Critical Thinking Diminishes Religiosity: An Experiment

There was a most astonishing article in Science magazine on April 27, 2012 (page 493). I had my class of graduate students read it and try to pick it apart, but we have found no flaws in it. The authors make two claims. First, people who are inclined to think analytically also have less religious belief, based on surveys administered under lab conditions. This is not surprising

It is the second claim that caught my attention. People, regardless of their prior religious beliefs, displayed less religious thinking if they had been primed by exposure to analytical thought than if they had not been so exposed. What was the priming event? They looked at a picture of Rodin’s The Thinker. The control group looked at a picture of some other sculpture. A pre-test had established that looking at a picture of The Thinker improved a person’s ability to use logic and reasoning ability. But the experiment itself showed that it reduced their religiosity.

It is well known that theologians have less conservative beliefs than do preachers, and preachers harbor many doubts of which they do not tell their congregations. This is the whole point behind Bart Ehrman’s books: he appears to shatter much conventional Christian belief by merely telling us about things he learned in divinity school! Religion is, as Bernard of Clairvaux believed and Peter Abelard did not, something that you must not think about too much if it is to have a good hold on your mind.

A Christian Agnostic Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone. Christmas is a time that drives some atheists crazy. They go around raising objections to manger scenes within public view, or at least on public property, and they can never shield themselves from the music and imagery much of which is overtly religious. If religion makes you angry, Christmas is not very merry.

But I am just fine with Christmas. It is such a beautiful experience; if it did not exist, we would have to create it. It is basically an excuse for doing things we would consider too soft and fuzzy the rest of the year. For example, Christmas is a time when the arteries of altruism open up a little more (see my evolution blog entry for today). Christmas memes have been accumulating in our cultural gene pool for thousands of years, from a variety of sources: Christian (the nativity story), pagan (holly and yule logs), traditional (Santa Claus, despite the fact that some fundamentalists think Santa is actually a clever form of Satan; click here or here), and commercial. Even conservative Bible scholars will tell you Jesus was not born at Christmas; the shepherds would not have had their flocks outside at night in winter. Christmas is the Mass of Christ, invented by the Catholic Church to capitalize upon ancient pagan yule festivities.

Religion, which pervades Christmas, generally dulls the thought process (a topic for later), but if you can’t be a little muddle-headed at Christmas, when can you be? People go around yearning for a white Christmas, even though if they really get one it is a pain in the hypothermic butt. Think of Santa Claus having a heart attack while shoveling his walk. This is because the desire for a White Christmas is a feeling, not a policy. Taken together, these memes have passed the natural selection test, and no atheist crusaders can change that fact. Have some eggnog (unless, like me, you have diabetes) and relax.

I do not merely acquiesce to the religious content of Christmas, but actually like it. Most scholars know that the gospel nativity stories were made up, principally because they are absent from the oldest account (the gospel of Mark). But what image do these stories create? A baby Jesus in the manger, bringing joy to the world. This is a good image. It is much better than the ugly image of Jesus in the book of Revelation, with a sword coming out of his mouth and his horse trampling thousands of people into mires of blood.

What I don’t like is the commercialization of Christmas, especially the increasing trend of people giving gifts to themselves. But I deal with this by ignoring it. My wife and I will have a quiet Christmas with just a very few gifts around…oops, where is the tree? We have a cherimoya tree—does that count? We’ll enjoy one another’s company rather than spending money.

When my mother was growing up in rural Oklahoma in the 1920s, the Christmas tree was a cedar tree that Grandpa cut from the field and dragged in. They had very little money, so Christmas gifts consisted primarily of everyone (in the large family) getting an orange. Back then, oranges were hard to get in Oklahoma. But they needed something to alter the routine of farming and ranching. This is what the Ghost of Christmas Present showed to Scrooge—even people who had little could enjoy a spirit of candlelit warmth in the middle of winter.

Merry Christmas to all.

Beware

I have just posted a video related to this topic on my YouTube channel.

Some religious people are good, and some are bad. As I described previously, the bad ones use force and have more effect on the world. But we must admit the existence of the good ones. Back when I was religious, I was one of the good ones, I think. And I know a lot of good religious people. So do you.


Religion is a minefield. You may walk through it unharmed, but there is a great risk that you will touch one of those mines. Those mines are the memes of religion. Some of those memes provide a framework by which your rage and destructiveness can come pouring forth, in which pity for your adversaries is considered a sin. We all have rage and arrogance, but some religious memes provide the ultimate justification for them. They are like catalysts that allow chemicals that might otherwise lie dormant to explode. Religious memes are perhaps the most effective way of turning good people into bad people.

Religious memes do not always release rage and destructiveness. They can also facilitate mental slavery, in which people are simply unable to think outside the confines of the meme. I have had numerous creationist students who were sincere and often very intelligent, and would go to incredible lengths to justify their beliefs. For example, God moved the fossils around during the Flood to make them look like they had an evolutionary order. I feel sorry for such brainwashed students.

Peter Abelard said that it was a sin to say a prayer if you do not understand what it means. He also said that by doubting we come to inquiry, and by inquiry we come to truth. This viewpoint was considered heretical by conservatives such as Bernard of Clairvaux. Look before you step. Think carefully before you embrace any aspect of religion.

Making a Difference

I recently received an email that I wanted to share, from a student who was in one of my classes over a decade ago at my previous institution (Southwest State University, now Southwest Minnesota State University). There are few surprises more pleasant for a professor than to hear from a student who benefited from a class. The class was “Earth through Time and Space,” which was an overview of the evolutionary history of the cosmos. It was a general education class, not directly relevant to anyone’s major or professional preparation.

The student expressed appreciation that I challenged the class to think about their assumptions, including religious assumptions that conflicted with scientific evidence. I do not recall preaching any atheism or agnosticism (I was still a conventionally religious person at the time), and I don’t recall any students leaving in protest (of course, it was a big lecture room and this could have happened without my knowledge). I wasn’t trying to turn students into agnostics, but this is what a few of them ended up being.

I can barely remember that far back. But it gives me a lot of satisfaction to know that some of the good that I tried to do is still remembered and still having an effect. I would like to quote the email, without including the name of the writer.

Mr. Rice,

I am not certain what made me think of the class I had with you at Southwest State University back in the late 90's, but it is one class that I will always remember.

Why? Because you were the first person in my life that ever questioned religion. And rather than storm out like many did that day, I decided to begin thinking and researching not only religion, but just about every thing else in life.

I learned how to be a critical thinker.

This may seem like a bizarre letter to you, but when someone asked me how I got started being a skeptic, I traced the roots back to Marshall and more specifically, your classroom.

So...thanks. You have no reason to remember me, as I was not a particularly great student....but I certainly remember you and the impact you had on my life.

I hope all is well with you.