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.
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