Religious people understand the world less
 

Religious people understand the world less, study suggests
Scientists say believers in God more likely to think flowers and rocks can think and feel, and agree with statements like "stones sense the cold"


The scientists compared religious believers to people with autism, saying both struggle to distinguish between the mental and the physical


Researchers said their findings suggest people’s lack of understanding about the physical world means they apply their own, human characteristics to the whole universe, “resulting in belief in demons, gods, and other supernatural phenomena”.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/sc...-a7378896.html

interesting scientific study what do you think

Re: Religious people understand the world less
 

100% agree with that yea .Deluded fools kinda sums it up.

Re: Religious people understand the world less
 

Having faith or a belief in faith far as i know doesn't lower intelligence or comprehension of the real world and most religious people i know are able to draw the practical line between belief and the world they live and work within. I've got no more time for devisive studies and in this day and age the fact some can't just learn to accept others as they are without denigrating them in someway is pathetic.

Re: Religious people understand the world less
 

Problem with a study like this is how do you control for the demographics? Did they go out and recruit 'atheists'? Because if so the type of people that would respond to a call for an atheist are more likely to be into science. Likewise someone who responds to a call for those with a religion may be more evangelical than someone who just attends church now and then and maybe they're also more likely to seek religion answers to everyday questions.

I can see some sense in the idea that if you may be less inclined to believe or study a subject for which you already have a religious answer, i.e evolution, but I am less convinced that people without a religion are any more likely to understand it either.

Re: Religious people understand the world less
 

It might be an idea for everyone to live and let live..

Re: Religious people understand the world less
 

Re: Religious people understand the world less
 

I think I'll wait and see what David Icke says about it. He's knows about vibrating stones and stuff.

Re: Religious people understand the world less
 

Only a deluded fool or someone pushing an agenda would believe or accept that the vast majority of so called religious wars were anything but, more often they were land grabs by aggressive neighbours or a pursuit of a throne and power.

Re: Religious people understand the world less
 

Don't forget the Illuminati!

Re: Religious people understand the world less
 

shhh your all upsetting my pet rock

Re: Religious people understand the world less
 

it might be an idea to debate it .

---------- Post added at 07:21 ---------- Previous post was at 07:19 ----------

some good points there " atheists are more likely to be into science" . there are scientists with religious belief ...

Re: Religious people understand the world less
 

Untrue ... science wasn't invented by atheists. The scientific method was invented by a monk. Medieval Christians in Europe (and to be fair, earlier than that in the classical Muslim world) devised scientific ways of examining the world. They did so because they wanted to understand what God had made and how it worked. Their belief in its divine origin gave them a respect and a diligence for their studies.

I would be very interested in the sample taken by this study. The word "religion" .... how are they defining that? There are some religions that do actively teach that there's a life force in everything. Neither Christianity, nor Islam, teaches that. Anybody within either of those faiths that believes a rock has feelings isn't being religious, they're being ignorant.

Re: Religious people understand the world less
 

I didn't say there weren't scientists with religious belief. I said the type of person who considers atheism a key part of their identity, at least enough to be willing to take part in a study, are more likely to be scientifically inclined than the the population as a whole.

Edit: also didn't say atheists invented science

Re: Religious people understand the world less
 

I was replying in general terms to the OP, not directly to you. ;)

It is logical that an atheist will look for something else to fill that slot in their belief system. Everyone has a belief system about the universe and our place in it. It's how we're made (some Christians call it the "God shaped hole in everyone's heart").

However the OP has chosen to draw out of this, not that atheists are more likely to be scientifically inclined, but that "religious" people (however that's defined, and how that's defined is unclear here) are more likely to believe in stir-crazy things like the ability of rocks to have feelings.

What we need, first of all, is some idea of how the authors of this study have defined "religious".

Re: Religious people understand the world less
 

Yeah although my point is more that this study could well have had a self-selecting group which renders it rather pointless.

I wouldn't be surprised if the religious people did have a poor understanding of science but that would actually be more reflective of the population as a whole, including those without a religion. People's understanding of the world in general is quite bad. If you did a general study of the UK, not weighting for religion, I think the results would be the same. I imagine we're looking at < 50% of people who could tell you have a volcano works, how earthquakes occur, what global warming is or how evolution actually happens.

The thing about everything having a 'life force' is the kind of thing people who are 'spiritual' but 'don't believe in, like, a god as such' would believe.