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Studies have shown that regardless of whether or not people start as religious or not, they hold irrational beliefs at same rate as other people with their leve
by thehardsphere 9y ago
Studies have shown that regardless of whether or not people start as religious or not, they hold irrational beliefs at same rate as other people with their level of education.
The real interesting thing is that the irrational things that non-religious people believe in tend to satisfy the same psychological needs as religious beliefs. The Illuminati secretly ruling the world provides the comfort to people with an external locus of control that someone is in charge and they have a plan, just like God (or the Devil or whoever). The fact that most people are sheep who can't see the Illuminati's schemes but a few special people can reinforces the idea that some of us are special people, just like how the Israelites were chosen. Etc.
- beaconstudios 9y agoyep, we may live in an age and a culture where religion is rejected as irrational but our brain circuitry for faith and existentialism is still there. We all have deities whether they are conventional (God, Allah, etc), political (the invisible hand of the free market, social progress, individualism), spiritual (new-age-ism, karma, universal consciousness) or pseudo-scientific (utopianism, scientism, singularitarianism). We all feel a need to believe in something higher than ourselves and if it isn't an archetypal expression of our cultural values and lessons (i.e. a religion) then it'll be some other way to answer the hard questions of life like what is good, what matters, what should I aim for and so on.