To a great extent, you can't be who you are
when you're living under your parents' roof. But once you leave the nest,
you can begin to let your own preferences and dispositions shape your
behaviour," he told New Scientist.
"Maybe, ultimately, we all decide what we're most comfortable with, and it
may have more to do with our own makeup than how we were treated when we
were adolescents," says McGue.
About a dozen studies have shown that religious people tend to share other
personality traits, although it is not clear whether these arise from
genetic or environmental factors. These include the ability to get along
well with others and being conscientious, working hard, being punctual, and
controlling one's impulses.
But McGue says the new work suggests that being raised in a religious
household may affect a person's long-term psychological state less than
previously thought. But he says the influence from this early socialisation
may re-emerge later on, when the twins have families of their own. He also
points out that the finding may not be universal because the research
focused on a single population of US men.
Journal reference: Journal of Personality (vol 73, p 471)
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Is God an Anti-Depressant?
Studies Show That Religious People Are Happier
Jan. 24, 2005
ABC News
Is there a secret weapon against depression? Research suggests it
might be religion. Studies show that people who practice some sort of
religion are happier and less stressed out than those who don't.
Those findings come as no surprise to Dr. Harold Koenig, a psychologist and
co-director of the Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health at Duke
University, who says there are a number of factors that contribute to
religious people being happier.
"Generally, religious people have a positive view of the world," said
Koenig. "They believe they are here for a reason. They see a purpose and a
meaning in their life and have hope."
Studies show that under severely stressful conditions, religious people also
cope better.
"They feel that God is with them and gives them strength," said Koenig.
What About Spirituality?
It is not clear if there is a difference in happiness between those who
practice organized religion and those who consider themselves spiritual,
said Koenig. In part, that's because it is more difficult to define
spirituality.
However, Koenig added, practicing within an organized religion seems to
offer people important group and community support. While an activity like
volunteering can provide much of the same satisfaction as attending church,
many people need external motivation.
"If you give of yourself and love others and have a positive outlook, you
can achieve the same thing," said Koenig. "The only thing is most people
can't do that. Most people need some kind of faith system and group support
which a church provides."
Koenig says it seems to make little difference what religion people practice
-- whether Christian, Jewish or Muslim -- but rather how devoutly they
practice it.
Are Humans Hard-Wired to Be Religious?
While surveys show that about 80 percent of Americans consider themselves
religious, only about 40 percent of Americans reported regularly attending
church -- about the same percentage as in 1939, said Koenig. And younger
generations are consistently less religious than their parents.
But Koenig said there is some research suggesting that humans actually are
biologically wired to be religious or spiritual. In fact, this week's Time
magazine cover story, "The God Gene," says many scientists believe our DNA
compels us to seek a higher power.
"Religious faith may help people live longer," said Koenig. "Because it
affects our health, it may be that it's genetically programmed."
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"The fact
that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point
than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a
sober one"
- George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
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| Holy visions elude scientists
By Raj Persuad
20/03/2003
Does the biological structure of our brains program us
to believe in God? Recent advances in "neurotheology" have even
prompted some scientists to propose
they can induce the kind of holy visions of prophets, even in
those who have never experienced religious belief.
Dr Michael Persinger of Laurentian University, Canada, has devised a
special helmet that uses electromagnetic fields to
induce electrical changes in the brain's temporal
lobes, which are linked with religious belief.
Testing time for Dawkins
So confident is he that God is all in the mind, or the brain at least,
that Dr Persinger claims he can induce mystical feelings in a majority of
those willing to don his Transcranial Magnetic
Stimulator. So the BBC Science series Horizon took up the challenge by
putting his hat to the ultimate test: could he get
arch-sceptic and militant atheist Prof Richard Dawkins to
start believing in God by electrically massaging his temporal lobes?
Prof Dawkins, author of A Devil's Chaplain, was the ideal candidate for
the latest test of whether science can now explain
away religion, given his famously virulent views
on religion, attacking it as a "virus of the mind" and an "infantile
regression". The experiment is based on the recent finding that some
sufferers from temporal lobe epilepsy, a
neurological disorder caused by chaotic electrical discharges in the
temporal lobes of the brain, seem to experience devout hallucinations that
bear a striking resemblance to the mystical
experiences of holy figures such as St Paul and Moses.
This theory received a recent boost from Prof Gregory Holmes, a
paediatric neurologist at Dartmouth Medical School, who claims that one of
the principal founders of the Seventh Day
Adventist Movement, Ellen White, in fact suffered from
temporal lobe epilepsy. She was seen as divinely inspired as a result
of her religious visions. The new claim that her visions were, in fact, a
result of a brain disorder could undermine the basis of a religious movement
followed by more than 12 million people worldwide.
If strong religious feelings are no less a part of brain function than
those linked with hunger and sex, the ultimate test would be to summon up
mystical and religious beliefs experimentally. Indeed, it would actually be
in Prof Dawkins's interests to experience religion for the first time under
Dr Persinger's helmet. After all, this would prove
that mystical visions could at last be controlled by science
and were no longer just at the mercy of a supernatural entity.
Unfortunately, during the experiment, while Prof Dawkins had some strange
experiences and tinglings, none of them prompted him to take up any
new faith. "It was a great disappointment," he said. "Though I joked about
the possibility, I of course never expected to end up believing in anything
supernatural. But I did hope to share some of the feelings experienced by
religious mystics when contemplating the mysteries of life and the cosmos."
Dr Persinger has explained away the failure of this Transcranial Magnetic
Stimulator. Before donning the helmet, Prof Dawkins had scored low on a
psychological scale measuring proneness to temporal lobe sensitivity.
Recent studies on identical and fraternal twin pairs raised apart
suggest that 50 per cent of our religious interests are influenced by genes.
It seems Prof Dawkins is genetically predisposed not to believe.
Dr Raj Persaud is a consultant psychiatrist at the Maudsley Hospital,
London. His latest book, From the Edge of the
Couch (Bantam Press), is available for 11.99 plus 1.99 p&p. To order
please call Telegraph Books Direct on 0870 155 7222.
Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2003. Terms & Conditions of reading.
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