Pacific Standard March-April 2013 Cover

Thoughts of Faith and God Decrease Tolerance for Ambiguity

May 16, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
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It’s clear that religious faith confers a variety of benefits. Being part of a community of fellow believers has been shown to boost both mental and physical health. But at what cost? New research suggests one disturbing answer: Thoughts of faith and God apparently spur people to view the world in black-or-white terms. A just-published study finds exposure to Christian concepts or imagery increases one’s intolerance for ambiguity. This dynamic was demonstrated in a variety of experiments conducted in three different countries: Germany, Austria, and the United States. Writing in ... Read More

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Do Atheists Have Deathbed Conversions?

July 10, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
Do Atheists Have Deathbed Conversions?

Are there atheists in foxholes? That timeless question (the literal answer to which is yes) is a shorthand way of asking whether, when confronted by their own mortality, even nonbelievers’ thoughts turn to God. Research published earlier this year tentatively concluded that they do. But a new study, conducted by scholars from three countries, reports that death-related thoughts lead us to reaffirm whatever belief system gives our lives meaning—and for atheists, that’s something other than religious faith. “Our tentative conclusion is that even nonreligious people are tempted ... Read More

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Distrust Feeds Anti-Atheist Prejudice

November 15, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment

Plenty of people are reviled for their religious beliefs. But a lack of faith seems to inspire even more intense antipathy. A landmark 2006 study, analyzing data from a large survey of Americans, found that atheists “are less likely to be accepted, publicly and privately, than any others from a long list of ethnic, religious and other minority groups.” Writing in the American Sociological Review, researchers noted that “while rejection of Muslims may have spiked in post-9/11 America, rejection of atheists was higher.” So why are atheists “among the least liked people ... in ... Read More

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Conversion Therapy Fails to ‘Pray Away the Gay’

September 30, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment

"Pray away the gay" joins other notable catchphrases in our popular culture and comedians' repertoires, (perhaps like "wide stance" did just a few years ago.) This time it's due to the efforts of Michele and Marcus Bachmann, who run a Christian counseling center practicing what is called "reparative therapy." Skeptical thinkers may ask how a simple prayer could change people's core sexual orientation. Could heterosexual-oriented people "pray to be gay"? More seriously, why is there a treatment for something that is not an illness? A critical investigation into the practice of conversion ... Read More

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Religious Affiliation and Brain Shrinkage

May 10, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment

Aging baby boomers are using a variety of methods to remain mentally sharp, from brain fitness classes to simply staying social. Newly published research suggests another, admittedly unorthodox approach to promoting brain-cell survival: Changing your religious affiliation. A study published in the online journal PLoS ONE found a key part of the brain atrophied more rapidly in Catholics and born-again Protestants than it did in mainline Protestants. This accelerated shrinkage was also found in people who reported a life-changing religious experience, as well as those with no ... Read More

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Benefits of Religion Limited to Fervent Believers

February 28, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment

The benefits of belonging to a religious community don’t have to be taken on faith. Numerous studies have linked participation in a congregation with good physical and mental health, as well as higher levels of subjective well-being. But a new paper offers a rather large caveat to those findings. “While fervent believers benefit from their involvement, those with weaker beliefs are actually less happy than those who do not ascribe to any religion,” a research team led by Daniel Mochon of the Yale School of Management reports in the journal Social Indicators Research. “As ... Read More

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And God Said, ‘Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff’

June 21, 2010 • By • 3 Comments

Numerous studies have reported on the health benefits — both mental and physical — of religious belief. But precisely why faith is linked to higher levels of well-being and lower levels of mortality remains something of a mystery. Newly published research provides an intriguing clue: When they make a mistake, religious people are less likely to get stressed out about it. Last year, University of Toronto psychologist Michael Inzlicht discovered differences in brain activity between believers and nonbelievers. In his latest paper, just published in the journal Psychological Science, he ... Read More

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Love Thy Neighbor? Not If He’s Different

May 4, 2010 • By • 25 Comments

Universal brotherhood and tolerance toward others remains common fare at Sunday church sermons everywhere, but does the message have any impact? Apparently not. In a new study drawing on nearly a half century of data, a team of researchers report that religious adherents in the United States — especially fundamentalist Christians — are more inclined than agnostics to harbor racist attitudes toward blacks and other minorities. This "religion-racism paradox," as University of Southern California social psychologist Wendy Wood explains it, is deeply embedded in organized religion which, by ... Read More

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Picking Stocks? Count the Butts in Pews

March 7, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment

Looking to invest your IRA in companies that take few risks while promising steady, if slow, growth? Just count the churches around company headquarters. That’s the conclusion of two accounting professors in Hong Kong whose recent study reveals that publicly traded companies in the U.S. are less likely to take financial risks — but more likely to grow, albeit slowly — when churchgoing and other measures of religiosity are high within the community where top management is based. Warren Buffett made headlines in late February commenting on how public companies should manage risk, ... Read More

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Who Needs God When We’ve Got Mammon?

November 24, 2009 • By • 21 Comments

From Dostoyevsky to right-wing commentator Ann Coulter we are warned of the perils of godlessness. "If there is no God," Dostoyevsky wrote, "everything is permitted." Coulter routinely attributes our nation's most intractable troubles to the moral vacuum of atheism. But a growing body of research in what one sociologist describes as the "emerging field of secularity" is challenging long-held assumptions about the relationship of religion and effective governance. In a paper posted recently on the online journal Evolutionary Psychology, independent researcher Gregory S. Paul reports a ... Read More

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