Religious belief reduced by analytical thinking?

A University of British Columbia study suggests analytical thinking can be harmful to religious faith.

The psychology report, published Thursday in the prestigious journal Science, reveals that religious belief drops after subjects perform analytical tasks or are exposed to Auguste Rodin’s sculpture, The Thinker.

However, UBC social psychologists Will Gervais and Ara Norenzayan insist they are not debunking religion or promoting atheism. Instead, they are trying to figure out the psychological origins of spirituality.

The dynamic UBC research duo, who have earned international reputations for their groundbreaking studies into religion in the past six years, maintain all humans use two valuable types of thinking — intuitive and analytical.

How much you rely on one kind of thinking over another generally determines how religious you are. People who are highly intuitive tend to be more religious.

Intuitive thinking helps people recognize the difference between the body and the mind, imagine life after death and discern purposes in the universe, said Will Gervais, lead author of the article, titled “Analytic Thinking Promotes Religious Disbelief”.

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KnowTheTruthToday

Real thinking is beneficial to religious faith. People that really think for themselves understand that every one has faith in something – science – self – God – and other things. It is not whether a person has faith or not, it is where they place their faith and of course that is everyone's personal decision.
- Evermyrtle
  
  Indeed!! Why else did GOD give us, each on a mind. He could have filled our heads with anything HE wanted to and make us puppets. He chose not to do that but to make us individuals, who can think, who can make decisions. HE did not put one person or one nation to rule the world in dictator fashion. Whether it is good or bad, we will all reap the rewards that we earn, good or bad.
iheartagw

Today's "analytical" thinking has led to the allowance of multiplied billions of universes, the first of which beyond our own has yet to be observed. But they just know that they know that they know they exist.

What a great display of "faith".
- http://conservativebyte.com Michael G.
  
  Analytical thinking has done that. But what's the point? You, nor anyone else, cal prove they exist.
  - iheartagw
    
    Thanks for agreeing with my point.
  - http://rationalresponses.blogspot.com/ Jeff Dixon
    
    Science does not "prove" anything. It develops theories which explain facts.
Marc McCoy

I am very analytical to a fault at times (when dealing with people). But when I researched the Law in the Old Testament it cemented my faith through knowledge. If you look at how they were taught wash their hands before eating and weren't allow to eat food that are high risk for disease. (The pig is also unclean; although it has a split hoof, it does not chew the cud. You are not to eat their meat or touch their carcasses," Deut. 14:8). The priest would wash their hands in the ashes of the red heifer. We have now found that these ashes contain a natural anesthetic. It is amazing what actual health benefits the law had that keep the Israelites healthy and safe from disease. And their is a lot more and this knowledge was not available to the people at this time in history so their had to be divine intervention to create these laws to keep them safe. People just aren’t taught the truth.
- http://rationalresponses.blogspot.com/ Jeff Dixon
  
  The question is on what basis did people learn these things. The reality is that it was based on trial and error, not fables in a book. The fables were written after people learned to avoid certain things.
msjallen

I find it very interesting that people think they are smarter than God when He chose some of the smartest people who ever lived to lead His people like Moses who wrote the first 5 books of the OT and the man with the greatest knowledge of the OT scriptures to write most of the books of the NT — Paul — for the Church Age.
Rom 12:3 For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.
- http://rationalresponses.blogspot.com/ Jeff Dixon
  
  Moses must have been smart. He was able to write about his own death after it occurred.
  - msjallen
    
    Jeff, I am so sorry I did not make my comment clear enough for you. Moses obviously did not finish writing the book of Deuteronomy but he did write most of it. At this time, I can't remember who is given credit as to the finishing of it. It is just like David is given credit for the Book of Psalms but did not write all of them. Moses is very well known in the Bible since his name is mentioned 792 times.
http://twitter.com/lambsev11 @lambsev11

All the analysis I ever heard of found men (and women) to be sinners.
- http://rationalresponses.blogspot.com/ Jeff Dixon
  
  You find one week old infants to be sinners? Just what sin are they doing? Pooping too much?
  - msjallen
    
    Jeff, it is not that they are sinners but are born with a sin nature that we all inherit from Adam. Babies are selfish and expect attention and what is usually the first word after mama or dada? NO
    No one is held accoutable for sin until they reach the age of accountability. That can be as young as 4-5 years of age because they are introducedto the gospel at a young age. If one dies before they reach the age of accountability to understand the gospel and believe in Jesus Christ as their savior they will go to heaven and that includes anywhere in the world.
aceituna

Again if we trust man's wisdom we are foolish. Study 1 Corinthians chap 1 and 2. Learn that God's foolishness if wiser than the greatest wisdom of man. Apply Romans 12:3 to your studies, and you will appreciate the wisdom of God.
- http://rationalresponses.blogspot.com/ Jeff Dixon
  
  Mans wisdom is the only wisdom we can trust. There is no other.
Chris

How is it "harmful" to religious faith? You cannot change the idea of religious faith – it is still what it is. It is "helpful" to understanding that it is baseless myth.

Just understanding how your brain works tells you there can be no heaven.
Bobseeks

What passes for "analytical" thinking today is no such thing. Analytical thinking leads the reasonable person to view creation and then come to the realization that there must be a Creator. Additionally, because this creation functions by logical and predictable laws, one must then realize that the creation came from a logical Creator rather than from some mythologcal "accident" or "anomaly" such as proposed by the myth spinners of today's pseudo-science religionists.
msjallen

Hopefully, the analyticals will understand this. The Word of God is the Protocol Plan of God: It is a rigid, long established GRACE code and procedure for the Royal Family of God and is completely devoid of superior rank and authority and is followed by strict adherence to due order and precedence coupled with precisely correct procedure. This is why it is so important to know the mind of Chist.
1 Corinthians 2:16 For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ. (The Word of God, the Bible)