All interested in this subject should check out an article in Scientific American titled "How Critical Thinkers Lose Their Faith in God".
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How Critical Thinkers Lose Their Faith in God: Scientific American
It's an article about some studies that show how intuitive thinking, which is a sort of standard thinking most "run on", promotes religious beliefs while analytical and critical thinking, which generally takes more effort, does the opposite. It's interesting as it can tell us something about why some people believe while others don't.
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Just a little quote from the study to hopefully pique your interest :
Quote:
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Gervais and Norenzayan’s research is based on the idea that we possess two different ways of thinking that are distinct yet related. Understanding these two ways, which are often referred to as System 1 and System 2, may be important for understanding our tendency towards having religious faith. System 1 thinking relies on shortcuts and other rules-of-thumb while System 2 relies on analytic thinking and tends to be slower and require more effort. Solving logical and analytical problems may require that we override our System 1 thinking processes in order to engage System 2. Psychologists have developed a number of clever techniques that encourage us to do this. Using some of these techniques, Gervais and Norenzayan examined whether engaging System 2 leads people away from believing in God and religion.
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