Review on: "Divine Intuition: Cognitive Style Influences...

[peterk301]

I did a review of the journal article "Divine Intuition: Cognitive Style Influences Belief in God." Yahoo News had distorted what this research was about by creating an article with the outrageous title: "Belief in God Boils Down to a Gut Feeling." When I saw this I had to go to the original article and I could not believe what these researchers conclude from their 2 surveys and one experiment. If you're interested in the "psychology of faith" here's a link to both the original article and my review: http://biodeterminism.blogspot.com/2011/09/critical-meditations-on-study-divine.html

[David Hayward]

An excellent critique of the study, and of its methods, presuppositions and spin:

"I wouldn't be surprised if the field of cognitive psychology as applied to the study of faith is attracting atheists. It's already been said in different ways that science has been hijacked by an atheist's agenda. Written all over this study is the assertion that belief in God is something that is associated with a rash, illogical, and erroneous form of thinking."
"It means for every 10 people categorized as reflective thinkers who believe in God, there are 15 categorized as intuitive thinkers. Yahoo News (http://news.yahoo.com/belief-god-boils-down-gut-feeling-104403461.html) took this article's information and proclaimed "Belief In God Boils Down To a Gut Feeling""
Lies, damned lies and statistics.

There's far too much to quote; the critique is something to read and savour in full.

David

[peterk301]

Thank you for reading the review, David. Here's a link to a better version of the same article: http://scientismtimes.blogspot.com/2011/09/divine-intuition-cognitive-style.html

[David Hayward]

Here's another bit of specious research (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2748718/?tool=pubmed) on religion and the brain, and a series of
1 (http://wmbriggs.com/blog/?p=4923)
2 (http://wmbriggs.com/blog/?p=4927)
3 (http://wmbriggs.com/blog/?p=4929)
4 (http://wmbriggs.com/blog/?p=4933)
5 (http://wmbriggs.com/blog/?p=4938)
6 (http://wmbriggs.com/blog/?p=4940)
7 (http://wmbriggs.com/blog/?p=4942)
articles by WM Briggs explaining in detail why it is rubbish.

David

[peterk301]

David:

Just seeing your last post now. That's a great link, and Briggs is referring to the same form of scientism as applied to the "psychology of faith" that I mention above. Thanks.